Internet personalities Daniel Howell and Phil Lester released their podcast “Hard Launch” on Oct. 16, following their relationship confirmation video where they spoke about parasocialism and forgiving the past to make way for new beginnings.
The confirmation video marks the end of years of speculation about the two’s relationship status and sexualities. In the video, the pair referenced how the speculation affected their relationships with others as well as each other. “This huge secret about who we are and what our status is makes every single day impossible,” Lester said.
Howell also talked about hiding parts of his identity. “There are certain things that are just basic facts about a person and their life and to avoid talking about it makes you seem completely weird,” he said.
In their first podcast episode titled “Do we regret revealing our relationship?” the pair talked about how their relationship confirmation video received a much bigger reaction than expected.
“You know when you’ve reached BBC News, it’s containment,” Howell quipped. The rest of the podcast is reminiscent of their other content where they share stories from their life. In this episode specifically, they discussed how they were propositioned by a potential sugar daddy earlier in their career, and how Howell doesn’t know how to do laundry.
They also introduced their “break in case of emergency” segment where they take a topic from a gacha machine if they go wildly off topic and need to realign themselves.
In the gacha machine, there are a number of safe topics for them to talk about and two balls containing something they have written that the other never wants to discuss at all costs. There will also be an opportunity in future episodes for fans to add topics to the machine through their Patreon.
In lieu of an ad, their new Patreon was plugged, where they will release bonus content to their YouTube channel. The Patreon will also support their main channel’s content, as their videos regularly get demonetized due to YouTube censorship, given they frequently talk about topics the company does not consider brand friendly.
The last segment introduced had fans sending them topics to “Hard Launch” on the podcast. The confessions are submitted through email to hardlaunchpodcast@gmail.com. “It could be anything, it doesn’t have to be a relationship,” Lester said.
Although the new podcast marks a rebrand in their joint channel, with them changing the name from “Dan and Phil Games” to just “Dan and Phil,” it also reflects back to an earlier time in their careers when “The Dan and Phil Show” was on BBC Radio 1, notably one of the first times internet personalities were given the opportunity to make something in the traditional media landscape.
They have also had their own live shows on YouNow where they would answer fan questions and talk to fans in a similar style to Twitch creators now. Although they would often join each other’s livestreams, they were solo projects unlike their current podcast.
Among their other YouTube content, they have also done several charity live streams. On Jan. 30, 2024, Lester’s birthday, they did a stream to raise money for the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund where they were able to raise over $100,000 for the charity. Later that same year on June 11, they did another stream for Howell’s birthday where they raised another $102,000 for the same charity. More recently, they participated in a Make a Wish UK charity live stream where they played a real life version of the game “Overcooked.”
Fan or not, this new era of “Dan and Phil” is bound to be interesting and garner much attention on X.
