PLANNING AND PREPARING OUR PODCASTS

ON YOUR OWN: Radio Rookies is a great Youtube channel to check out for more information on how to develop your Podcast.   National Public Radio's "Student Guide to Podcasts" is also an excellent site for ideas that help reinforce what we learned in class.

TODAY'S LESSON:
1) Interviews are a central ingredient in many podcasts.  What are effective interviewing techniques?  What is active listening and how does that play a role in follow up questions?  What is the difference between open-ended questions and closed-ended questions?  Which ones make for a better podcast?

2) Just like writers do before starting an essay, podcast producers typically make an outline or plan before they start recording and editing. They brainstorm how they want to turn their topic into an audio story. What components will they need: spoken stories, interviews, narration?  Use this Podcast Planner to prepare your podcast.

3) Usually, podcasts focus on one central question that frames the episode.  Listen to the clip below on how the podcasters work from an initial question.  If you like, you can read the transcript as you listen along to start of episode 538 of This American Life, which demonstrates this technique.

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What is the question this episode focuses on? What components do the producers use during this segment?

4) Once you have a plan, you need to get out and record your narration, stories and/or interviews.  You should also gather any additional sound files that you want to use.  Remember that it's best to use non-copyrighted sound effects and music, though there are some fair-use exceptions when you can legally use copyrighted work (such as when you are critiquing a song or reviewing a movie).  You can find royalty-free music and sound effects like those on Bensound and Freesound. 

5) Once you have everything, the last step is to use audio editing software (we used Audacity in class) to pull the pieces together into a final podcast, five minutes long or less.  Please remember that editing can be VERY time-consuming (so plan ahead).

6) Need some extra motivation?  Here is what one class in New York City did with all of their podcasts.