Deep Dive Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Today's guest is about as close to Iowa football royalty as you can get without having a statue outside Kinnick Stadium.  Our guest is a former Hawkeye quarterback and became one of the most accomplished athletes in Iowa history, leading the Hawkeyes to three consecutive bowl games and made two Rose Bowl appearances.  He has the distinction of becoming the first college footb...

Send us Fan Mail Here in Eastern Iowa, there are restaurants you go to because you're hungry, and there are restaurants you go to because you want to be part of an experience. And today's guest is the co-owner of a place that checks both of those boxes. Since opening in 1988, the Wigan Pin has become a culinary landmark, a gathering place for coaches, community leaders, Hawkeye royalty,...

Send us Fan Mail - 1970's Halloween Costumes, the End of the Positive Hobo Imagery - Theee Old Ghost Costume Switch-A-Roooo - Expanded Cable Caused Costume Confusion (The Cautionary Tale of Haves & Have Nots) - Hard Plastic Tongue Guillotine - The Rise of the Pumpkin Carving Kit And The Evil Do'ers That Use Them - The Quiet Death of the Coveted Carmel Apple (Stupid Razor Blade Rumor...

Send us Fan Mail It's a BYE week for the boys, so we're going to take an "Encore Dive" with Iowa football coach Tim Lester.  Tim Talks about playing Little League baseball with Matt Bowen, having dinner with Chicago Bear great Jim McMahon, and his practice of "Winning Behaviors".  So please enjoy our "Encore Dive" episode with Iowa football coach Tim Lester....

Send us Fan Mail - Murphy Quint tells us what we should be looking for when you're doing a formal whiskey tasting.  - Murphy discusses goes into being a master blender. - We're talk about what makes whiskeys taste different and what you can expect if you were to get a bottle of Irish whiskey versus a bottle of rye versus a bottle of scotch versus a bottle of bourbon.  - Murphy walks us t...

Send us Fan Mail The boys take a trip to Cedar Ridge Distillery, Iowa's oldest continually operating distillery. Cedar Ridge was the first distillery to open in the state after Prohibition, and one of the most decorated distilleries in the country. You can communicate with us at deepdivepod2025@gmail.com or be part of the Deep Dive Community in our Facebook Group Deep Dive Podcast https://www...

Send us Fan Mail This week the boys discuss downtown Iowa City during a home football weekend, the beer band, and going to the Dublin Underground Bar.  They also talk about their field trip to Baxa's Tavern and American Legion Post in Solon Iowa. Lastly they talk about eating Godfather's Pizza after 20 years and end with a speed round of what restaurants of our past are closed and possib...

Send us Fan Mail This week the boys catch up after the big Iowa vs. Iowa State football game. They discuss experiencing a Malört Spritzer. They then close with talking about a fieldtrip  to LD's Corner & Truman's KC, both in Des Moines, Iowa. The speedround challenges Brad & John on their knowledge of varieties of apples. #DesMoines #DiveBars #Iowa #IowaState #Tailgate #ISU #Malo...

Send us Fan Mail Dan McCarney has had a historic career in college football. He's been a player, a coach, a head coach, a program builder, a mentor, and a pretty funny story teller. His coaching career has taken him from Iowa City to Wisconsin, Iowa State, Florida, and North Texas. He's coached in national championship games, taken teams to bowl games after many seasons of loosing, and s...

Send us Fan Mail Today's guest is part of a highly successful food, beverage, and hospitality partnership that has been credited in helping transform the Des Moines bar and restaurant scene. His "destination" restaurants/bars aren't exactly your traditional Iowa Supper Club story. We're talking about a group responsible for places like Fong's Pizza, Mullets, and El Ba...

Send us Fan Mail Today's guest is part of a highly successful food, beverage, and hospitality partnership that has been credited in helping transform the Des Moines bar and restaurant scene. His "destination" restaurants/bars aren't exactly your traditional Iowa Supper Club story. We're talking about a group responsible for places like Fong's Pizza, Mullets, and El Ba...

Send us Fan Mail Craig Cermak is back to discuss the vehicles of television and cenima of the 1970's and 1980's.  Bigfoot Monster Truck, Ghostbuster Ecto 1, and the A-Team Van are covered in this episode.  Craig's encyclopedic knowledge of vehicles ....... including German Boat-Cars are absolutely amazing...... let us know if there are any vehiles you would like to hear Craig discus...

Send us Fan Mail This week, we celebrate ONE YEAR of the Deep Dive Podcast! 🎉 To mark the occasion, we’re taking a look back at some of the memorable moments, stories, guests, laughs, and questionable decisions from our first year in the Deep Dive. For our newer Deep Divers, it’s a great way to discover some of the content you may have missed along the way. And for the old, varnished Deep Divers...

Send us Fan Mail From the football fields of Ottumwa, Iowa, to the sidelines of college football's biggest stages, Chris Ash has built one of the most impressive coaching résumés in the game. In a remarkably short period of time, he's worked alongside some of the sport's most respected minds—including Urban Meyer , Barry Alvarez , Bret Bielema , Steve Sarkisian , and Marcus Freeman...

Send us Fan Mail Brad, John, and Tab rehash memories the 2026 Riding of the Idiots, ( Ragbrai 2026 ). - Brad Becomes Deputy in Dunlap Iowa - We visit Jan Jensen's family bar in Kimbleton Iowa - Riding the High Trestle Bridge Trail - Brad and Tab Exists In Parallel Universe  - The absolutely amazing The Dig Inn in Reinbeck Iowa - Team Solid is late for the party and the reek of disappointment ...

Send us Fan Mail The road to becoming the offensive coordinator at the University of Iowa doesn't usually begin in a high school math classroom. But then again, Tim Lester has never taken the usual path. Before joining the Hawkeyes, Lester's football journey wound through just about every level of the game imaginable. He starred as one of the most prolific quarterbacks in Western Michiga...

Send us Fan Mail Deep Dive: RAGBRAI with Ride Director Matt Phippen Iowa's biggest summer tradition is 13 days out, and we sat down with the man steering it all. Matt Phippen has served as RAGBRAI Ride Director since January 2022, guiding what's known as the oldest, longest, and largest recreational bicycle touring event in the world across the state each July. This will be his fifth rid...

Send us Fan Mail Gen X dads are the generation that found themselves standing right in the middle of two very different worlds. They were raised by Boomer dads who could fix almost anything, who kept a coffee can full of random screws and bolts in the garage, read paper maps, and wrote down their own directions before a family vacation. These were the dads who believed a little trial and error, a...

Send us Fan Mail For most fans, Jan Jensen is known as one of the most accomplished figures in women's basketball history—a six-on-six scoring sensation from Kimballton, Iowa, an NCAA scoring champion at Drake, a professional player in Europe, and now the head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes. But in our latest podcast episode, we go beyond the résumé and the record books to explore the person behi...

Send us Fan Mail This week Brad shares a compelling story about  a project he took on a bit outside his comfort zone: building a vintage bicycle from the frame up despite openly admitting he is “the farthest thing from mechanical.”  We talk about concession stand food programs, and we enjoy Irish Whiskey poured out of a golden ostrich head. #Shankyswhip #cutwater  You can communicate with us at de...

Send us Fan Mail Hey all you Deep Divers, we are trying a different format this week to see how it sounds.  We’re thinking about calling these Playlist Shows, where we take a topic, pair it with some music that’s important to us, and then discuss why the two are connected in our memory.   But here’s the cool part.  If you are a member of our Facebook Group “ Deep Dive Podcast “ you can contribute...

Send us Fan Mail A fan requested we pick Gen X related topics out of a bowl and discuss off the top of our heads to see just how smart we are........ the answer turned out to be what you would expect....... not very. The guys kick things off with sardines straight from a Lisbon tin fish restaurant before diving headfirst into the nostalgia that defined growing up Gen X in the Midwest. From a rave...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we sit down with acclaimed blues musician Kevin Burt, a performer whose powerful voice and authentic storytelling have earned him recognition across the United States and beyond. A true road warrior, Kevin performs hundreds of shows each year, captivating audiences with a soulful sound that has drawn comparisons to legendary artists such as Bill Withers and Aaron...

Send us Fan Mail  There are seasons that are etched themselves into the identity of college football programs and serve as a vantage point where historians can say before this team and after this team, and every fan would agree. For the Iowa Hawkeyes, the 1985 Hawkeyes were just that season. Ten wins, a Big Ten championship, five weeks ranked as number one in the nation, a Rose Bowl berth, and a w...

Send us Fan Mail Back before Google could settle an argument in three seconds, and before your phone knew more than your high school history teacher, a couple of Canadians in 1979 looked at a scrabble board, ran out of tiles, and said, You know what???? This world needs more useless knowledge. And just like that, Trivia Pursuit was born. A game that turned random facts into social currency, ruined...