Podcast Summary: The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

Episode: Hour 1: The Little Doubt Monster (feat. Elle Duncan)
Date: January 29, 2026
Setting: Elser Hotel, Downtown Miami
Main Guests: Elle Duncan

Episode Overview

This episode explores the mental and emotional dynamics of high-stress live sports broadcasting, personal transitions in sports media careers, and the ethics of televising risky stunts. Featured guest Elle Duncan (recently transitioned from ESPN to Netflix and more) recounts her experience as the lead host at the Netflix live broadcast of "Skyscraper Live" (Alex Honnold’s skyscraper climb). The hosts and Elle dive into topics ranging from anxiety and professional reinvention to the unique moral calculus that surrounds “must-watch” death-defying televised events and the workplace tolls in high-level media. Interwoven are signature show tangents on pop culture, sports pain thresholds, and TV favorites.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Televising Danger: The Anxiety of Broadcast

• The team reacts to the rise of ultra-risky live events, such as Alex Honnold’s free solo skyscraper climb, and how these broadcasts push the boundaries of human fascination and queasiness.
• Tony admits that watching daredevils fills him with anxiety and doubts about the ethics of "must-watch" live danger:
  “Watching others do that makes me queasy. It seems flippant about life.” (00:23)
• Jeremy and Chris Cody joke about the learning curve/dangers in extreme sports:
  “Let’s try that for the first time.” (00:43)

Elle Duncan Recounts Receiving the “Death Card”

• Elle details the surreal moment five minutes before “Skyscraper Live” when producers handed her a card with prepared remarks in case Honnold fell to his death:
  Elle Duncan:
  “It was the first time that someone, five minutes before broadcast, handed me a card that was like, if this person falls off the building, here’s what you're gonna say, and then we’re gonna get off air.” (32:38)
• The show’s hosts and Elle discuss the EMOTIONAL toll and ethical complexity of narrating such events live, with the ever-present “little doubt monster" (her term) of what if?

2. Inside the Mind of a High-Pressure Host

Elle’s Career Change and Its Emotional Fallout

• Elle candidly shares why she left ESPN—the comfort of familiarity and a heavy workload—for Netflix’s new creative freedom (30 workdays a year vs. 250 at ESPN):
  Elle Duncan:
  “There was definitely that little doubt monster that was like, you know, you could work here forever and be fine… But Netflix was just giving me sort of all the things that I had been asking for in the universe, which was more time with my family, more time to sit and just be a creative…” (27:49)
• She describes the corporate/media culture at ESPN as “feeding the addiction” of workaholics:
  “If you are a workaholic, [ESPN] will feed your addiction, right? ...ESPN tried their best…but it netted out at about 250 days a year. And Netflix was 30.” (30:01)

Anxiety, Self-Criticism & Growth

• Despite confident on-air presence, Elle reveals high-functioning anxiety and moments of panic off camera:
  “I’m a high-functioning anxious person…It’s honestly what sent me to therapy…giving me panic attacks a couple years ago…” (31:42)
• After “Skyscraper Live,” Elle was self-critical upon review, admitting she was “at a ten” (adrenaline/anxiety) for the entire show:
  “When I went back and watched it, I was like, oh man. I started out ten, and then I just stayed at a ten…” (32:38)
• She discusses the delicate balance between “being hard on myself” and taking real feedback when trying new things, especially when social media criticism is involved:
  “You’re never as good as they say you are...never as bad as they say you are.” (38:04)

3. Sports Pain Threshold: How Much Are We Willing to Sacrifice for Glory? (07:00–10:55)

• Dan leads a deeper conversation about the cost of glory in sports—“the price of pain” for athletes. The crew considers the normalcy of injuries in football and contrasts emotional and physical pain. “Do you ever think at all about what you would trade in terms of pain in order to have those things that just about everybody wants?” (08:49)

• They compare Alex Honnold’s (reported $500,000) payday for the climb to other sports salaries—and acknowledge that these daredevils think about consequences differently than “the rest of us.”

• Chris Cody humorously admits:
  “I did spring football and I was like, this hurts. My coach sucks. I’m out.” (10:12)

4. Pop-Culture Tangents: TV’s Most Rewatchable Shows (14:42–19:00, 20:43–23:59)

• The crew debates the most "rewatchable" TV, bouncing among The Sopranos, Seinfeld, The Office, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Modern Family, and others.
  • Tony:
    “…there's been in my lifetime a more rewatchable show than The Sopranos. It's just very easy to check in at any point.” (14:43–16:26)
  • Elle Duncan:
    “I think for me, the best rewatch was The Office…they live individually, but then…you watch…a long narrative, Michael falls in love, then falls out of love…” (18:23)
• Zaslo confesses watching The Sopranos as an adult made him realize "Tony Soprano was a real piece of..."
  “…watching it now again, I guess because I’m 20 years older and like, I’m a real grown up. He is a really, really bad person.” (18:01)
• Hilarious aside: Elle calls Chris Cody “Greg” by mistake, to everyone’s amusement. (26:26–26:37)

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• Elle Duncan on The “Death Card”:
  “It literally was like...‘We’ve experienced a fall and so we’re going to cut the livestream right now and we’ll update you as soon as we can on Alex’s condition.’” (35:21)

• Elle on never having done anything quite like Skyscraper Live:
  “It’s not like anything I’ve ever done...There were real implications of death, like true ones. It was the first time… someone, five minutes before broadcast, handed me a card…” (32:38)

• Dan on physical pain in sports:
  “…just very simply, you’re making a tackle and your hand gets caught between helmets…All their fingers are, like, sideways. They can’t hold change…That happens all the time in football.” (07:00–08:49)

• Elle on her career jump:
  “Netflix was just giving me sort of all the things that I had been asking for in the universe…” (27:49)

• Tony summarizing the ESPN/Netflix work contrast:
  “…it netted out at about 250 days a year. And Netflix was 30. Yeah, like absurd.” (31:10)

• Elle on being her own harshest critic:
  “…as I’m moving into a stage where I’m going to be trying new things, I have to give myself real feedback...” (38:41)

Timestamps — Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:07 | Opening banter about danger in extreme sports | | 02:17 | The tension/anxiety of televised daredevil acts (“death card”) | | 05:48 | Dan interviews Darren Waller on football pain/career difficulties | | 07:00 | Discussion: the cost of physical and emotional pain for glory | | 14:42 | Debate: TV’s most rewatchable shows (Sopranos, Seinfeld, etc.) | | 27:49 | Elle Duncan on leaving ESPN for Netflix and “the little doubt monster” | | 30:01 | Workaholic culture at ESPN and the math of work-life balance | | 31:42 | Elle’s anxiety, panic attacks, and approach to feedback | | 32:38 | The surreal preparations for Skyscraper Live and live-event anxiety | | 35:21 | Elle reads the “death card”—what to say if disaster struck | | 41:31 | Behind-the-scenes: insuring live stunts (Lloyd’s of London!) | | 42:01 | Elle’s second most nerve-wracking moment as broadcaster |

Flow & Tone

• Informal, self-deprecating, honest. There’s always a blend of sports gravitas, gallows humor, and vulnerable reflection with Dan, Stugotz, and Elle.
• The group often pivots quickly between life-or-death stakes, pop culture, and wrestling nostalgia—lacing genuine insight with comic relief.

Conclusion

This episode offers a rare look into the emotional mechanics and ethical ambiguities behind live sports broadcasting—especially when literal lives hang in the balance. Elle Duncan’s candor about career risk, anxiety, and vulnerability, plus the crew’s own confessions about fear, ambition, and the things we do (or watch) for glory, make for a nuanced, empathetic, and often funny hour.

“I have the spine for this, Dan. Which is the only reason that I'm willing to put myself in a position to keep trying things I’ve never done before and seeing if I’m any good.”
— Elle Duncan (39:15)