What Makes Cheer So Compulsively Watchable

In this week’s episode of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen, Joel Anderson, Josh Levin, and special guest Lindsay Gibbs talk about the fallout and recriminations from the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. They also discuss the huge changes reshaping the WNBA and assess the best player in college basketball, Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu. Finally, they review the Netflix docuseries Cheer, a look at the triumphs and rigors of competitive cheerleading.

• Follow Lindsay Gibbs on Twitter, listen to her podcast Burn It All Down, and subscribe to her newsletter Power Plays. (To enter to win a paid Power Plays subscription, email Lindsay with “Hang Up” in the subject line. Must be an existing Power Plays subscriber to win.)

• ESPN’s Jeff Passan on the trouble with disciplining the Houston Astros and the controversy over Jose Altuve’s tattoo.

• Cody Bellinger, Mike Trout, and Yu Darvish are all very mad at the Astros.

• Astros manager Dusty Baker says Major League Baseball needs to protect his team from beanballs.

• Houston’s Francis Martes was suspended for 162 games after testing positive for a banned anabolic steroid.

• Matt Ellentuck of SB Nation on how free agency is changing the WNBA.

• Gibbs on how the media is covering (and not covering) WNBA free agency.

• Maitreyi Anantharaman in Slate on the failings of the WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement.

• Rachel Bachman’s Wall Street Journal piece on Sabrina Ionescu.

• The New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino on Cheer.

• Matt Stoller on Varsity Brands’ cheerleading monopoly.

• The Atlantic’s Amanda Mull writes that “Cheer Is Built on a Pyramid of Broken Bodies.”

• Follow the stars of Cheer on Instagram.

Hang Up and Listen’s weekly FIOFMUs:

Joel’s FIOFMU: In praise of the Knuckleheads podcast, co-hosted by former NBA players Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson.

Lindsay’s FIOFMU: The pioneering Immaculata women’s college basketball program, and how it was covered.

On this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Joel, Josh, and Lindsay talk about the U.S. women’s soccer team’s equal pay suit and the men’s team’s recent, self-interested expression of solidarity.

Podcast production and edit by Melissa Kaplan.

You can email us at hangup@slate.com.

from Slate Magazine https://ift.tt/39KxdHX
via IFTTT