The special, year-end, call-in edition of Slate’s sports podcast.

Listen to "Hang Up and Listen" with Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

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Hang Up and Listen is brought to you by Audible. Get a 30-day free trial by signing up at audiblepodcast.com/hangup. Our pick of the week is The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver.

In this week’s episode of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen, Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca take listeners’ questions in a special, year-end, call-in show. Topics covered include whether the sports bubble is about to burst; the appeal of Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth; the long-term impacts of global warming on sports; who would win an event in which races of every Olympic distance were combined; and whether the pros of fandom outweigh the cons.

Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned on the show:

• Stefan’s alma mater, the Pelham Pelicans.
• The New Orleans Hornets could soon become the Pelicans.
• In Slate, Chris Park noted that “sports events anachronistically persist in asking consumers to pay attention for literally hours on end while having no control over who plays and when.”
• How zebra imprinting works.
• Nate Silver endorses the Big East basketball breakup.
• Josh’s Slate article arguing for the rise of a basketball superconference.
• Wikipedia’s list of defunct college football teams.
• In Deadspin, John Koblin argues that producer Fred Gaudelli is the secret to Sunday Night Football’s success.
• Josh, Mike, and Stefan’s fictional sports inspirations: Catcher with a Glass Arm, The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop., A Fan’s Notes, and (not really) The White Shadow.
• Alexander Wolff’s 2007 Sports Illustrated cover story on global warming.
• ESPN.com’s Kevin Arnovitz suggested that abolishing the NBA draft would be a way to fix tanking.
• Would the great David Rudisha be the favorite if every Olympic running event was combined?

Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned on the show:

Podcast production and edit by Mike Vuolo. Our intern is Eric Goldwein.

You can email us at hangup@slate.com.