Podcast: Pablo Torre Finds Out
Episode: Share & Rawdog & Tell with Mina Kimes and Dan Le Batard
Date: July 2, 2024
Guests: Mina Kimes, Dan Le Batard

Overview

This episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out unites Pablo Torre with friends Mina Kimes and Dan Le Batard for an energetic, self-revealing, and frequently hilarious discussion. The trio cycles between “therapy group” vibes and sharp social commentary as they examine the intersection of media influence in sports, the degradation of the internet (especially Google), parenting life-hacks, and, with no small amount of comic discomfort, the concept of “raw dogging” flights—i.e., enduring long flights with zero digital distraction. True to the show’s ethos, the conversation goes way “beyond the game,” laying bare the trio’s anxieties about modern attention, information, and online lives.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Honest Confessions & Group Dynamics

Timestamps: 00:27–05:20

• The episode opens with banter about their group chat, where Mina and Pablo consistently veto Dan’s ideas—a microcosm of how Dan (as a company founder) feels frequently overruled.
• Mina confesses to lying and gaslighting her documentary-loving husband about what shows and movies she’s actually watched, leveraging parenthood as a convenient escape from obligations.
  • “I straight up lie to him all the time.” —Mina (02:16)
  • “You’re like a corrupt nursing home aide.” —Pablo teasing Mina about her white lies (03:11)
  • “I would have had the kid sooner, honestly, if I had known I could get out of going out.” —Mina (04:53)

2. How Much Do Sports Decision-Makers Care About Media Coverage?

Timestamps: 05:20–16:57

• Listener voicemail (Evan from Delaware) raises a classic question: Do sports executives, coaches, and players actually care about what the sports media says about them?
• Consensus: They care much, much more than they admit. LeBron, team owners, and countless GMs/executives are deeply tuned in, but their media diet varies by generational and personal taste.
  • “They care so much more than they want anybody else to realize…” —Pablo (06:22)
  • “I do First Take…I hear much more often from players about things I’ve said…” —Mina (07:22)
• Dan’s observation: True confidence (among “the McVays of the world”) means only caring about criticism from respected sources, but many powerful sports figures are, in reality, very online and reactive.
• Mina’s key insight: Being “tuned in” is about psychological makeup, not intelligence or even track record; many successful GMs watch, read, and remember everything said about them.
  • “There are very successful GMs who I know for a fact see everything and read everything…It shocks me.” —Mina (14:12)

Notable Anecdotes:

• Mina describes an NFL GM pantomiming her “crushing” his draft picks to her face at the combine, illustrating how personally executives can take media commentary.
  • “He actually pantomimed me stomping on his neck and squishing his drafts…for, like, two minutes.” —Mina (20:19)

3. Media’s Information Power and “Leaking”

Timestamps: 22:33–23:35

• Pablo highlights how “newsbreakers” like Schefter/Woj wield tremendous power—every GM or executive leaks info to the media at some point.
  • “Do you think there’s a person who runs a team who does not leak to somebody?...Mina’s pantomiming zero.” —Pablo (22:42)

4. Google, Inshittification, and the Search for Real Internet

Timestamps: 23:35–35:59

• Mina brings up the “inshittification of the Internet” (Kyle Chayka/New Yorker), focusing on how Google search quality has collapsed due to SEO pollution and AI junk, making it hard to find actual human-created resources.
  • “Google is an interesting one to me because…it really cohered with my personal experience of it.” —Mina (25:55)
• Everyone shares anxiety/frustration with modern tech monopolies, with Pablo summarizing:
  • “Now we’re at the stage of…all these companies are like, time to cash in. We have all the users captive…they’re deciding to make them worse.” —Pablo (28:44)

Reddit as the “Human Internet”

• Mina admits she’s now a “Redditor”—turning to Reddit for real, human discussions as other platforms become unusable.
  • “It is literally the only place where I can find good parenting advice.” —Mina (35:54)
• Dan and Pablo remain wary of Reddit’s “toxic corners,” but acknowledge it’s one of the few remaining places to find honest peer conversation online.

Standout Analogy

• Mina: “It was like the Internet used to be this incredible grocery store…now it’s just somebody chewing up gruel and spitting it into your mouth. That’s Twitter at least.” (34:29)

5. The “Raw Dogging” Flights Phenomenon—Digital Detox Anxiety

Timestamps: 36:42–44:36

• Dan introduces an article on “raw dogging flights”—men enduring long flights with no entertainment, phone, or stimulation (not what it sounds like, but they can’t not riff on the double entendre).
  • “It is an unpleasant verb…” —Dan (36:42)
  • Pablo: “This is mostly a story…about how desperate people are to be off their phones and they’re looking for some sort of…excuse.” (38:18)
  • Mina: “It’s also a story that…went viral just because people like to say raw dogging.” (39:08)
• They reflect on their own inability to disconnect and the broader implications for creativity, attention span, and the craving for digital-free “white space.”
  • “Because we have so much distraction at our fingertips…it does render us incapable of certain types of thought and mental exploration.” —Mina (40:00)
  • Dan shares the rare relief felt upon finally having a day off and regaining time to think:
    • “The number of times I had the thought, ‘Oh my God, I have time to think’…was a revelation.” (44:02)
  • “I don’t have less time to think because I’m on TV for an hour…I have less time because I’m addicted to the Internet.” —Mina (44:36)

6. Closing: Therapy, Parenting, and Poop Talk

Timestamps: 46:31–49:17

• Reflections on their recurring digital addiction “therapy group” energy.
  • “We're perpetually in a therapy group that we've assembled about our cell phone addiction.” —Pablo (46:31)
• Parenting realness—“the shared triumph” of a baby finally pooping after four days becomes a metaphorical high-five moment in marriage.
  • “There is nothing like seeing the compacted feces of a baby after four days of not pooping. It is a geological survey…” —Pablo (47:44)
• Playful, self-deprecating closing on how Dan feels “judged” for wanting to connect over sad documentaries, while his friends avoid them.

Notable Quotes

• Dan Le Batard:
  • “I became the founder of a company so everyone could tell me no for things that I want.” (00:37)
  • “The people I know the most…only care about criticism when it comes from people they actually respect as authorities.” (09:59)
  • “Google also owns YouTube…They have an influence that is terrifying to me…My fears seem realized in the modern age when corporations are doing things like this.” (29:12)
• Mina Kimes:
  • “I straight up lie to him all the time.” (02:16)
  • “It does not correlate with success or intelligence…There are very successful GMs who I know for a fact see everything and read everything, and then there are ones who don’t.” (14:12)
  • “It is literally the only place where I can find good parenting advice.” [on Reddit] (35:54)
• Pablo Torre:
  • “The media, for all of its marginalization, still exists as such a boogeyman in the minds of people who seem to have everything else…” (15:52)
  • “Now we’re at the stage…all these companies are like, time to cash in…All of these things have become worse because they have a critical mass of users.” (28:44)
  • “I feel like we're pretty close to a world where there’s going to be some tech startup that is literally just trying to sell us our imagination back to us.” (45:32)

Memorable Moments

• Mina getting scammed by “license plate lookup” sites—spending $11 and still not getting answers, bemoaning how SEO and AI have ruined Google’s usability. (26:12–27:27)
• GM pantomimes Mina “crushing” his drafts on TV—demonstrating how wounds from criticism linger, even for powerful sports figures. (19:48–21:04)
• Extended, giggle-laden riffing on the phrase “raw dogging” as applied to air travel and the hazards of Dan invoking it incorrectly. (36:42–41:31)
• Poop as the great marital unifier. (47:44–48:13)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:27 — Group chat/lying about documentaries
• 05:20 — Listener voicemail: Do sports teams care about the media?
• 07:13 — NFL players, GMs, and their media diets
• 14:12 — Personalities (online vs. offline among execs)
• 20:19 — Mina’s “crushing GM draft” encounter
• 23:35 — Google, SEO, and the broken search internet
• 25:55 — Inshittification of the internet (New Yorker article)
• 30:55 — The rise of Reddit for “human” information
• 36:42 — “Raw dogging” flights and digital detox
• 40:00 — Digital distraction’s impact on thought and creativity
• 44:36 — Modern life, internet addiction, and struggle to think
• 46:31 — Therapy/parenting/poop talk wrap-up

Summary Tone

• Conversational, self-aware, and constantly oscillating between irony, candor, and mockery (both self and others).
• Mix of social commentary, personal anecdote, and inside jokes, with Mina, Dan, and Pablo gently trolling each other at every opportunity.

Recommended For

• Fans of sharp, pop-culture-meets-sports commentary
• Listeners interested in the inner workings of sports media
• Anyone wrestling with attention, creativity, and digital life in 2024

Skip for ads, stay for the confessions, and be prepared to laugh (and maybe cringe) at just how much we’re all, as Pablo says, “a version of Kevin Durant… unusually online.”