Transcript - “Listening Time” Episode 124

Welcome to the Listening Time podcast. Hey everybody, this is Conner, and
you're listening to Episode 124 of the Listening Time podcast. Thank you all for
listening. I hope that your English learning is going great.
Today, in this episode, we're going to talk about something that's very relevant
to me, and some of you might be interested in this subject, which is how to make a
podcast. I think this is an interesting thing to talk about because I have a podcast, of
course, and I have some experience producing this podcast, and doing all the di erent
things that you need to do to have a podcast.
And so, I thought it would be interesting to talk a little bit about how I make this
podcast and the process that I go through. And if you want, you can take some of
these tips and put them into practice, and make your own podcast. I've actually had
some listeners ask me about this topic. They've asked me for advice and for
information on how to make a podcast. And nowadays, it seems like a lot of people are
interested in making podcasts. So, this might be something interesting for you.
So hopefully, this episode will be useful for some of you. And even if you're not
interested in making a podcast, this episode should still be interesting, because you
can learn about what I do to produce this show. And of course, it'll be good practice
for your listening, as always. So, that's what we'll talk about today.
And before we start, remember that my new podcast is available, US
Conversations, in which I talk to di erent Americans from di erent parts of the country,
and we have natural conversations about di erent topics. And of course, you have the
transcript and you have the de nitions of key words and phrases on that transcript. So,
if you're interested in that, make sure to click on the link in the Episode Description.
That's www.patreon.com/USConversations
And if you want my specialized training, my Listening Practice Seminars, to help
you understand native speakers when they speak fast, then make sure to join my
membership. The link is also in the Description. That's www.patreon.com/listeningtime
And if you like this podcast, please share it with anyone else you know who might nd
it useful. And please give it a ve-star rating and write a review. Alright, let's get
started.
Okay, let's talk about how to make a podcast. So, I'll go through the di erent
steps that I had to take, and my daily process of how I produce the Listening Time
podcast. So, let me start by talking about podcast hosting platforms. So, what is this?
Well, in order to have a podcast that is transmitted to these di erent podcast apps, like
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc., you need to host your podcast somewhere. You need to
host it online, just like you would host a website.
Some of you might have a website, and if you do, you know what I'm talking
about. You have to pay to host your website somewhere, right? Otherwise, no one can
access your website. It's like it doesn't exist. So, you have to pay for a podcast hosting
platform if you want to have a real podcast. Obviously, you can just have a podcast via
YouTube, like a video podcast, maybe. But that's a little di erent. I'm talking about a
podcast where it automatically goes to all of the podcast apps every time you upload a
new episode.
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 So, if you want want that, then you need to pay for a podcast hosting platform.
There are a lot of di erent options, and I'm not going to go into all of the options here.
But you can easily nd them with a simple search. By the way, when I use the phrasal
verb "go into” something, this can mean to talk further about a speci c topic, to go into
detail about that topic. So, I'm not going to go into all of the di erent hosting platforms.
You can look that up if you're interested.
So, once you've chosen your podcast hosting platform, and you sign up, and
you pay, probably, then you'll get an RSS feed for your podcast. So, what this is, is
kind of like a link that you'll use, and you'll submit it to these di erent apps… really,
when I say these di erent apps, I'm primarily talking about two of them, Spotify, and
Apple Podcasts. Those are the two most important podcast apps nowadays. So, there
are those two. There are some other ones that you might submit them to.
But if you submit your feed to those two apps, then that will cover you in terms
of a lot of other apps, because a lot of other podcast apps, if I'm not mistaken, I think
they just use Apple Podcasts’ directory, or they nd your podcast if it's on Apple
Podcasts or Spotify or other places. They'll kind of automatically nd your podcast at
some point. And your podcasts will start to show up on a lot of di erent apps. So, if
you are just starting out, you need to make sure you submit this RSS feed to Apple
Podcasts and Spotify, and maybe a couple others.
And this feed is important because it updates. So, every time you post a new
episode, this feed will be able to update and these podcast apps, like Spotify and
Apple Podcasts, will automatically post your new episode. So, you don't actually post
directly to Spotify or to Apple Podcasts. You don't post directly there. You just post on
your hosting platform, and then those podcast apps will automatically update your
podcast and will release your new episodes automatically. You only need to post them
on your hosting platform. So, that's pretty cool.
And by the way, a lot of people ask me, “Where can I listen to your podcast?” if
they nd out I have a podcast, and I always tell them, “Anywhere… whichever app you
have,” because that's how it works when you have a pretty big podcast. It's available
everywhere. So, I'm not posting directly to any speci c podcast app. It gets distributed
to all of them. So, you can listen wherever you want, of course.
And in terms of how much these hosting platforms cost… well, I paid
somewhere between $100 and $200 per year, I think it was, when I was using my old
hosting platform. Nowadays, I have a network. It's a little bit di erent. I'm not going to
go into that. But I don't pay for this hosting platform the same way that other people
do. So, I can't talk about what I pay now. But in the past, I used to pay over $100 per
year. I don't remember the exact price, but I'm sure that's a pretty normal price for a lot
of these hosting platforms. So, I just wanted to give you an idea about the cost.
And how about the equipment? So, when you're making a podcast, really, the
only requirement is to have a microphone, right, something to record your voice,
obviously. And you have a computer… that too. There's one other piece of equipment
that's important, in my opinion, which is a pop screen.
This is that screen that goes between the microphone and your mouth so that
the microphone doesn't pick up the popping sounds when you make P sounds or K
sounds. If you don't have this pop screen, it can be too much for your microphone
when you make those sounds, and it can ruin your audio. So, you should also have this
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pop screen. They’re pretty cheap. That's not a big investment. So, if you have a
microphone and a pop screen and a computer, you're good to go. You don't need
much else.
And of course, other people have other equipment that is more advanced and
that makes their podcast sound better with better quality. I don't have all of that. I just
have the bare basics, so I can't talk too much about that. By the way, when I use the
word “bare," like in the phrase “bare basics,” I'm saying just the very basics, the
essentials, nothing else besides the essentials, is what I'm saying. So, I just have the
bare basics.
And so, now let me talk about scripting your episodes. So, I script my episodes.
I write a script before I record the episode. However, this script only contains bullet
points. A bullet point is like one point on a document that gives you a general idea, but
it doesn't give you all of the details and the words to say.
So, let's pretend I'm recording an episode about cars, and maybe one bullet
point might be "driving conditions in my city." Right? So, I know I'm going to talk about
that, but of course, I don't write down every word that I'm going to say. I just improvise
and talk naturally. But I follow those bullet points usually. So, I write a script with bullet
points.
And of course, before that, I have to come up with ideas, obviously. Sometimes,
that's the hardest thing… to come up with a topic for the next episode. But I've
recorded over 100 episodes so far, and I've been able to think of a topic for each one.
So hopefully, I can continue the streak, and I won't run out of topics. By the way, the
word “streak” in this context means that you do something continuously, again and
again and again, without failing. That's a streak. So, hopefully, I can continue this
streak, and I can think of topics for all of my episodes. But sometimes, that can be
hard.
And I always try to choose evergreen topics. Something that's evergreen is
something that's always relevant. So, I don't usually talk about current events. I talk
about general topics, so that when people listen years later, it's still relevant. If I don't
have an evergreen topic, and someone listens three years from now, then it might not
be interesting for them if that topic was only relevant three years prior, right? The word
“prior" just means before. Okay? So, I tend to choose evergreen topics… maybe not
100% of the time, but so far, most of my topics have been evergreen.
Now, let me talk about recording and the software that you need in order to
record a podcast. So, you have your microphone, your pop screen, your computer, and
you have a script. You want to record an episode. Well, you need some recording
software. So, you need some type of application that will allow you to record.
I use Audacity. This is one of the most popular ones. It's a great application. It's
free. It works really well. And you use it to record your episode, and to edit the episode
afterwards. So I open Audacity, and I start recording my episode, and I talk and say the
things I need to say, and Audacity captures everything.
By the way, I wanted to mention that in this podcast, I speak slowly, of course.
And some people think that it's easy to speak slowly. But it's actually not. It’s actually
hard to speak slowly. It takes a lot of e ort. So, the recording part of this process is
actually a little bit challenging for me. It's not the easiest part, actually. Some people
might imagine that talking… talking slowly for 25 minutes, or whatever, would be the
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easiest part, but it's actually not. It’s actually one of the harder parts, because it's not
easy to talk slowly and clearly. So, I just wanted to mention that. In my own podcasting
process, the talking part is quite challenging, actually.
But yeah, let's continue on. After you record your episode, then you have to edit
the episode. My episodes are really easy to edit, because I just cut the mistakes that I
make, or the times when I mess up. I just cut those out. And then, I add in the intro and
outro. And that's pretty much it in terms of the editing part, the cutting and all of that.
However, there's one other thing that I do, I use an app called Levelator. This is
an app that makes your sound more level, or more even, so that you don't have a really
wide range of sounds and volumes. It just levels everything out. It's a really cool app.
It’s free. It works really well. So, I use that.
And I do one other thing. I use the noise reduction feature in Audacity. So, when
you record sound using a microphone, in most cases, the audio also includes a low
hissing noise or white noise, I might call it. If you don't know what that is, you can look
that up. I don't want to simulate that here, because it's not pleasant. But there's this
low noise that makes the audio sound a little bit worse. And so, it's important to get rid
of this.
And I didn't do that in my earlier episodes. So, I think you can hear that in the
earlier ones. But in my more recent episodes, I use that noise reduction, so you
shouldn't hear it as much. So, I reduce that background noise. And that helps the
audio sound better. So, that's another thing that I do during the editing process. And
like I said, I put the intro and outro there. And that's pretty much it in terms of the
editing.
And then, I have to export it. So, you export the audio into a le, like an mp3 le,
for example. And one thing that I think is important here is to make sure that you get
them metadata, right? When I talk about the metadata here, I'm referring to the data
that is inputted when you're creating your le. So, you have to put things like your
name, the title of the project, or whatever, maybe the album, if it's like a song that
you're recording, right, the year, the genre, things like that… it asks me for those
things.
And I always make sure to get the metadata right, because a lot of people say
that if you don't pay attention to this metadata, it might a ect the performance of your
episode. It might not perform as well if you don't get the metadata right. I don't know
about this, but I don't want to hurt my podcast performance, potentially. So, I think it's
important to just take 30 seconds to make sure that you input the right metadata and
just do that before you move on. So, that's one other thing that I do.
And then, for my podcast, in particular, the most time-consuming part, the thing
that takes the longest, is the transcript. So, the vast majority of podcasts won't have a
very detailed transcript that the podcaster makes on their own. They might have a
transcript, but it's not something they spend a lot of time editing, or revising. That's just
not something that's important for most people.
However, my podcast is speci cally for English learners who are learning English
and listening to me talk and need help sometimes. So, they need this transcript. So, I
have to pay attention to this transcript. I have to spend a lot more time on this part of
the podcasting process, whereas some people don't even think about having a
transcript for their podcast. So, this is something unique to my podcast.
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 So, what do I do? Well, I take my audio, and then I import it to a website called
Otter. This is a popular transcription website. And I use the Otter paid plan. So, I have
to pay for this so that it allows me to import audios every month. So, I import my audio,
and then Otter transcribes it. However, it doesn't transcribe it 100% correctly. No
transcription site does this, at least at the time of recording this, in 2023.
Maybe in a few years, this technology will be more advanced, but up until now,
none of these tools, even the AI tools, none of them can create a perfect transcript with
perfect punctuation exactly how you want it with perfect paragraph breaks. And
especially if you're talking with another person, it's much harder for these tools to get it
100% right.
So, it's not going to be 100% correct, even after I've used this transcription
service. However, it will be pretty close to 100%. But for my podcast, pretty close is
not good enough. I need it to be 100% or almost 100% correct. Sometimes, I make
mistakes with the transcript, of course.
But what I do is I take this transcript that the website generates for me, and then
I listen to my whole podcast episode while reading this transcript and editing this
transcript. I do this simultaneously and I have to make a lot of punctuation changes
and capitalize letters and things like that.
When you “capitalize" a letter, or a word, this means that you use the big letter,
right? You use a capital G, instead of a lowercase g. Right? So, that's what I do. And
sometimes, I have to make other alterations. And this is a one of the longest parts of
the process, probably the longest part is doing the transcript.
And, as you know, I now have a new podcast, my US Conversations podcast.
And for that podcast, the transcript takes a long time. It takes hours to do that
transcript. It's a lot of work, and it's really tiring, because I'm talking to another person.
It's not just me talking. And we’re talking at normal speed. We’re interrupting each
other.
And the sound quality isn't perfect. It's recorded over Skype, of course. So, the
transcript service has a lot harder of a time getting that type of conversation correctly
transcribed. So, it takes me a long time to edit those transcripts. For this Listening
Time podcast, it doesn't take as long, but it still takes a while.
And after I've done the transcript, I upload it to Google Drive and get that link so
you have that available. And then, I upload everything to my podcast hosting platform
site. And I upload the episode. I do the Description. The Description is where you add
all of the information and links that you want to add.
So, the transcript is always in the description, the link to my membership, the
link to my new podcast, the links to my eBooks, any sponsorship links… if I have a
sponsor for the episode, I might have a link there. All of that stu goes in the
Description. That's really important so that people can go down and click where they
need to click.
And then, I schedule the episode. I schedule it for whenever I want it to be
released. And that's pretty much it. There might be a couple things I do that I didn't
mention. But for the most part, that’s how I make my podcast from beginning to end.
So hopefully, this can help you if you want to make a podcast. Hopefully, this was
interesting for you.
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 And before we end, remember that if you want to check out my new podcast,
my US Conversations podcast, if you want to practice with real conversations between
native speakers, then make sure to sign up for this podcast. The link is in the
Description below this episode. That's www.patreon.com/USConversations
And the link to my membership is down there as well. So, join that if you want
my training to help you understand native speakers when they speak fast. And you
have the links to my ebook. If you're a Spanish or a Portuguese speaker, and you want
to read ction in English, then check out my ebook down there. And of course you
have the transcript there as well.
And if you like this podcast, please share it. Please give it a review. Please give it
a ve-star rating… all of that. That really helps me. Alright, thank you for listening to
this episode, and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
*US Conversations Podcast: www.patreon.com/USConversations
*Get my specialized training: www.patreon.com/listeningtime
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