The following podcast contains explicit language.

Hi, this is Josh Levine, and this is Slate's sports podcast, hang up and listen for the week of January 23rd, 2017.

On this week's show, we're going to talk about the triumphs of the Falcons and the Patriots,

the almost coronation of Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan,

and whether we should be rooting for Tom Brady to smile smugly in his Tom Brady way at Roger Goodell at Super Bowl 51.

Chris Ballard of Sports Illustrated will join us to talk about the Philadelphia 76ers recent hot streak and whether

the team's sudden friskiness vindicates now-deposed general manager Sam Hinky. And we'll talk about

the election of Tim Raines, Yvonne Rodriguez, and Jeff Bagwell to the Baseball Hall of Fame and

how a project to make ballots public may have affected the voting.

Joining me in Washington, D.C. is Stefan Fatsis, author of the book's Word Freak and a few seconds of panic.

Hello, Stefan.

Frisky.

We're all very frisky this morning.

And, well, Mike Pesca is a little under the weather.

Mike Fesca is not frisky.

So, there's your segue.

Filling in for him.

He's on a 90-minute contract.

It's Jack Hamilton, Slate's pop critic, an assistant professor of American Studies and Media

Studies at the University of Virginia.

It's the author of Just Around Midnight, Rock and Roll, and the Racial Imagination.

Definitely has the most advanced degrees on the panel today.

...