The following podcast contains explicit language.

Hi, I'm Josh Levine, Slate's national editor, and this is Hang Up and Listen for the week of July 19, 2021.

On this week's show, The New York Times's Tokyo Bureau Chief Matoko Rich will join us to assess Japan's readiness and willingness to host the Summer Olympics, which are going to start this week,

no matter what anyone wants. We're also going to talk about how this NBA finals went from

to kind of a classic. And we'll discuss Janus on Tedocumpo, the Greek philosopher.

Finally, we'll review Space Jam, a new legacy,

starring LeBron James, Bugs Bunny, and naturally, Don Cheatel as a computer algorithm

named L.G. Rhythm.

I'm in Washington, D.C., and I am the author of The Queen and the host of the new podcast

one year about the various and sundry things that happened

in the year in 1977.

And this week is going to be an episode about sports, about the first woman to get a real shot

at being a baseball announcer.

So look out for that and subscribe so you can hear it.

Also in D.C., Stefan Fatsas, author of the book's Word Freak and a few seconds

of panic. Hello, Stefan. Hello, Josh. I was like too much kind of, you know, obsessed with myself

to even remember to introduce you. So there's a slight hesitation there. But now, you are here.

Always an honor and a pleasure to have you here, Stefan Fatsas.

So, uh, 1977 is terrific. Josh, one year is terrific.

Back to me. Thank you.

Yes. In honor of the series, I decided to do, uh, a 1977 related afterball this week on the show.

And as I was looking for topics, I was like, oh, yeah, that was good. That was interesting.

...