The process of preparing for a new episode of Nothing Personal takes place throughout the day, and it involves consistently reading newsletters, articles and social media posts. David Samson, the host of the digital program over parts of the last six years, admits that it has impacted his life in a significant manner and is essentially unable to put his phone down. Samson engages in several conversations per day with show producer Matthew Coca, exchanging messages delineating salient topics that could provide strong points of discussion.
The proprietary discussions and platform Samson has built represents a legitimate proclivity he considers healthy, and the audience has responded accordingly with robust engagement and show contributions. Safeguarding against being caught in a proverbial echo chamber hosting solo, he has been able to showcase his personality and multifaceted expertise with an adept blend of conveying information and entertainment. With more than 240 shows a year composed of insightful monologues, sit-down interviews and emergency episodes, the interminable content flow demonstrates palpable value as Samson’s contract with Meadowlark Media expires at the end of March.
“At a time when sports business is booming, people want and are looking for experts in sports business, and to be an expert, it’s not about being a journalist or being a breaker of news,” Samson said. “It’s about someone who’s actually done it, who’s willing to talk about it, and who’s not running back into the business that they’re talking about.”
Samson hosts Nothing Personal live on weekdays at 8 a.m. EST, and he respects the time his audience invests into viewing the program. The show seeks to enrich its listeners through offering candid opinions and logic accumulated through years of experience in sports business, a distinctive forum amid a maelstrom of content disseminated to mass media verticals.
Although the show has resonated with viewers, he understands that there are instances where viewers will not agree with everything he has articulated, but he hopes that they will appreciate his viewpoints nonetheless. Armed with thick skin and an analytical cognitive approach, Samson does not believe any complimentary or pejorative rhetoric about him and brings authentic confidence and conviction to the digital airwaves.
“Honesty’s always been my brand in terms of I tell people what I’m thinking and how it’s going to be,” Samson said, “Even if they don’t want to hear it, they respect the fact that I’m going to say it, and if you ask a lot of my former players, they agree.”
As the former team president of the Miami Marlins, Samson was responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations, personnel matters and other business ventures within the organization, such as securing a public and private sector partnership to construct loanDepot Park. Yet at the same time, he made appearances on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz giving movie reviews and talking about issues in sports. With inherent comfort around cameras and microphones, Samson always knew the implications of his discourse, and there were times when he used it to his advantage. Many people in the industry listen to Samson’s show, and he estimates to be contacted at least three times a week from people incredulous about some of his takes.
“I simply have said to everybody that the one thing I promise never to do is to lie to my audience,” Samson said. “All I’m telling them is the truth as I have lived it, as I’ve experienced it and as I know it to be because I’ve been in your shoes. I’ve done press releases that I know are misleading. I’ve spoken to the media about injuries or about performance or about revenue or about money in ways that I knew were misleading but were necessary from a P.R. standpoint.”
While he is staunch in his opinions, Samson is receptive to feedback pertaining to his performance and most values those who provide their assessment free of an agenda. In working with Le Batard, who is the co-founder of Meadowlark Media, he has received salient advice surrounding his media ventures while understanding how he can effectively illuminate different parts of his persona depending on the show. For example, Samson portrays separate characters when appearing as a guest on Le Batard’s program compared to hosting Nothing Personal, but there is no fictitious or contrived part of the implementation. Le Batard grants Samson the freedom to act in this manner, catalyzing riveting discussion and buoyant repartee.
“People view Dan as an on-air talent,” Samson said. “What people don’t realize is Dan may have the best ear for content of anyone I’ve ever come across. He likely is a better producer than he is on-air talent.”
Leaning into the idiosyncrasies of sports and personality has facilitated the growth of Meadowlark Media amid the content ecosystem, and the startup company has established a dedicated legion of fans continuously displaying palpable growth potential. Samson avers that he owes it to the audience to be true to himself while also recognizing that some people are going to watch out of hate or disdain for the product. With immense credibility, a demonstrated track record and experience in the public eye, Samson is not afraid about being criticized and remains sincere in his cross-platform transmission.
“When I love something, I love it” Samson said. “When I don’t love it, I don’t. To me, it’s important to be genuine because so many of my competitors are doing hot takes where they don’t actually believe in what they’re saying.”
Samson has had a knack for business and negotiating from before his time in college, dating back to when his parents offered to buy him a car if he attended Tufts University despite wanting to matriculate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After spending freshman year at Tufts, he transferred to Wisconsin to study economics and his parents subsequently asked for the car back. In response, Samson pointed out how there was no stipulation stating that he needed to graduate from the institution and thus proved his point.
“I’ve always had my mouth behind my brain, so I know what I’m going to say before I say it,” Samson outlined. “The people who get in trouble with their mouths is when their mouth is ahead of their brain, and I’m lucky in that my brain is always ahead of my mouth, and especially through all of the cancel culture and all of the reckoning that has taken place, rightly so, where people are held responsible in a way they never were for what they say.”
After further nurturing his penchant for the spoken word at law school, Samson applied for a job with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office but ultimately fell short. Rather than loathing his misfortune, he took an entrepreneurial route and founded News Travels Fast, a business that delivered newspapers to Europe. While running the business, he met with Morgan Stanley Wealth Management managing director David Darst and learned of interest in having him join the company.
Upon the advent of the internet, Samson decided to take him up on his offer and started working on Wall Street until helping his then-stepfather Jeffrey Loria purchase and run the Montréal Expos. A few years later, Loria sold the Expos and subsequently purchased the then-Florida Marlins where Samson was oftentimes the front-facing organizational figure as team president.
“When my baseball career ended in a text alert from ESPN that I had been let go by Derek Jeter and the Marlins – it was not even a day – the day I got fired by the Marlins, I started calling different agencies to set up meetings because I wanted to get into media, I knew it immediately,” Samson said. “I didn’t know what it would look like, I didn’t know anything about podcasting. I only knew that I wanted to keep getting paid to talk.”
Samson owns the intellectual property and feed for Nothing Personal, granting him the license to explore his value in free agency and gauge interest from various enterprises. Although he knows how to make business deals, he utilizes assistance from his agent and perceives him to provide additional value for the show. Cognizant of what he knows and what he does not, he knows that working as a team will oftentimes lead to more auspicious outcomes. Furthermore, he is able to effectively distinguish settings since he works with his bosses content rather than simply yielding to them for managerial decisions or other oversight.
“Compartmentalizing is something that I’ve done, probably to my personal chagrin in that it impacts my personal life a lot, but my ability to be in a moment and understand the role of that moment is something I’m proud of,” Samson said. “And so with Dan, when we’re doing shows on the air, we are different than when we’re having a meeting off the air.”
When Samson was working in baseball, he considered ESPN chairman John Skipper to be one of his great nemeses. Skipper works as the co-founder and chief executive officer of Meadowlark Media, but he also co-hosts a biweekly show with Samson and Pablo Torre titled The Sporting Class where he discusses media, business and culture. Samson views this venture as an offshoot of Nothing Personal, and it has stood out in the ether through its blend of esoterica and mirth exploring the intricacies of the field. On top of that, the show has proved to be a compelling and enjoyable venture, hence why he continues to participate.
“With Skipper, you’re hearing about perspective as the president of a media company and the issues that I had as president of a team that did deals with media companies,” Samson said, “and any time you have differing sides with differing experience, that makes for an interesting show.”
Samson acknowledges that there are people in the sports business who listen to his programming worrying about what he will say next, something he decides to view as a compliment. As the industry continues to evolve, he is excited about how on-air talent are duly appreciated and compensated, along with the path to success if they are able to accrue a loyal audience. Samson has been flourishing in this venture, illustrating a direct correlation between effort and success and working to achieve optionality.
“I sort of measure success through addiction, and the more your audience is addicted, the more I am addicted and the more our addictions, which always has a pejorative connotation, but in this case, it’s an addiction that I crave, although, in theory, every addiction is what you crave,” Samson said, “but this is one that, for me, is healthy for myself and the audience and that the relationship we’ve built just gets stronger every single day.”
As Samson looks to move forward with Nothing Personal, he considers himself fortunate to have the platform and continuing to do work he is proud of on a daily basis. While Samson does not foresee a future in which he takes the audience or himself for granted, he would cease what he is doing if it proved to be the case. With the ability to control his destiny in media and continuing to broadcast en masse, he looks forward to continuing the daily grind and waiting to see the future.
“I’m lucky enough that I’m not an athlete where Father Time is going to win,” Samson said. “Father Time is not going to beat me. I can do this and have the energy to do this for 20 years minimum, and the reason I know is because my ex-father in law had a saying, ‘If you love what you do, you won’t work a day in your life.’ I never have a hard time getting out of bed – I never have a hard time. As a matter of fact, when the red light is on, it’s what I crave. It’s when I feel the best during the course of my day, and I see that never changing.”
Derek Futterman is a former associate editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. Find him on X @derekfutterman.
