I tried listening to Hot Takedown recently for the first time, but found it more like an episode of Car Talk than any Fivethirtyeight podcast I’d heard. All the panelists made frequent jokes, laughed at their own jokes, or paused after telling jokes to wait for their colleagues to join in the laughter. I don’t remember what the topic was, but the panelists were too busy cracking each other up to discuss it in any detail. It was clear after 10 minutes that it would be much more efficient to look up the topic in the New York Times, the Athletic, or another serious sports site. Maybe I’ll try listening to Hot Takedown again sometime, but for hosts laughing at their own jokes, give me Car Talk any day.

Looked forward to this show every week…golf conversation and all. Please come back in 2022. It would add some good news to a year needing it.

Hot Takedown was my favorite sports podcast. I’m really missing Sara, Neil, and Geoff especially now that there is an MLB Lockout. I need a rabbit hole on previous lockouts and stoppages.

Please bring the show back. I can’t believe that ABC can’t afford to spare resources to support this podcast. Please bring it back!

I love your podcast, please don’t go!

I’m sad to hear this week that you’re putting the show on hiatus! I’m a pretty new listener and even though I have some critiques, I’ve really enjoyed it the last couple of months. I hope you come back!

I feel like the sound quality has gotten worse. I know this is recorded from home, but I hear a lot of clipping in the past two episodes which is a question of proper levels, and not equipment. Ruined a show I look forward to every week. Still the sound quality is poor. I can’t believe the sound quality on a professional production is this bad. Fix the microphone clipping.

Vlad Guerrero Sr/Jr - are they the best father son combo in the same sport ever? What are some of the best ones(by the statistics/analytics)? Edit: very cool that you used my idea above, especially so quickly! However I think you missed a couple elements: -First, only looking at combined WAR - another way to look at it would be who the highest “low score” of the pairing.. how many combos are both hall of famers (some projecting should be done for someone like vlad jr). I don’t know much about Bobby bonds but looks like he’s not in the hall and just a 3x all star. -also: what about some other sports? Does anyone top those baseball combos? How many combos in any sport have both players in the HoF (currently or projected)?

I’ve been listening to this show for a while now and I look forward to it every week! I like learning random facts about sports I’m not even interested in. As a fellow Vikings/twins/Iowa state fan I relate to Sara immensely (tho I don’t understand why she doesn’t like hockey, come on!) and love hearing her complain about the Vikings! Although, if they’re taking listener feedback now, I’d prefer never to hear Tom Brady’s name ever again. Dedicating 20 minutes to the stupid Belichick/Brady reunion game storyline when there are a million more interesting NFL topics going on was mildly annoying 😂.

The second iteration of this show is so terrible I wonder sometimes why they even bothered. The hosts cannot stop talking about their own teams, especially Sarah. I don’t think they’ve gotten through a single episode without mentioning the Vikings, Twins, Cyclones and/or Hotspurs. It’s also really annoying that they continually refer to themselves as analytics types because they aren’t, at all. Maybe they will reference a real analytics company’s own statistical analyses, but mostly they find a really dumb take and spend 15 minutes explaining why it’s dumb. Rarely do they actually use real advanced analytics to support anything they say. Also really funny was during the Olympics they all kept using a form of the word "jingoism," I think to describe supporting US athletes, even though they clearly have no idea what it means. I couldn’t stop laughing because they were all so sure of themselves and they kept saying it.

“The Tampa Bay Bucs will not be a bad team in 2021.” is the lukest of loosely-considered-takes. In addition to expecting more substance from a self-described quant pod for my football team, I’m not sure if they’re even aware that Tampa also has a baseball team. Perhaps this is a purposeful omission, saving all of that hot Rays content for a full episode on the most sabermetrically invested organization that, oh yeah, also has the best record in the AL. But by all means, until that drops, let’s talk more about the NL East.

Unless that cheating is college recruiting, then despite being in favor of athlete compensation, Sara finds a bunch of scruples somehow.

Where’s the evidence? Some people on Twitter said it? That isn’t statistical analysis. Please feel free to demonstrate your thinking and back up your claims. Otherwise accusing an entire nation of “they’ll take any excuse to be racist” (direct quote) is just a severe failure of reasoning. I’m not even English myself.

Very disappointed in this episode. There seemed to be a lack of knowledge about Osaka, who the correspondents admitted is the biggest star in the game. I think anyone who has listened to Osaka in an interview, can realize that she’s quite anxious when speaking to media. I really disliked the assumption of it being related to it hurting her confidence on clay. Not because I found it false (which I did), but because there was no counterpoint of how troubled Osaka has seemed in talking to reporters in the past. I thought there were attempts to be kind and careful when discussing mental health, but I truly felt like nobody speaking knew anything about Osaka, though I’m sure that’s false.

The Lakers had trouble winning without LeBron, and the Nets were not a juggernaut without Harden, but Hot Takedown had a strong game without their superstar, Sara Ziegler. Even when they spent a third of the show on some Canadian game whose American fanbase is as white and limited as the Republican Party, it was entertaining. The NBA Play-in section was great, they even brought in my beloved Knicks. They just needed to make clearer that when all is said and done the NBA trophy is going to rest in New York. I'd love for it to be at MSG, and I won't totally count out the possibility,, but as a Knick fan I've been taught to not believe in miracles. It will be at the Barclay center five blocks from where I used to live. Sara will get them on track to talk about real sports next week. Superstars lead by example.

I appreciate your coverage of the WNBA. I’m primarily a fan of the NBA, but always looking to listen to coverage of the WNBA to help me get up to speed—and very excited to see the predictions tracker for this league! Great show overall, enjoy listening every week.

Can you guys use your big brains and look at some Olympic sports? We have an amazing year ahead with two Olympics. Let's take a look at what's going to happen in Tokyo and Beijing?

Been listening for a while now and just want to thank you for your great in depth coverage on all sports, not just the big three. This does unfortunately include discussing golf, but I still enjoy your hot takes in that mind numbing boring sport as well. The reason I’m writing this review now is because you all did rabbit hole of the week on my new favorite sport of Formula 1, and that was the first time I’ve heard anyone talk about F1 on a podcast that wasn’t dedicated to covering F1. Keep up the great work and keep talking about F1 through the season as this one is intense already. Oh also super love the hockey talk. Sorry Sara! Hopefully you can find some more love for hockey in the future. Thanks for being such a great host!

I’ve been listening to the podcast for a few years, and overall I’d say it’s great. They know their stuff and have really good chemistry. They do a good job covering a variety of sports, although I don’t care about golf and hockey (s/o Sara). They don’t repeat the same dumb things / cliches every other sports commentator does, and actually (mostly) believe the analytics. Honestly, I know that they are trying to appeal to a somewhat general audience but they should go deeper into the analytics. For example one of my favorite episodes was when Nate Silver explained how RAPTOR works. A lot of times they use stats here but don’t really use analytics, for example the rabbit hole is usually about numbers but there’s really no analysis in it. It would be cool learn about advanced analytics in Tennis or how it’s used in the WNBA.

Especially the golf and NHL topics!

That title was a joke. But seriously, this is a great podcast.

Hey! Love the show — especially because you all cover women’s sports more than most other sports pods. Keep up the good work! I just read Neil’s piece about the Yankees-Rays rivalry being the best in the AL East, and as a Red Sox fan, my first response was outrage. But I’m wondering, how should we rank the best rivalries? Would ELO make sense? Or history? For example, people wanted to talk about the 76ers Celtics rivalry during the last few C’s games, but I feel like the fire of that rivalry isn’t really there anymore. But Bruins Canadiens or Red Sox Yankees seems to always be there, regardless of how competitive the teams are. The AL East is a ton of fun this season. Thanks again! -Sean

I fell off the wagon on this podcast after they really hyper-fixated on golf.

They do such an exceptional job of giving a unique and global understanding of the sports world. Great for dilettantes and rabbit-holers alike.

Love this pod! They acknowledged one of my reviews on an episode on my birthday as well! Not to mention the great analysis on top of that. I’m leaving a review to say how much I appreciate the all rabbit hole final 2020 episode. Rabbit holes are my favorite!

Great sports analysis from 3 great journalists! Sara Ziegler is a fantastic host and is so great at guiding the conversation and getting the best out of her crewmates Neil and Chadwick. Love that they talk about a variety of sports and how they don't shy away from "controversial" topics (yes Sara NFL teams desperately need to stop hiring convicted domestic abusers and rapists!!). Thanks for the quality work y'all do every week. Love the show!!

I look forward to Tuesday’s every week. I love the analytics based sport talk, mixed with interesting sports takes, and lovable personalities. I really connect with the host Sara Ziegler, as she knows what it’s like to be a fan of a heart wrenching team and handles that pains that brings with grace. (Go twins)

Sara Ziegler is from South Dakota. Five stars.

I love Fivethirtyeight and their politics pod is solid but I’m not convinced that this group knows that much about sports and they don’t talk about terribly interesting topics on here.

Love the show and the rabbit hole segment every week. Are usually pretty good at covering a wide variety of sports from the Super bowl and NBA Playoffs to the career of an apparently great cricket player who had a misunderstood career among cricket fans. That being said, I was a pretty surprised and let down with the most recent episode that didn’t even mention the historic Champions League season that just finished this past weekend. Didn’t understand why the mid season of a half real baseball season was a better topic.

Decent sports podcast. Great rabbit hole segments where they deep dive in the numbers behind something. Too often leaves me wanting more and better analysis. Neil is great at analytics and wonderful at explaining things. Some episodes it seems Sara and Geoff are just there to make the hot takes the show claims to want to tear down as they shun and ignore statistics and models. The current form of the show is more sports news with okay discussion than heavy analytics. I think the show and company have great potential to bring stats and analytics to the masses and make as a common way to discuss sports, but I think they are falling short with the current form of the show.

5 stars!

Good sports takes, broad range of sports. Maybe mention boxing once in a while?

In depth podcasts with great sports takes

Always enjoy hearing these three fivethirtyeight writers have a smart and engaging dialogue about the sports news of the week.

Sara, Neil and Geoff bring the best of FiveThirtyEight to this show. It’s always insightful, clear and compelling. This is a must listen for any sports fan!

The rabbit hole might be my favorite segment of the multitude of podcasts I listen too. I enjoy that they bring in sports that I may not necessarily pay detailed attention too but the analytic lens makes every one of the sports interesting. Sara does a great job trying to keep the crew on subject.

How does a sports show come back from a couple days out from the first WS in which something has never happened in the history of the event (neither team winning a home game in a 7 game series) and barely mention the event in passing?

Hosts take an analytical approach to sports discussions, but aren’t crippled by their models. I love the rabbit hole of the week because it’s pretty relatable to random deep dives of my own. I always make sure to download every week.

WHY isn’t this podcast discussing the WNBA playoffs right now? Why is 538 participating in a general media blindness to some of the most exciting basketball? The Mystics-Aces series produced some of the best basketball ever played, and the coaching decisions by LA in the Sparks-Sun series is begging for careful analysis. Come on, guys! Stop forgetting about women’s sports!

Sara, Neil, and Geoff strike a great balance between nerding out on numbers and inserting commentary and humor into their analysis. Even when they're talking about sports I don't necessarily follow I stay tuned in.

I’m not a big sports person, but I genuinely enjoy this podcast. Excellent chemistry between the three commentators, and enough numbers to make it interesting, but not so much that it becomes a stats class.

I like the podcast; feels like most of the show is about baseball, though

Sara, Geoff, and Neil have amazing chemistry that makes Hot Takedown both really funny and super interesting - even when Geoff is just talking about Michigan football, horse racing, or golf.

I was a big fan of the original version of Hot Takedown, but I have to say, this new incarnation blows it out of the water. I love the hosts, they have a great dynamic and bring great guests. The rabbit hole of the week is a particular favorite. This recent all rabbit hole episode is awesome! These fact/statistic holes are a big part of why I love sports and it’s so fun to have at least one featured every week. Take a listen!

So wanted to like this show. Im going to keep trying. Fantasy soccer convention was maybe the dumbest thing ever.

As a perennial 538 politics podcast junkie, when they resurrected Hot Takedown I had to check it out. I’ve always been into sports but I love getting to learn about what’s going on in sports from an analytical and statistical lens. This show has helped me find so many different sports so much more interesting than I thought they would be, and I love how they cover what’s going on in the sports world outside of the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL as well. Very good stuff!

I loved hot takedown back in the day and this new iteration is still pretty great. I do miss the greatest podcast intro music of all time but, I won’t hold it against them.

Is not a sport.

Although Neil made a solid argument for hotdog eating’s inclusion in the landscape of modern sports, Geoff won me over with his energy coming in rather than coming out counter, to say nothing of his full Dad Mode “that’s not what we do with food” point. Also, Sara is the best.