The Carolina Panthers broke another podcast.
MeowMix: A Carolina Panthers Podcast announced this week it’s going on an indefinite hiatus after six years of covering the team. Hosts Stephen Costner and Jerry Dempster said watching the Panthers has become too painful to justify the time away from their families.
“Unfortunately, the last three seasons in particular have been extremely difficult as Panthers fans, and creating the type of content we enjoy has not been as exciting or enjoyable,” the hosts wrote in their statement. “The amount of time on Sundays that we spend away from our wives and young children has become difficult to justify.”
The final straw was apparently a 42-13 beatdown at the hands of Drake Maye and the New England Patriots.
“We would be watching the games regardless, but locking ourselves away for 6-7 hours on a Sunday just to watch, and then discuss, a 42-13 ass whipping has become more of a chore than anything else,” they continued. “We don’t feel it’s right to keep the podcast going unless we can continue to put out weekly episodes, and right now neither of us wants to spend that amount of time talking about this organization.”
Podcast announcement: pic.twitter.com/tW3Wpzxc9v
— MeowMix: A Carolina Panthers Podcast (@MeowMixPodcast) October 2, 2025
MeowMix launched in July 2019 and built what the hosts described as a “small but amazing community” around their straightforward approach to covering the Panthers. The podcast required several hours of weekly work between watching film, outlining shows, recording, editing, and general planning.
But the Panthers — and David Tepper — have made that investment impossible to sustain.
Since buying the team in 2018, Tepper has cycled through six head coaches and will probably hire a seventh after this season ends. Tepper’s ownership has been a constant source of controversy. He threw a drink at a Jaguars fan and took days to apologize. He removed a restaurant employee’s hat after the bar put up a sign criticizing his draft interference. He raised ticket prices by 4% after a 2-15 season. Charlotte Observer columnist Scott Fowler has been frozen out of press conferences after writing columns critical of the owner.
The on-field product has been equally grim. Former coaches and analysts have piled on. Jimmy Johnson blamed Tepper for the franchise’s dysfunction, saying the owner needs to “quit playing fantasy football.” David Samson said Tepper made the Marlins ownership group “look good.” Even Chris Russo went nuclear over the ticket price increase, saying Tepper should give games away for free after that kind of season.
The Panthers haven’t had a winning record since 2017. They’ve won more than five games just twice in the past seven seasons.
Costner and Dempster made clear they’re not abandoning the team. They’ll still watch games and cheer for the Panthers. They just won’t be podcasting about it.
“To be clear, we are not abandoning the Panthers or the fandom,” they wrote. “We bleed black and blue and desperately want this team to be competitive. We will just be cheering the team on as fans for the rest of the season instead of podcasters.”
The hosts left the door open for occasional episodes but said they won’t upload on a regular schedule for the remainder of the 2025 season. Whether they return depends on whether the Panthers give them something worth talking about again.