---
name: podcast
description: "Use when planning, recording, editing, or publishing one podcast episode end to end — the run-of-show and guest brief, recording settings (double-ender, 48 kHz WAV multitrack), the loudness master, the Podcasting 2.0 sidecars (chapters.json, transcript.vtt), the RSS <item>, and timestamped SEO show notes. Use when audio sounds quiet on Spotify but loud on Apple, a feed is rejected for bad artwork, or chapters and transcripts will not show in the app. Triggers: 'plan the run-of-show for a 40-minute interview', 'what LUFS for Apple and Spotify', 'master once to -16 LUFS', 'wire the transcript tag', 'valid RSS item with chapters and transcript for episode 14', 'generate a chapters.json from the double-ender locals', 'write timestamped SEO show notes', 'masteritzar l'àudio del podcast', 'escribe las show notes con timestamps'. NOT clipping the episode into social posts (that is social-publisher) and NOT cutting the vertical short (that is video-shorts)."
tags: [podcast, audio, rss, show-notes, podcasting-2.0]
recommends: [social-publisher, video-shorts, newsletter, brand-voice, content-engine]
origin: risco
---

# Podcast — One Episode, Plan to Published

*You own the production craft and the distribution surface of a single audio episode: the run-of-show, the recording settings, the loudness target, the chapters and transcript sidecars, the RSS `<item>`, and the show-notes page that ranks. You do not invent the show's voice, plan the content calendar, or cut the clips — you take one episode from idea to a feed entry an app can ingest.*

An episode moves through four phases: **plan → record → edit & master → publish** (plus the show-notes page that ships with publish). Every load-bearing number below is sourced and dated (accessed 2026-06-02). Use the current numbers; do not guess from memory.

## The flow — find the phase, do that phase

Read the ask, drop it into one phase, execute that phase, and stop at its hand-off. Do not redo earlier phases the user already has.

| The ask sounds like | Phase | You produce |
| --- | --- | --- |
| format, run-of-show, guest brief, questions, cold-open | 1 Plan | an episode outline + question list |
| double-ender, sample rate, multitrack, "how do I record remotely" | 2 Record | a recording-settings checklist |
| "how loud", LUFS, true peak, mono vs stereo, export format | 3 Edit & master | a mastering target sheet + export plan |
| RSS item, enclosure, chapters, transcript, artwork, submit to Apple | 4 Publish | a valid `<item>` + `chapters.json` + `transcript.vtt` |
| show notes, episode page, timestamps, SEO | Show notes | a blog-shaped, timestamped page |

## Phase 1 — Plan

Pick the format first; it sets everything downstream.

| Format | Use when | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Solo | you own the expertise and want tight control | no scheduling, fastest to ship, easiest to master (mono) |
| Interview | the value is a guest's knowledge | borrowed audience + authority; needs a guest brief |
| Co-host | a recurring two-voice dynamic | chemistry carries it; needs two locals |
| Narrative | story-driven, scripted, sound-designed | highest production cost; script before you record |

**Run-of-show.** Write a timed segment table before recording so the edit has a spine. Target minutes for a ~40-min interview:

| Segment | Target | Purpose |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Cold-open | 0:30 | best 30s of tape, pulled forward to hook |
| Intro | 1:00 | show ID + episode promise + guest one-liner |
| Segment(s) | 30:00 | the body — 2-4 themed blocks, not one shapeless chat |
| CTA | 0:30 | one ask (subscribe / a specific link), never three |
| Outro | 1:00 | recap + where to go next + sign-off |

**Guest brief** (send before the record): episode topic + angle, 4-6 question themes (not the verbatim list — keep some spontaneity), tech check (headphones + a quiet room + the recording link), the time/timezone, and how their name and links should appear. A guest who knows the themes gives sharper tape.

**Question design.** Open-ended, single-barrel, no yes/no. One idea per question.

```text
Bad   "Did you find fundraising hard, and what would you change?"  (double-barreled yes/no)
Good  "Walk me through the moment fundraising got hardest."         (open, single, invites a story)
```

## Phase 2 — Record

**Record locals, never the call.** A remote double-ender records each participant *locally* — Riverside/Descript capture every speaker on their own machine at 48 kHz uncompressed WAV, one track per speaker, cloud-backed in real time, so quality is independent of the connection. The Zoom/Meet mixdown is compressed, single-track, and drops out with the bandwidth. (Riverside double-ender; Buzzsprout remote-recording guide 2026 — accessed 2026-06-02.)

```text
Bad   Hit "record" in Zoom and edit the resulting compressed stereo mixdown.
Good  Double-ender: each speaker's local 48 kHz WAV on its own track, cloud-backed,
      assembled into a multitrack you edit downstream.
```

Recording checklist:

- [ ] **Remote** → double-ender (Riverside/Descript). **In-person** → multitrack recorder/interface, one mic per speaker.
- [ ] **48 kHz, uncompressed WAV**, separate track per speaker — never a pre-mixed single track.
- [ ] **Local + cloud backup** running before you start talking.
- [ ] **Track to ~-18 dBFS peaks**, leaving headroom — do not record hot toward 0 dBFS; clipped tracks are unrecoverable and you fix loudness at the master, not the mic.
- [ ] Headphones on every speaker (kills echo/bleed); record 10s of room tone for noise cleanup.

## Phase 3 — Edit & master

**Edit order.** Assemble → content edit (cut tangents, fix flow) → cleanup (noise reduction, level the tracks against each other) → master last. Master on the finished mix, never mid-edit.

**Master once to -16 LUFS integrated, stereo, true peak -1 dBTP.** This is the single safe target. Apple Podcasts recommends -16 LUFS integrated; Spotify normalizes podcasts to -14 LUFS and turns *down* anything louder on playback — so you do not master a separate file per platform. The -1 dBTP ceiling prevents inter-sample clipping after MP3 encoding. (SONE "Podcast Loudness Standards 2026"; Descript "Podcast Loudness Standard"; Podnews LUFS FAQ — accessed 2026-06-02.)

| Destination | Integrated LUFS | True peak | Channels | Note |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Apple Podcasts | -16 | -1 dBTP | stereo | the reference target |
| Spotify | normalizes to -14 | -1 dBTP | stereo | louder uploads are turned down; do not over-master for it |
| Mono voice (solo) | -19 (≈ -16 stereo) | -1 dBTP | mono | mono is ~half the file size for a single voice |
| YouTube (if you also post audio video) | ~-14 | -1 dBTP | stereo | normalized like Spotify |

The mono equivalent of -16 LUFS stereo is **-19 LUFS** — relevant only when you publish a single-voice episode as mono. (SONE / Podnews — accessed 2026-06-02.)

**Export.** Keep the **WAV master** as your archive. Encode the distribution file to **MP3** (commonly 128 kbps stereo / 96 kbps mono for voice) — that MP3 is what the RSS `<enclosure>` points at. Note its byte length and MIME type; you need both for the `<item>`.

## Phase 4 — Publish

The deliverable is a valid RSS episode `<item>` plus its sidecars. A complete annotated `<item>`, the full iTunes/RSS channel tag list, and the Podcasting 2.0 tag set with every attribute live in `references/rss-and-namespace.md` — load it before hand-writing a feed.

**The `<item>` must carry** (Apple's required set + the enclosure):

- `<title>` and `<itunes:title>`, `<description>` (the show notes), `<pubDate>` (RFC-822).
- `<enclosure url="…" length="…BYTES" type="audio/mpeg"/>` — the MP3 URL, its size in **bytes**, and the MIME type. A wrong `length` breaks the player's scrubber.
- `<guid isPermaLink="false">` — a stable unique ID that never changes after publish; changing it duplicates the episode in every app.
- `<itunes:duration>` (seconds or HH:MM:SS) and `<itunes:image href="…"/>`.

**Artwork constraints (feeds are rejected otherwise):** cover art must be a **square JPG or PNG, RGB color space, minimum 1400×1400 px and maximum 3000×3000 px**. (RSS.com hosting guide 2026 — accessed 2026-06-02.)

**Podcasting 2.0 sidecars** (wire them in the `<item>`; full shapes in the reference):

- `chapters.json` → `<podcast:chapters url="…" type="application/json+chapters"/>`. The JSON has `version` + a `chapters[]` array; each chapter has a numeric `startTime` (seconds) and `title`, and startTimes are **monotonically non-decreasing**. The hosted file can be edited after publish.
- `transcript.vtt` / `.srt` → `<podcast:transcript url="…" type="text/vtt"/>`. The **`type` attribute is required** (`text/vtt`, `application/srt`, or `application/json`); you may add multiple `podcast:transcript` tags for multiple formats. Creator-supplied transcripts beat Apple's auto-generated ones. (Podcasting 2.0 namespace docs — accessed 2026-06-02.)
- `<podcast:person>` for host and guest (role + image href).

**Apple auto-generates transcripts (since 2024-03) and chapters (iOS 26.2), but auto-chapters only fire when the creator supplied none** — your manual `podcast:chapters` always wins, so supply them when timestamps matter. (Apple Newsroom 2024-03; Castopod/TechBuzz iOS 26.2 coverage — accessed 2026-06-02.)

**Submission reality.** A feed needs **at least one published episode** before you can submit it — Apple requires it and Spotify for Creators hides RSS distribution until the first episode ships. Apple review can take **up to 72 hours**; most hosts publish new episodes within hours. (VNYL RSS guide; RSS.com; Spotify for Creators — accessed 2026-06-02.)

## Show notes

Top-ranking show notes are **blog-shaped, ~1,500+ words**, not a one-paragraph blurb. Timestamps are both a UX and an SEO signal. (Sweetfish "Show Notes Template"; Increv "SEO show notes 2025" — accessed 2026-06-02.)

Template:

```text
H1            target keyword as the episode title
Summary       2-3 sentences, keyword-bearing, what the listener gets
Chapters      timestamped list (00:00 Intro / 04:12 …) mirroring chapters.json
Takeaways     3-5 bullets — the episode's claims, skimmable
Guest         short bio + links (site, social)
Resources     every tool/book/link mentioned
CTA           one ask (subscribe / a specific URL)
```

**Title craft** — specific and outcome-bearing beats sequential:

```text
Bad   "Episode 12"
Good  "Episode 12: How Marta scaled a solo SaaS to $40k MRR without ads"
```

Embed `PodcastEpisode` JSON-LD on the page (name, datePublished, duration as ISO-8601 `PT35M`, `associatedMedia` → the MP3, `partOfSeries` → the show) so the episode is eligible for rich results — see `references/rss-and-namespace.md` for the block.

## Anti-patterns

| Anti-pattern | Why it fails | Do instead |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Mastering a separate file per platform | Spotify turns down anything over -14 anyway; you just add work and risk inconsistency | Master once to -16 LUFS stereo / -1 dBTP |
| Editing the recorded Zoom/Meet mixdown | Compressed, single-track, drops out with bandwidth; unrecoverable | Double-ender local 48 kHz WAV, one track per speaker |
| Tracking hot toward 0 dBFS | Clipped peaks are permanent; loudness is a master-stage fix, not a mic-gain fix | Track to ~-18 dBFS peaks, set loudness at the master |
| `<podcast:transcript>` without a `type` | Apps cannot parse it; the tag is ignored | Always include `type=` (`text/vtt`, `application/srt`, `application/json`) |
| Wrong/blank `<enclosure length>` | Breaks the player scrubber and progress | Use the MP3's exact size in bytes |
| Changing `<guid>` after publish | Apps treat it as a brand-new episode — duplicates the feed | Set a stable guid once; never change it |
| 1024×1024 or non-square cover art | Below the 1400 px floor / non-square → feed rejected | Square JPG/PNG, RGB, 1400-3000 px |
| Show notes as a one-paragraph summary | No keywords, no timestamps → no ranking, no UX value | Blog-shaped ~1,500 words with timestamped chapters + takeaways |
| Relying on Apple auto-chapters when timing matters | Auto-chapters only fire when you supplied none, and you lose control of titles | Ship a manual `chapters.json` via `podcast:chapters` |

## Hand-offs

- Clip the episode into posts for X/LinkedIn/IG and schedule them → `../social-publisher/SKILL.md`.
- Cut the vertical/short video of a moment → `../video-shorts/SKILL.md`.
- Write the email that announces the episode to the list → `../newsletter/SKILL.md`.
- Define the show's tone/persona the episode should sound like → `../brand-voice/SKILL.md`.
- Decide *which* episodes exist and the cadence across the catalog → `../content-engine/SKILL.md`.

## References

- `references/rss-and-namespace.md` — required + recommended iTunes/RSS channel and item tags, a full annotated `<item>` example, the Podcasting 2.0 tag set with attributes (`transcript`, `chapters`, `person`, `funding`, `season`, `episode`), a sample `chapters.json`, a `transcript.vtt` snippet, and the `PodcastEpisode` JSON-LD block.

After you emit a `chapters.json`, a feed/`<item>`, or a `transcript.vtt`, run `scripts/verify.sh <dir-or-file>` to lint the shape (parse, monotonic startTimes, required enclosure attributes, transcript `type`, artwork size).
