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The Paris Review Daily ·Small delights

If You Build It, Will They Come? On the Sperm Racing World Cup

by Paul McAdory

Published 2026-08-21 14:00:32+00:00

Could a race between microscopic human cells ever actually work as a live spectator sport?

0:00 / 19:44 · Narrator Vindemiatrix

Context

Writing on 21 August 2026, Paul McAdory looks at a Silicon Valley start-up trying to turn microscopic fertility tests into a broadcast sport. The essay pauses on a strange modern impulse: the drive to quantify private biological functions for public consumption. Watching the live stream of the so-called Sperm Racing World Cup, McAdory finds that turning human biology into an attention economy hustle doesn't actually produce wonder or insight. Instead, it strips away the mystery, leaving behind nothing but another exhausting metric to optimize.

Show notes

A report on Sperm Racing, a Silicon Valley startup that turns microscopic sperm samples into a broadcast sport. The author tracks the company's delayed attempts to launch a global tournament, documenting how its founders merge male fertility fears with social media spectacle. It concludes with a review of the first live-streamed match between a German venture capitalist and an Australian musician.

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