How to terrify and empower with a podcast in only 12 steps. by Shaina Joy Machlus Photo illustrations by Liz Pavlovic Like so many projects of great worth, the Somos Venus podcast commenced with alcohol and a group of women who adore each other. Someone was telling a particularly obscene story, which resulted in another mentioning how incredible it would be to share our laughter with other people. Ignoring the fact that we had no previous podcasting experience, we slowly but surely formed the Somos Venus Podcast. The group of women behind it are Eva Carasol, Andrea Valverde, Laura Fernández Giménez, Montse Casas, Laura Pons Negre, Olga Permanyer Martínez, and me, Shaina Machlus. Twenty-four episodes later, and we proudly describe ourselves as a powerful lil’ Spanishlanguage podcast about navigating the world as intersectional feminists and other things that terrify rich, old, straight, white men. Having started from zero, we learned quite a bit along the way. I’m here to share tips and tricks for anyone who might find themselves similarly motivated to take a dive into the wide and wonderful pool of podcasts.
HAVE A TOPIC YOU FEEL PASSIONATE ABOUT AND ARE INTERESTED IN CONTINUALLY EXPLORING. Make a mind map that starts with a giant bubble as the main topic, two to five smaller bubbles that expand and support the main idea, with lots of branches coming out about possible ways to explore these sub-bubbles. The idea is to have a central focus but with plenty of room to expand. If your mind map looks a bit empty, perhaps it’s wise to reconsider or broaden the topic.
START THINKING ABOUT FORMAT AND FLOW.
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Listening to many other podcasts and writing down hypes and gripes can be helpful. Does this podcast have sections? Guest stars? Multiple hosts? What is the best order of information and/or sections? How long should the podcast be? What’s the format? Do you want your podcast to be scripted or more conversational?
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MAKE A LAYOUT OF THE FIRST 10 EPISODES. Excel is key here. If you’re a multiple-person podcast, like us, create a document so each person knows their sections. We rotate sections every podcast, so organization is very important. Knowing topics well in advance is really helpful and actually allows for more flexibility when there needs to be a change.
