PHILADELPHIA—In a move industry analysts called "commercially baffling," The Boring History Podcast released its first episode this week: a nearly hour-long look at where life came from, which opens by explaining that the soup was never the whole recipe.

"Most shows spend the first 20 minutes on how everyone's weekend went," said Lorna Fitch, a podcast growth consultant. "This one starts with a meteorite. Nobody laughs at anything. There isn't a single mattress."

The episode, "Before Anything Was Alive (Soup to Us, Part 1)," lays out seven different answers to the question before it gets to the chemistry. Fitch said that breaks the industry's longstanding rule that every episode must pick a side in the first 90 seconds and then sell supplements to whoever agrees.

Producers confirmed the show has no cliffhanger cold open, no "but first, a word from our sponsors," and no moment where a host says "that's crazy" about something that is not crazy.

Its closing minutes warn listeners that the show "will be less exciting than you are hoping," which Fitch called "the most honest sentence in audio since radio."

Several networks have sent suggestions. They include adding a second host to interrupt the first, retitling the episode "You Won't BELIEVE What Was In The Soup," and cutting it into 41 vertical clips.

At press time, a network executive had listened to the entire episode, which colleagues described as a first for the industry.

The episode is available, for those who want it, at boringhistorypodcast.com.