Podcasting takes time and planning. Very few people can just turn on the recorder and get exactly what they want in one take. If you’re doing interviews or have a second host, the likelihood of a simple process gets even slimmer — you can’t control both sides of a conversation.
Well, you can’t completely control both sides of a conversation, but a well-planned interview with a structure that is worked out ahead of time can go a long way. And of course, there’s the post-production editing, giving you the ultimate say in how the conversation unfolds.
I’ll expand on these two ideas in the future, but the message here is that a good podcast takes time. The preparation, recording, and editing of a 10-minutes interview for Boston Behind the Scenes or the Current Science & Technology Podcast takes me between two and four hours — and that’s just for an interview show. If you want to produce a highly-edited podcast in the style of NPR’s This American Life, you’re looking at more like 75-150 hours of work for one ten-minute piece!
Of course, those numbers are for once you get good at it…