The Body Serve

For our last episode of 2025, we each wrote our own separate agendas with the plan to just chat and see what happens. There’s some tennis, mostly not -- but we do cover that crass spectacle Evolve has been stumping over on right-wing media. We’ve got quick-fire complaints (It is that deep! Bring back gatekeeping in restaurant criticism!), favorite TV series of 2025, server rants, movie etiquette, and Mariah. Timestamps seemed against the more chaotic spirit of this episode, so just jump in and enjoy. Thanks for a great season - see you in 2026!

At long last, our ATP “hot list,” in our signature TBS style. Our mission: have fun, be sex-positive, not put anyone down, and marvel at how subjective and silly all this is. We talk about the ethics of objectifying men, the male gaze and male gays, and the “structures of looking” from Laura Mulvey on into the 21st century. After that bit of (hopefully interesting) table-setting, we get right into our categories of hotness (brains, aura, and ass are a few key examples). Finally, each of us share our hot lists of both active and retired players. Stay tuned for a few embarrassing crushes and lots of Rafa/Bjorn/Grigor mentions; and remember, with men the ick is always just around the corner. 4:05 Is objectifying men ok? 14:00 The straight male gaze, the straight woman gaze, and the gay gaze  19:20 “The male figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification” (Mulvey, 1975) 27:25 So why are we doing this? Well, first of all, it’s fun 32:55 Categories that make up hotness, starting with Aura  38:05 A key category: slutty shorts 56:00 The daddy archetype and faces that belong on a coin 60:15 Our lists  68:40 Embarrassing or disavowed crushes: we all have them  73:30 The retired players who would have made the list

For many, the 2025 ATP season has been about one heated rivalry and, well … not much else. We’re not necessarily here to contradict that narrative. But, there were five first-time Masters 1000 winners, and that’s not nothing! We’ll take you through the year’s highlights, month by month; question some tennis conventional wisdom; and go through your most memorable and funniest moments (math is hard!). Also, find out how our breakout picks fared and which ATP Awards need a rethink.   4:30 How we finished 2024 10:00 Themes of this season: duopoly, futility 15:00 The season’s notable moments in chronological order 35:35 Italy’s Davis Cup threepeat / RIP Nicola Pietrangeli  39:30 How did we do with our 2025 breakout picks? 43:40 ATP Awards: wheel and come again 48:05 Your most memorable moments of the ATP season 60:30 Your funniest moments: leave Jack alone! 65:50 Retirements, comebacks, and first-time titlists

It’s time to wrap the 2025 WTA season! We saw 5 different players split the Slams and the WTA Finals to form a season with a clear top tier but no outright dominance, allowing for surprises (Mboko, Andreeva, Swiatek at Wimbledon) and steady reliables (Sabalenka). As always, we’ll take you through the season chronologically while highlighting some key themes of the year both on- and off-court. We’ll survey the WTA Awards candidates, discuss our listeners’ most memorable and funniest moments of the season, and hold our own feet to the fire by seeing how our 2025 breakout picks performed. Thanks for joining us for an amazing season of women’s tennis! We’ve just launched our 2025 GoFundMe -- thanks for all the support through the years. If you’d like to contribute, you can find it here.  0:35 Launching our 2026 GoFundMe  06:00 Major stories of 2025: parity but also not  11:40 Off-court stories: Mat leave, PTPA, plus Rybakina-Vukov test the WTA’s new safeguarding policy 24:25 Chronological recap, kind of  44:25 Awards season! 49:05 How did we do with our breakout picks? 52:50 What you’ll remember from the season 59:55 Your funniest moments of the season 68:35 Retirements, comebacks, maternity leaves

Jannik Sinner defends at the ATP Finals, again without losing a set, beating his chief rival #1 Carlos Alcaraz. The final was fine, even quite good at times, albeit a bit momentum-less; but hey, they can’t all be classics. Novak makes some valid points about Sinner’s doping case – yes, well-tread territory to be fair – and gets subtweeted by Darren Cahill for his troubles. Plus, Aryna is displeased with Nike (which itself seems indifferent to tennis), and we take a quick tangent into health care and politics.  1:55 Jannik repeats at the ATP Finals  7:05 The Big 3 broke tennis analysis 11:50 Semis and group stage: every era needs a de Minaur  17:45 The ATP fits and haircuts + the Nike snowsuit 21:50 Novak on Sinner’s doping case and Darren’s subtweet 32:05 Aryna is unhappy with Nike, and Nike doesn’t seem to care 38:30 Not a great week for churches! Plus a tangent on Canadian health care