It looks like you don’t have Adobe Flash Player installed. Get it now.

What’s so bad about steroids in baseball? And why do Americans care so much about the sport in the first place? As Nation sports editor Dave Zirin puts it, “There’s a timelessness about it that we want to be able to preserve, and not think that it’s getting out of whack with the times, with technology—which is really what performance-enhancing drugs represent.” Zirin joins acclaimed writers Jane Leavy, Frank Deford and John Grisham at the Virginia Festival of the Book to reflect on the meaning of the game.

—James Cersonsky

What can pro sports do to stop rape? As Dave Zirin writes, a lot.