Two ESPN exiles, one storytelling company
In 2021, two of the most recognizable names in sports media walked out of the industry's biggest building and started over. John Skipper had run ESPN as president. Dan Le Batard had been one of its most distinctive on-air voices. Together they founded Meadowlark Media, a content studio built on a single, contrarian idea: that the storyteller matters more than the platform.
Meadowlark describes itself as "the creative studio behind some of the most engaging storytellers in sports media." Its focus is personality-driven storytelling - the kind of content where the host, the subject and the point of view carry as much weight as the final score. That thesis shaped everything from the shows it makes to the way it raised money.
The company anchors its output with The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, a daily sports and culture program that acts as the front door to a wider network of shows. Around it sit programs like Pablo Torre Finds Out, South Beach Sessions and Nothing Personal with David Samson - the former Miami Marlins president's daily take on the business of sports.
But Meadowlark is not only a podcast company. It develops premium documentary and unscripted work for the biggest buyers in entertainment. Its catalog includes Good Rivals, a series on the USA-Mexico soccer rivalry, and The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox, distributed by Netflix. It secured a first-look deal with Apple TV+ for unscripted films and a landmark distribution and sponsorship arrangement with DraftKings.
That range - daily audio on one end, prestige film on the other - is the point. A story arrives, and Meadowlark lets it choose its own format. Some become podcasts. Some become documentaries. The company's job is to match the medium to the material.
Skipper stepped down as CEO in 2024 but remains on the board and continues to advise. The studio he co-founded kept producing - a sign that a company built on many voices does not depend on any single one.