Culture · Satire
ORLANDO — Local podcast 'The Deep Dive with Derek and Chad' celebrated a milestone Thursday with the release of its 400th episode, extending the show's record-setting streak of never once, in approximately 600 hours of recorded audio, arriving at a point.
The episode, titled 'Episode 400!!! (Big One) (Part 1),' runs two hours and forty minutes and covers, per its own description, 'everything.' Independent listeners confirm it covers the following: eleven minutes on whether the microphones sound different, a birthday shout-out to a listener neither host can fully remember, twenty minutes on a movie neither has finished, a segment called 'Chad's Corner' that Derek talks through, and a discussion of the show's origins that contradicts the version told in episodes 100, 200, and 250.
'People ask what the show is about,' said Derek Kowalski, 34, from the podcast's studio, a converted garage with acoustic foam on three of the four walls. 'And honestly, that's the beauty. It's about the hang. You're not here for information. If you learn something, that's on us, and we apologize — we try to catch that in editing.' The show is not edited.
The podcast's structure, insofar as one exists, has been refined over six years into what the hosts call 'organic flow.' Episodes open with 25 minutes of pre-show banter about the banter from the previous episode. The main topic, when scheduled, is introduced around the 50-minute mark with the phrase 'okay, we should actually get into it,' which researchers have logged an average of 4.2 times per episode, each occurrence followed by a tangent. Episode 311 contains the phrase nine times and never gets into it. Fans regard 311 as a classic.
The show's audience — measured at 'a couple thousand, probably' by Chad Brennaman, 35, who handles 'the analytics side' — is small but devout. 'I've listened since episode 12,' said listener Maria Delgado. 'I put it on while cleaning. It's like having two guys in your kitchen who will never stop talking but also never need anything from you. Last week Derek spent fifteen minutes explaining a bracket he made ranking sandwiches, and the bracket had a bye week. A sandwich got a bye. I had to pull over. I wasn't driving. I had to pull over anyway.'
Against all economic logic, the show has attracted sponsors, and the hosts' ad reads have become their most celebrated segments. A 30-second spot for a mattress company in episode 388 ran nine minutes after Derek raised, mid-read, the question of whether sleep is 'kind of a scam.' The mattress company renewed. 'Their engagement numbers are insane,' the brand's marketing director confirmed. 'We don't understand it. Our agency doesn't understand it. We've stopped asking. We just send the check and the promo code, and the promo code is wrong about half the time, and honestly the wrongness performs.'
Podcast industry analysts say The Deep Dive represents the medium in its purest form. 'Radio had gatekeepers, time slots, formats — everything conspired to force a point,' said media researcher Dr. Alan Petrocelli. 'Podcasting removed every constraint, and shows like this are the result: pure, uncut conversation, aging like wine in a barrel that will never be opened. It is the sound of two friendships being maintained in public. Whether that's content is a philosophical question. It's certainly 600 hours.'
As for the future, the hosts have plans, loosely held. A live show has been 'in the works' since episode 190. A second podcast, for 'the more focused stuff,' was launched in 2023, ran two episodes, and is 'on hiatus.' Episode 400 (Part 2) is expected next week, unless it becomes Parts 2 and 3, which Derek estimated at 'fifty-fifty, honestly, we'll feel it out.'
'Legacy-wise, I think about it like this,' Chad offered near the end of the milestone episode, in what listeners briefly mistook for the arrival of a point. 'Four hundred episodes. That's more episodes than most shows that are good. Wait, that came out wrong. Or did it? Okay, we should actually get into it.' They did not get into it.