Sometimes, the things that are easiest to kick back and enjoy are paradoxically the most challenging to create. Think of how your favorite podcast host effortlessly weaves throughout banter, complex conversations and full-on narrative stories. Much of the confidence and ease that you associate with your favorite seasoned podcast host can be attributed to a system, either conscious or subconscious, that is likely some combination of improv acting and extemporaneous public speaking prowess.
This system is either practiced upon extensively before recording, or simply gained through the host’s previous experience as an actor or public figure. If you are starting out cold (meaning that your foray into podcasting is your first attempt at a compellingly engageable public persona) then you need to break down the process into manageable chunks and focus on just a few aspects during each episode recording. For many hosts just starting out, their first few episodes might be total bombs. This is unavoidable to a certain extent–sometimes you just have to trust the process and ease into the role.
When considering your persona, you want to retain as many elements of yourself as possible while keeping yourself open to the wide variety of viewpoints and personalities you will hopefully be exposed to on your show. If your character is well-defined yet free thinking enough to spur unpredictable conversation in your show, you’ve hit the jackpot. In addition, your host persona can serve as a backbone when your guests span from increasingly far-flung fields and industries. Jay Shetty and Joe Rogan are two fantastic examples of hosts who have thrived on keeping a consistently identifiable, universal persona that allows for all sorts of conversations from a variety of different vantage points. For example, let’s take a look at Jay’s guests for this past month:
-Health and Science Journalist Johann Mari
A narrow-mind would assert that a guest list like this is all over the place–that there’s no focus. Yet what ties these guests together is their collective relation to the broader cultural zeitgeist—one that Jay himself his a part of. Jay’s singular persona of a calm, childlike curiosity and positive-emotional neutrality-that-genuinely-doesn’t-seem-contrived serves to bring out aspects of the guest that wouldn’t otherwise be unveiled through other mediums.
In Charles Leclerc’s episode of Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast, Jay opens the show by asking Charles why he hasn’t done many interviews. Leclerc replies: “You’ve got something special in all the different interviews you do. I think you get the best out of people, and it’s something very special. Of course we do lots of interviews, but they are mostly based on our racing career, which I’m happy to speak about all the time. But it’s good to see the person behind the steering wheel, and I think it’s a great way to show a bit of myself.”
When listeners/viewers engage with this type of long-form content, no matter the genre, what they are truly looking for is a story. Whether it’s through true crime, “hangout,” or heavy science podcasts, there should always be a narrative thread to follow that is at least loosely derived from the traditional tenets of film, television and playwriting. That isn’t to say that there necessarily has to be a 3 act structure, but you at least want to structure each episode in the form of vignettes that make up a larger picture.
Think of the 5-10 minute podcast clips that you typically see on YouTube. They hover around a specific topic, and often have a clear beginning, middle and end. In this sense, you can think of each episode of your show like a standup comedy special. Think about how each joke in an hour long special is structured like a story—a mini-vignette with twists and turns. This all leads to the grand finale–a joke or revelation that ties everything together or illuminates something crucial about the comedian’s personality. This would be your final “anecdote” to your podcast episode: a closing monologue of sorts that references various elements of the “narrative” that you have built up for the past hour.
A common adage of standup comedy is that the best jokes occur when the comedian says something that everyone in the audience has thought of, yet never could figure out how to put into words. This collective experience, when experienced in a theater, leads to a transcendental cathartic experience for all. This is how memorable moments dispelled on a podcast are experienced; albeit in an asynchronous fashion.
Picture: a mother of two, on her way to work after dropping the kids off at school, completely ensconced in a random old episode of Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History. Or a shift worker with airpods, listening to Luke Combs and Theo Von discuss the concept of growing up with your fans. Or a writer/musician from New Jersey washing the dishes late at night after getting home from his job at a podcast studio/production house, listening to the latest episode of “We’re Here to Help” and erupting into full-on belly laughter over the sink as he haphazardly scrubs the skillet. This is your audience: a wide demographic of people with varying interests, careers, lifestyles and senses of humor, spanning across space and time. Picture them all in front of you in a theater, nodding along, entranced as they hang on your every word.
This all serves to create a “Parasocial Relationship” in which your listeners feel as if they know you personally and rely on you to get them through their day. The goal is to earn your listeners’ trust, attention and ultimately, time–as you eventually become such a profound fixture of their everyday lives that they can’t help but tune in each week.
Now that you have the wherewithal to finally take the plunge and step into your podcast hosting shoes, take a listen to some of the podcasts mentioned and start outlining your show!