"Who Is Going to Pull a Pablo Torre on Pablo Torre?"
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How did a firing at ESPN lead to the creation of this show?
Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out, presented by eBay Live. I am Pablo Torre, and today you're going to find out what this sound is.
Are you Jewish?
I am not.
Then shut up. Then you don't know what you're talking about.
Life's better with a story. I'm on the smart show.
Oh, God. That crushes me. Crushes me. How do you feel, Dan, hearing your producer, Chris Cody, say that phrase as a way of introducing this premise? He doesn't have that kind of jubilance about working on the show that has built everything here. He's got a jubilance about his debut voyage on Pablo Torre Finds Out. I'm smart.
What challenges do journalists face within established media organizations?
Look at how excited he is. I'm on the smart show. What are we finding out today? It's good to see how happy Chris is to be investigating journalistically. The reason I wanted to do this is because we get questions here, Pablo Torre finds out. And one of the questions is from a, I want to just get her name correct. It's from a listener named Jordan Hudson. And in November, this is November 26, 2025, 1156 a.m. Eastern. Jordan Hudson said, quote, Who funds PTFO? Who is going to pull a Pablo Torre on Pablo Torre? Yeah, if people do not know how all of this was birthed, Chris Cody in some ways is ground zero on everything it is that we're doing here. Him in his bed staring at his ceiling when ESPN, unbeknownst to me, had already told him they were letting him go.
He's scared about his future.
How does the structure of Meadowlark Media differ from traditional media?
His father, mentor of mine, one of my best friends, comes in the room and says, well, Dan's not going to let them fire you. Dan's not going to let that happen. And that's him having more confidence in me than I had in me at that time. I have Chris in a race car bed. Is that the picture you're painting of like Greg Cody, longtime Miami Herald columnist, legend in South Florida, mentor of Dan Levitard coming into the room of his son, Chris, aforementioned. Chris is in pajamas. You're in PJs.
You're in pajamas.
It wasn't a room in the house, although you can be forgiven for thinking that. He was in his own room, and his father had called him. But I've known Chris since he had the equivalent of a race car bed. I'm going to guess I've known Chris since he was six years old, five years old. Yeah, I have memories of you coming into my house and eating chips and salsa at a very young age. Oh, those Tostitos. Those Tostitos were so good.
What role does humor play in sports journalism according to the hosts?
Earlene always kept them stocked, and I would just come over. Yeah, I've known Chris and his father for more than a quarter of a century. And so for people who don't know the origin story of a company called Meadowlark Media, you may know that I have this partnership. We have this partnership with the New York Times and The Athletic. Very fancy. The Grey Lady. All of that stuff. But if you just joined the audience of PTFO, the alleged smart show, you should know the birth canal from which we emerged. to keep the metaphor of like parental, yes. Painful pregnancy, this. This was a painful labor. You thought it was twins. It was just one giant self-absorbed noggin. I mean, Dan, the origin story of Metal Ark is the origin story not just of the Dan Levitt Tart Show,
which I hope people have some sense of, but it's the exit of the Dead Levitard show from ESPN.
How did the hosts navigate controversial topics during their careers?
Whatever we do here in which we stir up shit and investigate things, it has its roots in a show I fell in love with until the show abandoned me as I remained at ESPN, actually, in 2020. Well, you say the show abandoned you, but what happened at ESPN is that the president of ESPN left in an extortion scandal, and I had not realized the amount of protection and cover he had been providing for us as an entity because as soon as he left— things started happening to me professionally that had never happened before, where I had always had a very simple relationship with all my employers. I do my job well. You keep rewarding me for doing my job well. I get to hire and help my friends in order for all of us to do our job well.
But as soon as John Skipper left ESPN and he came over and became the CEO of MetalArk, helping us create the business of this and getting the DraftKings deal that is a pioneering deal in the industry,
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did a firing at ESPN lead to the creation of this show?
0:00–1:04
2
What challenges do journalists face within established media organizations?
1:04–2:05
3
How does the structure of Meadowlark Media differ from traditional media?
2:05–2:57
4
What role does humor play in sports journalism according to the hosts?
2:57–3:51
5
How did the hosts navigate controversial topics during their careers?
3:51–5:34
6
What was the significance of the 'Six Billboards Outside Akron' stunt?
5:34–7:20
7
Why is the separation between journalism and business crucial?
7:20–8:34
8
What is the future vision for journalism as discussed in this episode?
8:34–42:17
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from Pablo Torre Finds Out
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