10 Easy Steps to Creating a Storytelling Podcast

Number 7 will surprise you

Welcome to The Colorful Journalist — the newsletter where I bring you along on my journey to becoming a journalist.

For those who don’t know me: Hi, my name is Aileen. I’m an almost-thirty-something who is currently training at Deutsche Journalistenschule. If you’re wondering how to produce a podcast, this issue is right for you

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Photo by Icons8 Team on Unsplash

There once was a time when I was determined to write a weekly newsletter. But then winter turned into spring, life got busier, and the idea of sitting down to write this newsletter in the evening felt a lot less appealing once temperatures crept above 20 degrees.

But my life has calmed down a bit, and I’m still committed to documenting my journey here on Substack. This may no longer be weekly newsletter anymore, but it’s still very much alive.

So, where were we? Ahhh yes - the audio bloc.

After weeks of radio classes, we wrapped up audio training with one final project: a podcast.

A podcast? — you might ask.

Yes! We researched, wrote and recorded one, all within just a few short weeks.

Let me tell you how we did it.

Step 1: Choose your topic (wisely)

To write a storytelling podcast - surprise, surprise — you need a story. Easier said then done. The world is full of stories, but not all of them make a compelling, mult-episode podcast.

Life hack: Having classmates with great ideas makes this step a whole lot easier.

Step 2: Dig deep

You don’t need a master in economics to see that fifteen people researching the same topic isn’t exactly efficient. Hence, we split our class into smaller groups, each focusing on different aspects.

As with any project, the world surrounding our story felt alien at first. I didn’t know what I was looking for, so I aimlessly googled and read whatever I could find. The more I read, the more I began to understand what mattered. And over time, our protagonist stopped feeling like a stranger and started feeling like a close friend I hadn’t seen in years.

Step 3: Freak out about the tight schedule

The choosing and the digging had to happen alongside other classes, aka after hours and on weekends. Then came that Monday in early May when our schedule was cleared for the podcast. What a relief. But also not. Because from that day on, we had just sixteen days to find people to interview, write the script, and do everything else.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Step 4: Talk to people

Said Monday, we began our morning conference with a long list of people we needed to contact. Many emails were sent that day. By Tuesday, one of our hosts and I drove two hours to conduct our first interview. On Wednesday, four of my classmates traveled to another country in Europe to speak with even more people. By Friday, we’d interviewed dozens — some in person, others online.

Remember, this is a storytelling podcast - which means we need strong, high-quality sound bites from our interviewees. Whether in person or online - each format comes with its own (technical) challenges.

In-person interviews require at least two people — and even more microphones. You need one mic for the interviewer, one for the interviewee, and another for the technical assistant who is on “atmo” duty.

“Atmo” is short for atmosphere. It means recording background sounds of the environment in which the interview takes place, which can later be layered under the interview to bring the scene to life.

Conducting an interview outdoors is always challenging because you can’t control the world around you. There’s always a risk that your interviewee delivers the perfect sound bite only to have it ruined by a barking dog or a helicopter flying overhead.

Once, while I was on “atmo” duty, a man came up to me and asked what the hell I was doing. When I explained I was working on a podcast, he immediately began sharing his own story. My warning — “Sir, you do realize my microphone is on and you’re being recorded” — didn’t faze him in the slightest. If anything, he seemed upset that we hadn’t asked to interview him in the first place.

The challenges of an online interview should be familiar to everyone who’s ever been on a Zoom call . There are ways to improve the quality of the recording, such as asking the interviewee to record themselves on their phone - but that won’t help you when the connection dies right in the middle of the perfect sentence.

Step 5: Write a script

Writing for audio is different from writing for print. When words are meant to be spoken aloud by a host, they need to sound like something a real person would actually say. Short, simple sentences work better than long, complex ones. Most of the script is written in present tense — even when talking about the past. And key points are repeated multiple times to help the audience understand what’s going on.

But to me, the biggest difference was working with audio snippets. A podcast truly comes to live through the words of its protagonists. Writing a script that weaves in spoken words from people other than the hosts felt like entering another dimension - because it’s not just about what they say, but how they say it.

Step 6: Hostify the script

Eigth authors. Four episodes. One podcast. Even though my classmates and I have spent plenty of time together, our writing styles are still quite different. Apply that to a shared script, and you can imagine it sounds anything but cohesive. This is where our hosts stepped in. Once the authors had finished their scripts, the hosts went in and made it sound more like them - aka hostifyed it.

Step 7 (not technically part of a podcast production): Get married

Not required, and - from lived experience - definitely not recommended.

There are only two weekends during the entire school year when taking time off to get married would be really, really inconvenient. Of course, we had picked one of them.

But the date of my wedding was set before I even knew I’d make it to the second round of the application process. By the time DJS sent out my acceptance letter, Save The Dates had long been out. And by the time our schedules came out, people had already started RSVPing.

In the end, everything worked out just fine. On the bright side for my husband, I was so distracted by the podcast that I hardly had time to get cold feet. It may have been stressful, but it was absolutely worth it.

Step 8: Leave it to the hosts

Due to aforementioned social commitment, I wasn’t present the day my episode was recorded. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from audio, it’s that speaking well becomes much harder once a microphone is involved.

Those warm, clear, and conversational voices you hear on your favorite podcasts most likely aren’t the hosts’ natural voices - they’re carefully crafted instruments designed to carry the story. So don’t be fooled: Having a pleasant voice in everyday life isn’t the same as sounding good on a podcast. That’s why I truly appreciate how well our hosts handled this challenge.

Step 9: Making the final cut(s)

For clarity: recording an episode means recording everything the hosts say. The real magic happens afterward in form of a sound production team. They take those raw recordings and blend them with clips from interviews and other sources, then edit ruthlessly. Uhms and ahs? Gone. Breathing pauses? Trimmed. Filler words? Cut. Longer sections? Stripped down to the essentials.

It’s a brutal process - but so is the average listener’s attention span.

Step 10: Listen to the fruits of your labor

On Monday, May 5th, we began working full-time on this podcast. On Thursday, May 22nd — just over two weeks later — all four episodes were completed. I’m still amazed (and proud) that we pulled it off.

Listening to the finished episodes was both exciting and humbling. While I can’t share the feedback, I can share that we’re currently working on selling the podcast — so you’ll (hopefully) be to listen to a repolished final version on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to pods.