What is a podcast, why you should make one, and how to start it

Podcasts are the new way of listening to the radio and democratizing its content. Radio programs made by amateurs that in many cases have nothing to envy of those of the large networks in terms of quality of content or production.

Years ago, podcasts were a concept reserved for the most discerning or experimental internet users, but nowadays anyone can listen to them. In times of working from home , exercising outdoors, and spending much more time on public transport, listening to a regular program more aligned with your interests than mainstream radio is a great way to be entertained, learn, and discover new things.

What is a podcast?

The only thing that defines exactly what a podcast is is that it is a program in audio format published on the Internet. Apart from that, you can experiment with its content, duration, periodicity, collaborators ... This format has its origins in the limitations of the Internet at the beginning of the century, when there was less download speed and storage in blogs.

The format was absorbed by small groups of users who saw that format to express their ideas and knowledge and has been experimenting with content from technology newscasts to exploring the limits of pop culture.

From a more philosophical point of view, the podcast is more of a movement to democratize communication and radio entertainment. But from a purely technical point of view, it is an internet radio to which you can add small visual content to accompany it.

This podcast format has grown and has been adopted by absolutely all the major radio networks in the country with the success of La Vida Moderna, La Rosa de los Vientos and other programs such as Almighty, Here are dragons, El Partidazo de la Cope and Nadie. knows nothing led by radio experts from Onda Cero and Cadena Ser among others. But in the same way we can find the postpop satirical podcast Monos Con Pistolas, Mr. Ming's Backstage to remember movies from the 70s to 90s, Tremble Boys Tremble in which they read all the books of Nightmares by RL Stine, or Cruising Tom in the that thoroughly reviews all the movies in which Tom Cruise has appeared, commented on by someone who adores him and someone who can't stand him.

We also have some run by famous youtubers like Yo Internet, or super hits like Camp Krypton or Flight 180. This variety of ideas reflects the punk character of the podcast format compared to traditional radio. Very surely if you search, you can find several podcasts that will adapt to your tastes and interests or will encourage you to discover things that you did not know you liked.

Why you should have a podcast

Is it imperative to have it? No not at all. But creating your own podcast can be a great experiment that can help you learn to express your ideas, discover facets of your communication, and even discover or rediscover new passions. It is also a great way to have a project in common with friends and that will help you to get to know each other better with the stories that come out of the recordings and the creation of the podcast.

Thanks to the podcast community, you will be able to meet people by exposing your ideas and opening yourself up, and people will be able to receive and respond to you. With a little dedication you will be able to generate a small, but very dedicated community and you will open yourself up to being able to collaborate with people.

What can I make a home radio show from?

You can do it whatever you want, as long as you have something to tell. You can do it with a group of friends and even alone, as long as you can take it and handle it alone. The theme, duration and periodicity is free and can be limited, periodic or irregular as long as you think you can talk and comment on it.

Some ideas that we launch on the air for the theme of your podcast, but in the end it depends on what you want to talk about and share to the world:

• Start watching a movie series with absolute fans of it.
• Discovering the strange catalog of Filmin or Netflix movies.
• Watch the worst rated anime on MyAnimeList.
• Commenting little stories that people may find interesting.
• Talk about failed tech projects.
• Secrets and special places of your city or country.

Let's be clear: the most you need for a podcast is the idea, the people, the enthusiasm, and the equipment to record and edit it. Recording a podcast can be a first step toward starting a personal project or one with friends.

What equipment do I need to record a podcast

First of all, and most important: the microphones. Ideally, each person should have theirs for more uniform sound, which will be a great help in editing. It helps that each microphone has its own support and protector against blows and blows so that the audio recording does not suffer. The ideal model for microphones is the dynamic one because it is unidirectional to pick up only the sound of your voice and what you project directly.

You may want to buy a mixer if you want to sound professional or spend less time on sound adjustments when producing. This mixer will allow us to adjust the levels, gain and more of each individual microphone, but it will take up space and we will have to invest an initial time in making sure that the connections of the microphones are valid, since the USB microphones will not be able to be connected if the table uses XLR. To that we must add a dedicated sound card for our PC that is capable of processing the incoming sound without losing quality.

Finally, have your audio recording and editing program ready. The simplest answer here is to use Audacity, a free program that lets you record, edit, and edit audio tracks with powerful tweaking tools to normalize audio and remove ambient noise. You can also use the Audition program if you have the Adobe suite.

If you're wondering whether you can record a podcast remotely, the answer is yes, but it's not ideal. Skype is a widely used tool, but it's known for its latency and significant loss of sound quality. On the other hand, Discord is the platform that best suits your needs. It offers voice chat, video chat, and supports various bots that natively improve coordination and sound quality. For a final audio adjustment, you can use accessories like the Creative Sound Blaster 4 to enhance the quality of the call during the podcast recording.

How to prepare a podcast

Once you have a theme, a name, and some visuals to help people distinguish your podcast from the crowd, it's time to prepare it. Contrary to what it might seem, being an amateur format doesn't mean it doesn't require minimal preparation to achieve a convincing result. It might not seem like it, but podcasts that are almost as successful as professional radio programs require the same or even more preparation. Unless the whole group is a master of improvisation and everyone is on the same page, simply improvising won't work. We're not saying you won't produce a podcast with a minimum level of quality and structure if you don't prepare, but it will be uncomfortable to record, and the experience won't be pleasant at all.

We can summarize it in that it is important to prepare the content of the podcast. The points to talk about, the structure of the sections, the comments prepared ... Any preparation that helps you coordinate and have a better flow of content is going to be better. Because remember, a podcast is still a radio program, but homemade, and as such, it has its structure and operation.

Once we have recorded a program that we like, touch the sound editing. You will have to normalize the sound so that the voices are heard well, remove the bad takes and adjust the levels so that it has a good quality. It is a process that can be lengthy if you are not working with a mixer or taking notes of which parts to cut. We can't stress it enough, but pre-preparation and taking notes of adjustments to make greatly alleviates the work in the end.

Platforms for uploading podcasts

Once the program is ready, it's time to upload it to platforms so people can listen. Some of the most popular are Spotify, Ivoox, Podio, Acast, and Apple Podcasts. There's also the option of uploading it to YouTube, which would be ideal if the YouTube algorithm recommends it to people who might find it interesting. However, this would require editing a video to upload to YouTube, even if it's just a static image.

After uploading it, you have to realize that we are not going to become stars overnight. By their nature, podcasts have somewhat small audiences, but very dedicated ones. If after a year you have obtained a thousand subscribers, think that there are a thousand people who dedicate their time to listen to you.

For the promotion, the ideal is to start with a Twitter and Facebook account to be able to announce new episodes of your podcast. You can share it with friends and family who may be interested or meet people who are interested. Right now we are in a time when more and more podcasts are consumed, and it is possible that with a good song, a regularity and some good work, you can make a podcast that fulfills you.

Best podcasts from Spain

Some of the best podcasts in Spain, to listen to something different, or for those who are learning the language and want to listen to conversations.

• Proletarian and Parasite: recapitulating episodes of The Simpsons, with curiosities and stories related to the events of the chapters.
• Monkeys with Gun: commenting on pop culture content on different topics.
• Almighty: Cultural podcasts that discuss the life and work of an actor or comedian.
• Nobody knows anything: Podcast by comedians Andreu Buenafuente and Berto Romero, with guests discussing different current and social topics.
• Tremble, Boys, Tremble: Podcast that reads several Nightmares books by RL Stine one by one, with many comments from those who read it, from an adult perspective.
• The orbit of Endor: Podcasts dedicated to "geek gluttony" such as movies and video games.