大象传媒

Meet William Dillon. A young amateur bodybuilder from small-town Illinois, who dreams of getting ripped.

It鈥檚 the early 1980s and across the USA a fitness revolution is underway. Exercise has become a national pastime and Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking the jacked-up physique mainstream. Dillon is one of many young men with a new kind of American dream - big muscles, and big money.

In 1984, a lucky break transports Dillon to star-studded LA, and the world鈥檚 most iconic bodybuilding gym, Gold鈥檚 Gym. There, to the sound of clanking steel weights and a pumping disco beat, a new physical ideal is being forged that鈥檚 changing the way Americans look in the mirror.

But Dillon鈥檚 about to learn that, beneath the glittering surface of this world, there鈥檚 a secret. And when he discovers the chemical key to how many of the guys get BIG, it will set him on a path that will change his life - and many others - forever.

In the first episode of Extreme: Muscle Men, historian, podcaster and fitness expert Natalia Mehlman Petrzela - presenter of hit podcast Welcome To Your Fantasy (Gimlet) - reveals how the California beach body became an iconic symbol of the 80s fitness boom. When that boom collided with anabolic steroids, it sparked a chemical and criminal revolution that would transform bodies all across America.

Featuring William Dillon, former bodybuilders Joe Troccoli, Sandra Blackie and Dr Jeff Golini, and former co-owner of Gold鈥檚 Gym, Ed Connors.

Presenter and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela
Producer: Caroline Thornham
Assistant Producer: Mohamed Ahmed
Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Production Manager: Cheree Houston
Sound Design and Mix by Nicholas Alexander
Original Music by SilverHawk, aka Cyrille Poirier
Executive Producer: Max O鈥橞rien
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke

A Novel production for 大象传媒 Radio 4

Episodes are released weekly on Mondays. If you鈥檙e in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode, a week early, first on 大象传媒 Sounds聽https://bbc.in/3ybDcHO