Creating a Podcast as an Academic
By Dr. Páraic Carroll
Creating an educational podcast can be a challenging but equally rewarding and learning experience for an academic. Dr. Páraic Carroll documents this as he recalls the process of establishing the Transport Hub Podcast, an activity that emanated from the Transport Research Hub @ UCD (TREAH), which was set up with funding from the Earth Institute’s Strategic Priority Support Mechanism fund. Páraic created, hosted, produced and edited this short podcast series, which can be found across most of the main podcast platforms, such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Why create a podcast as an academic?
This is a question I asked myself many times and some colleagues also posed it - which is a fair question. The answer that I keep coming back to is that being an academic is not all about writing research papers, there are other means by which your research and subject knowledge/expertise can be disseminated to a non-academic audiences in particular, whom perhaps do not always have the time or patience to read though an 8-10,000 word journal article. This, in my opinion, is where podcasting can be quite useful amongst other media, such as radio, TV and the print media. It is also a great tool for improving communication skills, which as we all know are key for any academic.
In the case of the Transport Hub Podcast, the purpose of creating a podcast series was to offer an easily accessible medium for a general audience to consume discussion, analysis and dissemination of transportation and mobility related research, industry innovations and international policy developments in an intelligible way for the general public and scientific community. Transport is already a popular topic amongst the general public, as everyone experiences it in some way or another, so people can generate their own opinions and comments across various topics in this space. Thus, I felt that there would naturally be a good sized audience that may find the topics interesting to them.
What do you need to do to start a podcast series?
The starting point should always be ‘what is the focus or purpose the podcast’ and like any good research paper, it should identify the gap(s) in the space/ field for such a podcast. It is worth asking yourself, is this podcast idea needed or relevant, in other words are there other podcasts doing a similar thing?… Will people be interested in listening to it? If so, who are the target audience?
If you are happy that your plan/ brief answers the above questions, then it is time to plan the content for the podcast. For example, setting out the schedule or plan for the first 3 episodes, with the key points, topics and start thinking about interesting guests (if needed) to contribute to the podcast.
Also, think about the episode frequency, will it be weekly, fortnightly, monthly or less frequent and try to stick to it, this is important to build a loyal listener base, as people generally like to see some consistently in how the episodes are released (even down to the day of the week in some instances).
Research may be required at this stage to identify new and current topics or simply just to do some background reading to inform yourself better on the topic. In doing so, it is helpful to outline a general structure or format for the podcast, which ideally each episode could follow (so that it becomes familiar to the listeners). This does not need to be to rigidly followed, as this can come across as less authentic or genuine discussion.
Equipment and Recording Location
Ultimately, you should be striving to create a podcast that is of relatively decent audio quality, which often can come down to the recording location and/or the equipment that you use.
In terms of location, a quiet, relatively echo free room or space is a good start, but if you have a space that is adequately sound proofed, that would be ideal.
In terms off essential equipment needed to start the podcast, the basics I would include are:
- A recording device/ interface to capture your sound and save audio files
- Decent quality microphones (and mic stands if needed),
- Audio editing software such as Audacity, Pro Tools, Logic Pro, amongst many others, for post production
- At least one set of headphones (to monitor the levels/ volumes and the quality of sound being captured by the recording device)
Optional equipment may include:
- A pop filter or microphone cover (“Wind Muff”) to reduce those pops, clicks and cracks
Additional material that are not equipment but often a necessary element to every podcast episode is an intro (and outro) jingle and perhaps background music, which can make your podcast sound more professional and set the tone for it. You may similarly consider designing a podcast image/ logo to help promote the podcast (Canva and other similar tools are your friend!).
Dissemination
Dissemination of any audio material is crucial to ensure that it gets to as many people as possible, and of course the right people (your target audience). There are many ways of getting the word out about your podcast, but firstly it must be hosted somewhere that people can find it easily. For the TREAH podcast, I tested it using Soundcloud initially until I was happy with how it sounded and then I uploaded it to all the main podcast hosting platforms, such as Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, etc. These sites are also great for easily monitoring the listenership of each podcast episode, such as the numbers listening, the listener location and things like the length of time that each episode has been listened to. Then it is simply a case of spreading the word about it, via social media and perhaps embedding episodes from the podcast into your website.
Overall, personally I have found the experience of creating, producing, hosting and editing a podcast a very enjoyable and worthwhile experience and it is something that I would consider doing again.
If this is something that you are considering doing or maybe you are just curious about what it takes to create a podcast, I hope that this article has been somewhat useful to you and that it might motivate you to do the same.
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