Perfect Match?

Michele is out of town this week, which happens to also be Bisexual Awareness Week. I kept myself occupied by recording this short, (I believe) thoughtful essay on bisexuality. For all our bisexual listeners, you are awesome 💜

On Sunday, we had a Brodown: (Total Bro) Ben Shelton battled (Toxic Bro) Alexander Zverev, not for the title of Top Bro but for the adjacent title of 2026 US Open Men's Champion. This week we break down Bros in Tennis: the Total Bro, Partial Bro, Nouveau Bro, Not a Bro and Toxic Bro. We feel that these entirely made up categories of bro-dom are a useful framing device for Men's Tennis in 2026. Or are they?Also:Sabalenka is a sore loser at the US Open FinalTwo out gay male players compete in a final in a Challengers match for the first time 🏳️‍🌈And other stuff...

In this extended episode we talk about the emerging Gay Sports Romance genre and nerd out on behind-the-scenes library stuff with New York Public Library Senior Librarian and Cataloger Julia Lubey! How do books get tagged as Queer Fiction vs. Bisexual vs. Young Adult? What about The Open Era, which is perhaps all of the above?Also:Alcaraz' nipple slip shirt 👀Djokovic's mysterious long-COVID-like condition 🤢The USTA's decision to make the Open unaffordable 💰💰And more!

The US Open Fan Week: loud, crowded, disorganized, chaotic! But we got a chance to see Serena and Carlos play doubles as well as the return of the one and only Roger Federer. Michele refrained from putting them on the glass for Roger, and Bryan remained relatively sober despite spending ~$200 on booze. Only at the Open!Also,The Arthur Ashe stadium renovation that reflects the disappearing middle classZohran Mamdami shames the US Open into providing some more affordable ticketsThe book talk for Finding Renee Richards, the new autobiography of the only trans pro tennis player in history by Julie Kliegman

No sooner did we record an episode about Carlos' cornrows than he took them out (and pulled out of Cincy 😞). Regardless, there's a history of white people adopting/appropriating(?) black style with mixed results. We were initially becringed by the cornrows, but a new generation of social media users has put the whole topic into grey area.Also:Jessie Pegula is hard to root forThe ticket scalpers buy another year of profiteering"The Dink": the Pickleball movie with a heart of goldWTA sex testing update

Jannik Sinner made headlines last week because he passed on a potentially unprecedented and historic opportunity: win all Masters 1000s tournaments in a single year. Nobody has ever done it. With all the talk about how maladapted, weird and lazy Gen Z is purported to be, we wondered if there's a generational theme here (spoiler: they said the exact same things about Gen X, but no one remembers anything about us).Also,The DC Mubadala tournament's noble origin storyPlayer boycott of the US Open Mixed Doubles event: still happening?And more...