Hang Up | The PGA Tour's Saudi Stalemate

Slate News

Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2025

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hosts Alex Kirshner, Lindsay Gibbs, and Ben Lindbergh welcome Joel Beall, senior Golf Digest writer and author of Playing Dirty, for a deep dive into Saudi Arabia’s continued sportwashing through investments in professional golf. The panel also discusses number one seeds steamrolling their way into the men’s Final Four. Alex Ovechkin inches closer to surpassing Wayne Gretzky's NHL goal record. Finally, Ben has an afterball on the Bronx Bombers and their new, lethal torpedo bats. On the bonus episode available exclusively for Slate Plus members, the panel talks about foul-grifting and faking injuries in the NBA. LIV Golf (2:43): Why the PGA Tour/Saudi Arabia negotiations really failed. March Madness (29:45): For the second time ever, the men’s Final Four is all No. 1 seeds Ovechkin (45:18): The Capitals captain is five goals shy of surpassing Gretzky (Note: time codes are only accurate for Slate Plus members, who listen ad-free.) Want more Hang Up and Listen? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page, or visit slate.com/hangupplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs.
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0:22.9	entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
0:32.5	It is Monday, March 31st, 2025.
0:39.6	I hope your baseball team was better than mine over this opening weekend of the season.
0:44.2	Welcome back to Hang Up and Listen to the Sports Podcast here at Slate.
0:47.3	Back with you again, I'm Alex Kirchner.
0:48.7	I'm a contributing writer for Slate, and I also co-host the college football podcast, Split Zone Duo.
0:55.1	First up this week,
1:00.1	we will talk about the sports world's major geopolitical deal that was promised an awful long time ago,
1:04.4	but still hasn't materialized. That's the one between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabian government influence project, Live Golf. We will also talk about college basketball, naturally,
1:09.2	and go over some interesting odds and ends as those tournaments head towards their conclusions.
1:14.1	And we will check in with Alex Ovechkin's increasingly close chase to set the all-time goal scoring record in the National Hockey League.
1:22.2	As usual, joining me this week is Lindsay Gibbs, the publisher of PowerPlays, a newsletter that covers the biggest stories of the day in women's sports. Lindsay, hello. Hello, everyone. I got to say, I'm getting
1:33.2	some really good pitches for my favorite MLB team, no pun intended. And I haven't made a decision
1:40.9	yet. It's March Madness. I'm not making any major life decisions during March Madness.
1:46.2	Who's the leader in the literal clubhouse?
1:48.4	Well, the twins are in contention, but I also got Ryan DeBusk, a listener.
1:53.4	I hope I'm saying that right, Ryan, sent me a very, very strong case to return to my long-time love of the Padres. So I, you know, he made a strong case.
2:08.2	Memes included. I love a meme. Yeah, you have such a long relationship with them. Why is straight now?
	...

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