Exploring Natural Talents and the Balance Between Smart and Funny

Pablo Torre is thoughtful. He’s smart, he’s intelligent, and he’s funny. Today’s conversation we get into all of that; we get into his personality, how he approaches media, how he approaches storytelling. At his core, he is someone who deeply wants to tell stories that range in emotions, that make you laugh, that may make you cry, that may make you cringe, but mostly will make you think a little bit differently than you thought before digesting the story that Pablo is sharing. His background involves deep journalism at Sports Illustrated as a staff writer and a fact checker. His work there won awards. He then went on to work at ESPN as a senior writer for both its website and its magazine. He will say in today’s conversation that he got his start really in the magazine space and that shapes a lot of how he thinks about storytelling. But you will probably recognize Pablo if you’re interested in sports because he has appeared on air quite a bit, whether it’s on the show Around the Horn as a regular contributor, or The Sports Reporters (which is what I grew up watching), or Pardon the Interruption with Tony Kornheiser, or even Outside the Lines or The Dan LeBatard Show. So, he’s made his bones on air in a lot of ways, and in audio. He’s going to talk about his current podcast and how they use video and audio to storytell with Meadowlark Media. It is a company that was founded by his former colleague Dan LeBatard, where they try to blend humor with wisdom and thoughtfulness, try to go deep but also live on the surface, and really at their core they’re trying to entertain you but also make you smarter when you listen to them and when you digest their information and their content. Pablo is great, I really loved this conversation because it’s about polarity, it’s about range, it’s about things that I really care a lot about, and Pablo embodies all of that and more.

Pablo had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“If I find something authentically interesting, maybe you do too” (7:15).

“Sports Illustrated taught me that the world of magazines is, in retrospect, at its best, an un-algorithmic world” (8:40).

“Sports is the biggest tent in American life” (9:20).

“You can do smart and funny. Those two things are key” (12:50).

“I’m going to melt some cheese on your broccoli. You’ll learn something, you’ll get nourishment, but you’ll enjoy it” (13:15).

“I want to make sure the stories I do have some element of humor” (15:20).

“I believe fundamentally that we all contain multitudes” (19:15).

“I love complicated things” (19:55).

“I want someone who doesn’t find this topic interesting to keep listening to the end” (20:55).

“If I find the right angle on a story, that can be a skeleton key into something that no one presumed they wanted to get into” (22:40).

“I value my curiosity even more than my conviction” (28:45).

“The product that I’m making is many different products in one” (39:35).

“I’m here to tell you a story” (43:35).

“We have forgotten how good it feels to be around people who make you better in person” (53:45).

“So much of my show is about human nature” (56:20).

“So often, nostalgia is a lie” (1:10:25).

“The NFL is selling you gladiators” (1:14:30).

Additionally, you can check out Pablo’s podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out, on any podcast platform. You can also subscribe to Pablo’s newsletter here.

Thank you so much to Pablo for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.