One of the defining challenges Martin J. Walsh has faced since becoming mayor was navigating the host of thorny, no-win issues that came with Boston being selected as a candidate to host the 2024 Olympics.

He was just one year in office when the USOC gave Boston the surprise nod, and there was great rejoicing and a boost of pride that the Hub was selected over Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Then, of course, it all fell apart, amid public opposition and mixed signals about what hosting would require of taxpayers.

In his wide-ranging interview on the inaugural edition of my new podcast, “Unfiltered,” Walsh seems to bite his tongue in looking back on what went wrong.

“I think there’s some unrealistic expectations put on the city,” he finally says. Walsh said a key factor was the International Olympic Committee’s opposition to a ballot question on the Summer Games, which he ultimately backed.

“The president of the IOC (Thomas Bach) didn’t want a ballot question, and ironically his own town in Hamburg, Germany, voted down the Olympics,” Walsh says, referring to that city’s November referendum. “I think at some point the Olympics movement as a whole, worldwide, has to start to say, ‘OK, how do we deliver a Games?’ ”

Walsh’s support put him in the cross hairs of a heated social media campaign, which he once flippantly referred to as “10 people on Twitter.” But they were people with a voracious appetite for broadcasting the downside and financial risks the games could bring.

Looking back, Walsh gives the “No Boston” crowd credit. “I didn’t want to hear the negativity of it, I wanted to hear positive, but that’s people’s right, and you know something? They had a point in a lot of ways,” he says. “People brought up some great points. I was listening, because every time they brought up a point, I’d go back and ask questions.”

It remains to be seen what defining challenges await Walsh for the remainder of his first term, or his second, which he announced he’d seek in September. He’s surprised it was treated as big news.

“Let’s be honest, how many people in America that run for mayor serve one term and leave? I mean, it doesn’t happen,” he says. “I don’t think that’s the big news. I think the big news is, is there going to be, potentially, if I get re-elected, is there going to be a third term? That’s the news.”

Catch the final installment of “Unfiltered” at 11:30 a.m. today on Boston Herald Radio to hear more about the challenges of Walsh’s first term, from fighting snow, to learning to read off a teleprompter, being called a “clown” by Donald Trump, and much more.