A How-To Guide from the First Family of Podcasting
Everybody Has a Podcast (2021) is an inspiring, hands-on guide to making your own podcast. From choosing a topic to building an audience, podcasting doesn’t have to be intimidating. Even if you’re short on cash and not particularly tech-savvy, you can create something great with a bit of tenacity and persistence.
Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy are the hosts of chart-topping podcasts like My Brother, My Brother and Me; Sawbones; Schmanners; and The Adventure Zone, among others. Their podcasts have also inspired a spinoff TV show, and a New York Times best-selling book and graphic novels.
So you want to start a podcast. But where do you begin? Think for a moment about what you’re obsessed with. What lights you up when you talk about it? What is it that leads you down countless internet rabbit holes?
For Justin McElroy, it was workplace training videos. For you, it may be the mating habits of moths! Whatever your passion is, enthusiasm can’t be faked. And it’s this genuine inspiration that will engage your audience.
The key message here is: Make a podcast about something that obsesses you.
Once you’ve chosen your topic, do some research to find out what else is out there on the same subject. Podcasting has become mainstream, and there are now some 850,000 podcasts available globally. So if you’ve chosen a well-known topic for your podcast like, say, the reality show Survivor, there’s a very big chance that someone else has had the same idea.
If your research uncovers several similar podcasts, it might be time to go back to the drawing board. Or instead, you could push to find a novel angle. Because even more important than the topic itself is your unique approach to it. So while there may be five other podcasts about Survivor, you could focus on a new angle, like the strategy behind the show and how it’s changed over the seasons.
When trying to decide on your angle, draw on any specific expertise you have. For example, Justin and his wife Sydnee built their show about strange medical history on the strength of her experience as a physician. If you’ve got particular knowledge or training, use it!
Once you’ve got your topic, it’s time to refine it into a one-sentence pitch. You’ll want to make sure that people can understand what your podcast is about in one line so they can tell their friends about it. A recent McElroy brothers podcast can be summed up by the tagline “Three non-celebrities try to con their way into a major motion picture.” That single line is informative enough to let you know if you’d want to listen to the show.
Now that you’ve come up with a topic, angle, and one-line pitch, stop to ask yourself two questions. First, are you willing to devote your most precious commodity – your time – to making this?
And, second, would you love to listen to this podcast if someone else made it?
If the answer to both questions is yes, you’re onto a winner. Stay tuned for the nitty-gritty of pre-production.
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Blink 3 von 12 - Eine kurze Geschichte der Menschheit
von Yuval Noah Harari
