America's Trumpy Ryder Cup Flop

Hang Up and Listen

Slate Podcasts

News, Sports, Sports News

4.6 • 986 Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hosts Alex Kirshner, Ben Lindbergh, and Lindsay Gibbs speak to Fried Egg Golf’s Kevin Van Valkenburg about the American crowds, President, and golf lapses at the Ryder Cup. Ben previews the MLB playoffs, and the hosts discuss the purchase of Electronic Arts by Jared Kushner and a Saudi investment fund. For Afterballs, Ben dusts off a copy of Robert Redford’s oft-forgotten and underrated ski film, Downhill Racer. On the bonus episode available exclusively for Slate Plus members, Lindsay recounts the drama of the WNBA semifinals. Ryder Cup (6:18): American losers MLB (26:19): Mets gonna Mets E.A. Sports (42:33): It’s in the…sovereign wealth fund? Afterballs (54:18): Remembering Downhill Racer (Note: time codes are only accurate for Slate Plus members, who listen ad-free.) Get more Hang Up and Listen with Slate Plus! Join for weekly bonus episodes of Hang Up and Listen and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Hang Up and Listen show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or visit slate.com/hangupplus for access wherever you listen. You can email us at [email protected]. Podcast production and editing by Kevin Bendis, with production assistance from Patrick Fort. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It is Monday, September 29th, 2025.
0:07.0	Welcome back to Hang Up and Listen, the sports podcast here at Slate.
0:11.0	Back with you this week, I'm Alex Kirchner.
0:13.0	I'm a contributing writer for Slate, and I also co-host the College Football Podcast split-zone duo.
0:18.0	This week, I think a lot of our listeners are not huge golf fans, but you might
0:22.1	be interested in what happened at the Ryder Cup this weekend, where the American embarrassment
0:27.3	went well beyond becoming the first team to lose this event on home soil since 2012.
0:32.7	We'll preview the Major League Baseball playoffs, which start this week, and we'll also look
0:36.1	back on some shocking collapses that kept teams out of those playoffs, and we'll discuss a potentially
0:41.5	world-altering deal in sports video games. It's a very newsy episode, but there's more
0:47.5	news to be talked about in Slate's podcasting universe. The shutdown clock is ticking again,
0:52.5	and Trump is threatening mass layoffs across the federal
0:55.2	government if Republicans don't get their way.
0:57.5	But at least one Democrat says this is blackmail, and it's probably illegal.
1:01.9	What Next host, Mary Harris, talks to Senator Chris Van Hollen about his party's next move
1:06.9	exclusively on What Next Plus.
1:10.5	As usual, joining me this week is Lindsay Gibbs, the women's
1:13.1	sports lead at CBS Sports, and the publisher of Powerplace, a newsletter that covers the key
1:17.8	stories of the moment in women's sports. Lindsay, how goes? Good. I'm so excited that NFL took
1:23.3	the weekend off as a Panthers fan. It was, you know, there's so much many other sports happening that it was nice for football
1:30.4	to just pause for a bit.
1:32.8	Sure, sure.
	...

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