Steps to a Good Podcast

Podcasts. They are good to listen to, when the chemistry is right. After listening to a few online, I noticed what really interested me, or bored me.

However, they are from my personal preferences. Not everyone may think the same.

1. Nobody dominates the conversation.
If there is one person in the group that just loves to talk, perhaps it isn't a good idea for that person to be a main host. When people just keep talking, they don't seem to listen to anyone else, and people have to try and interrupt to just be in the conversation. The one I listened to had someone donimating, and about 45 minutes into the Episode, I realised there were acutally 5 people! I thought there were only 3.

2. Equal chances to talk.
If that can't happen, the try and schedule it. If it's impossible, perhaps don't have so many people on it. I don't think it's a good idea when you announce the person as in the podcast, but not hearing them until it's almost over.

3. Structure with topic
The topics should be structure a little, and not all over the place. If one second you're talking about today's weather, and the next, you're talking about african apes, that's very confusing for people. Don't change the topics too often.

4. Pace, voice and quality
If people are talking, it is a good idea to talk with a good pace, that is, you're not going too fast or slow, too slow would be droning on, too fast would be hard to understand. I also think it's good to speak clearly and try not to have the 'ums' and 'ahs' unless you're doing it as a joke. If the people doing the podcast have trouble understanding, then you can expect people listening would have even more trouble. Also make sure there aren't any echoes (if recording as a group, use headphones, not speakers)

5. Have a little bit of humour, joke.
When conversations go for a long time, it can get boring, I know I get bored listening to people talk if they are always serious, despite what the conversation is about. Consider this: I was in a class at school a few years back, and I did two subjects, modern history and business. I had hardly any interest in both, but the history class had a teacher who spoke with colour in his voice, and he joked a lot and made fun of things, I loved that class and even got interested with the topic. The business class, the teacher spoke with a mono-tone, he sounded bored himself, and the information just droned on and on, and I almost fell asleep each time.

So I guess what I'm saying is, if people are considering creating podcasts, be aware of what I mentioned above.

Susanna