Well, hello. It's Tuesday, March 31st, 2026. Welcome back to Hang Up and Listen, the Slate Sports podcast. I am Ben Lindberg, senior editor at the Ringer, and host of Effectively Wild, the longest running baseball podcasts, as far as I know. Not as long

running as Hang Up and Listen, though. And today we'll be bringing you more of that time-honored,

wide-ranging hang-up and listening you hopefully love. Much as Tiger Woods has a new mugshot,

we have a new show with three main segments. First, America is in mourning. Down goes Duke. UConn's comeback, upset

victory over the Blue Devils on Sunday cemented the men's final four and actually gave us an

upset to discuss. So we will. The women's side of the bracket, less surprisingly, features Yukon, too.

In fact, it features all four number one seeds and all four

finalists from last year's tournament, so we'll examine whether that's a good thing. And then we'll

bring you two conversations with the authors of a pair of fine books published this month. First,

Seth Tannenbaum, an assistant professor of sports studies at Manhattanville University, joins us to talk

about the longstanding and increasing stratification of the spectator experience at baseball

stadiums, a subject he explores in his book, Bleacher Seats and Luxury Suites, Democracy

and Division at the 20th Century ballpark. Then Nina Mandel joins us for a floor routine on

a fraction of a point, a gymnastics dynasty on the line. Her book, about a dynastic for decades

high school gymnastics squad in Ohio that makes the Dodgers enduring dominance seem short-lived.

And finally, I'll be offering an afterball in which I will be blending two of my great

loves, sports and video games. As we've already established, I am not Alex Kirshner, a contributing

writer for Slate and co-host of the College Football Podcast Split Zone duo. Alex remains on his

honeymoon, where he's listening from afar, or not. Hopefully, he's happily unplugged for the duration of his

trip. Our podcast will keep until he gets home, which he will in time to rejoin us next week.

But he will also join us on most of this episode through the miracle of podcast pre-taping.

So stay tuned to hear his dulcet tones soon. And speaking of dulcet tones with me as always is Lindsay Gibbs, women's sports lead at CBS Sports, author of PowerPlays and co-host of Burn It All Down. Lindsay, you have been very busy with women's basketball, which makes you a perfect podcast correspondent today. Are you maintaining your sanity amid the

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