It takes a lot to “break the internet” in 2025, if that’s even possible anymore. But Pablo Torre did just that with his Pablo Torre Finds Out episode on Bill Belichick, Jordon Hudson, and the most bizarre relationship to hit the sports world since Rush Limbaugh was appearing on Sunday NFL Countdown. And it represents a line in the sand for sports journalism’s past, present, and future.
In times of old when rotary phones ruled the telecommunications world, a dramatic, thorough, well-reported exposé like this would have been published in Sports Illustrated or a similar publication as a cover story. In the age of the flip phone, we may have seen it get the featured panel on ESPN.com and some well-placed television coverage.
But in 2025, this huge piece of sports journalism was revealed to the world not via print or an online article but on a podcast.
Podcasts rule the world
As Matthew Zeitlin observed while quote-tweeting praise of Torre from Derek Thompson (one of the most talked about current authors thanks to his work Abundance), it may serve as a template for what will come in the media world.
not to get all future of journalism-y but this is probably the future of magazine style reporting. torre basically reported a magazine feature (11 sources!) about jordon hudson and presented as a “gabbing about stuff” podcast episode https://t.co/qgOlq3G8iK
— Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin) May 9, 2025
Pablo Torre talked to 11 sources for his podcast, which contained details ranging from Hudson’s strange cameo in a Super Bowl commercial with Belichick to his reporting that she was no longer welcome at UNC football facilities and why there is so much mystery around how they first met. Those are just a few of the wild revelations that brought a tidal wave of new reporting to the Belichick-Hudson dynamic that has had everyone looking on with a mix of awe, bewilderment, and horror.
Immediately, Torre’s reporting spread like wildfire just from the clips that were shared on his show’s social media account. Even before people had time to listen to the full episode, the clips collected millions of views, shares, and reshares. And has been proven by the continual fallout, it has become the definitive narrative of the Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson story.
Torre is a hugely respected figure in the sports media world, with time spent at ESPN and even recently guest-hosting Morning Joe on MSNBC. His podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out, has quickly made a name for itself as a must-listen for its unique ability to report and share stories. Last year, the podcast won a Murrow Award for sports journalism, and this year it received a Peabody nomination. There aren’t too many shows in the podcast genre or any other that can claim that kind of bonafide.
Sports journalism as unboxing videos
So it’s fascinating when Torre takes everyone behind the scenes in a Substack post detailing the ins and outs of the Belichick episode and compares it to unboxing videos on YouTube from small children as an example of the future of sports journalism.
The question then became how to break the information I’d been gathering. And something I’ve been thinking very hard about, since launching PTFO less than two years ago, is a YouTube genre known as the unboxing video.
The basic premise of the unboxing video is so simple that the what, most often, is literal children’s toys. But what makes the premise so darkly effective, to me, is the clear human pleasure of watching someone else react to an authentic surprise.
So I started thinking about how this lesson could now apply to the conventional precepts of journalism, in general. I got here by climbing the ladder of print magazines, starting off as a fact-checker at Sports Illustrated. And that pleasure of surprise, I realized, felt more than familiar. Because what is opening a genuinely great magazine if not unboxing a package of stories?
But the issue, here in the 2020s, is that journalism means video/audio. Not print.
Which is why my approach, while building PTFO, has instead been to build the digital evolution of a television (news magazine) show. Where we teach our staff to turn video/audio conversations into mystery boxes: full of original, serious, high-value reporting… that then gets presented to recurring Friends of PTFO — like Katie Nolan and Michael Cruz Kayne — who then get to play with the news.
As Torre said in the press release regarding the Peabody nomination, “Our show uses journalism to solve mysteries.” Isn’t that what journalism is supposed to do, regardless of the format?
But how do the unsolved mysteries of sports journalism resonate in 2025? That’s the trick that nearly every outlet and every media company are trying to figure out in real-time. And how does it relate to children’s YouTube videos?
Sources tell @PabloTorre that Bill Belichick’s girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, is now banned from UNC’s football facility.
One Belichick family source adds: “There is deep worry for how detrimental Jordon can be for not just North Carolina but Bill’s legacy, reputation — everything… pic.twitter.com/59xQQtqyc0
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) May 9, 2025
In one sense, it’s a question of consumer interests. Podcasts are taking over the world while magazines are dying. So go where the audience is and will be, not where they used to be.
But the PTFO episode on Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson wasn’t Serial. It featured heavy amounts of laughs and banter, thanks to Katie Nolan and Michael Cruz Kayne appearing with Torre and reacting in real-time to the news that he was revealing on the 49-minute episode.
This is where the unboxing part comes in.
The dopamine of sports journalism
One of the best explanations for modern media and how society has been transformed at large comes from Derek Thompson in a podcast. It’s summarized neatly in this social media post, where he talks about the present-day world being a “dopamine culture” built on rushes of adrenaline and award-seeking behavior. It explains everything from the rise of TikTok to the dominance of loot boxes in video games.
In short, life is just one big casino, and we are all just junkies for the next pull of the lever.
New pod: The rise of “dopamine culture” and the decline of pop culture in America
First, I discuss the Ted Gioa’s argument that pop culture is being turned into a virtual casino of the mind that is better at producing reward-seeking behavior than quality art.
Then, I talk to… pic.twitter.com/DO3NzS49d0
— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) May 9, 2025
While sitting down and listening to a nearly 50-minute podcast doesn’t exactly strike you as being a rush of dopamine, the real-time reactions of Nolan and Cruz Kayne certainly are, as is the step-by-step reveals of nuggets of breaking news. Jordon Hudson demanded a commercial! People call her a sociopath! She’s banned from the facility! She may have been 19 when she met Bill Belichick! Interspersed in all of these reveals are enough laughter, jokes, and personal interactions to bring the listener along for the roller coaster ride of revelation.
You’re just not going to get that same experience turning the pages of a magazine article or even scrolling on your phone. You’re not even getting it in simply retelling facts or reporting*. This* unboxing style of sports journalism is brand new because it’s built to be dynamic, and it’s built to respond to the impulses of the modern day.
A pathway for the future?
Pablo Torre has this incredible outlet through his podcast and Meadowlark Media, which allows him the space and freedom to shine in this format. However, the episode itself has just shy of 100k views on YouTube. Yes, it’s multiples higher than other episodes on the channel, but still far short of what various clips, quotes, and aggregations have drawn. Pablo Torre Finds Out is currently #27 on the Spotify Sports Podcast Rankings, even behind fellow Meadowlark contributor David Samson.
But maybe that’s just fine for now because the reach of Torre’s reporting has gone wider and farther than any sports reporting in recent memory, at least during the calendar year so far.
Untold amounts of dollars have flowed into sports podcasts in recent years. However, even those seem to be drying up, as evidenced by Dan Le Batard’s open discussion of the winding down of the Meadowlark Media DraftKings deal.
The major question moving forward is whether or not the numbers behind this kind of sports journalism through the podcast realm are enough to get advertisers to bite and invest in this kind of dynamic storytelling. There may not be unlimited amounts of money as there once was, but at least we know for sure there is still way more investment in podcasts than there is in written sports journalism in 2025.
The success and relevancy of Pablo Torre Finds Out will definitely encourage other outlets to try their hand at similar efforts. And for now, they are certainly the best chance the industry has at making the connections that they once did in simpler times.