3rd and 40

What better way to celebrate a years’ worth of episodes than a discussion of sports that no one has ever heard of? (For once it’s not just us!) But first, Emily, Ken and Mary Jo discuss “domes” the way aliens visiting Earth might discuss, well, anything—and Mary Jo tells us all about her “sport bar” experience. In our lightning round, what sports would our hosts play if they were each forced into compulsory sports service?

Sports fanatic Christy joins the show as a special guest with a difficult assignment: convincing us to like football. Will we intercept her passionate arguments with inane questions and nonsensical suggestions for improving the sport? In a word, yes. Will one of those questions also keep her up at night for days on end? Also yes. In our lightning round, what should be a sport but isn't?

‘Tis the season for…baseball! Emily, Ken and Mary Jo go deep into left field on baseball’s crazy rules, bizarre turns of phrase and dorky obsession with stats. We theorize about why the World Series escaped literally everyone’s notice and why baseball is only popular with the olds. Then: can we name a single professional baseball player who isn’t retired or dead (and no, we swear we did not cause Joe Mauer’s retirement)? In our lightning round, in what sport do we most want to see the coach have to wear the same uniform as the team?

If your favorite team gets all new players, a new coach, and a new logo--and then moves away--is it still your favorite team? Of course it is. WTH is wrong with you?? We share our theories. Then, what did one professional sports team do to earn Emily’s eternal wrath? In our lightning round, find out what made Ken almost want to watch a high school football game.

Remember our Le Tour de France episode? Emily really screwed the pooch on that one, so Ben returns to make sure we true our wheels. He explains everything we got wrong—from the winner to the team owners to the stuffed animal—and everything entre. In our lightning round, we quiz poor Ken on how many players are on the field in different team sports (spoiler alert: He gets one right).

With Mary Jo trapped in a disciplinary meeting with Linda from HR, Ken, Emily and pinch hitter (or is it pitch hitter? We’ll never know!) Ben share interesting sports news of the week. In our deep dive topic, we chat with a special guest about what sets the WNBA apart from the MNBA (hint: it’s the gender of the players). What are the dumbest and most pretentious sports terms? We reveal our pet peeves in the lightning round.

On a Very Special 3rd and 40, Ken reveals some deeply personal sports news that will make fans of Ken say “aww.” In our “bad Wikipedia” segment, Emily incorrectly answers the most basic questions about Le Tour de France and we cringe over the use of stuffed animals in sports. What’s more boring than watching men ride bicycles on TV? We take turns answering that question in our lightning round.

It’s our half year anniversary, so we start the show with a segment on errors and omissions—turns out we got a few things wrong! Next, World Cup fever sickened people around the globe this summer and prompted us to ask whether we need so many “world” events. In our slow-moving lightning round, how do people get their sports knowledge without book learning?

Emily, Mary Jo and Ken discuss how sports touched their lives this week--sometimes in embarrassing ways. An in-depth discussion of the Kentucky Derby follows, in which the hosts ponder important questions such as why racing fans don't use face paint. In the lightning round, practical phrases to wield when someone tries to talk to you about sports.

Emily, Mary Jo and Ken respond to listener mail about Emily's taxonomy; the hosts attempt to discuss the Stanley Cup, but after realizing they don't know who's in it the conversation shifts to hockey moms; each host shares his/her personal (sometimes too personal) team name ideas.