What Do You Need to Create a Podcast? Inside the Podcast Production Process

The more useful question is what kind of podcast do you actually want to make, and who is it genuinely for?

Those two questions will shape every decision that follows, from format and host to recording setup and distribution strategy. And increasingly, they’ll also determine whether your podcast stays as a piece of media or becomes something bigger: a content platform, a community, or a media brand in its own right.

Podcast Production in Three Parts 

Production breaks into three broad phases: pre-production (planning, scripting, guest coordination), recording, and post-production (editing, mixing, distribution). Each matters, but it’s pre-production where the strategic decisions get made, and where most of the value is created or lost.

For Broadcast Revolution, full-service production across client series, including Logistics UK’s Leading on Logistics, Brightwell’s Pensions Unpacked and UCB’s Hypothesise That! begins long before anyone sits in front of a microphone. Concept development, editorial planning, guest scheduling, format decisions – these are the foundations that determine whether a podcast makes a real, measurable impact against business goals. 

What Happens During Podcast Pre-Production?

Pre-production is where you answer the hard questions. What is each episode actually about? What does your listener gain from it? Who are the podcast guests, and why are they the right voice for this topic?

For membership organisations like Logistics UK, this meant structuring each episode of Leading on Logistics around a specific industry challenge (such as decarbonisation, skills shortages and supply chain resilience) with an investigative interview format designed to go deeper than a standard Q&A. The result, hosted by former BBC producer Mike Young, gave members a reason to return every quarter: the feeling that the industry was actually creating conversation, not issuing soundbites.

Kaz McBride, guest production manager at Flight Story (home of Diary of a CEO) described this kind of audience-first thinking in granular terms at a Broadcast Revolution event. “Everything is tested,” she said. “Titles, thumbnails, episode descriptions – every single element, every single episode.” That culture of continuous experimentation, built up over years at Diary of a CEO, now shapes how every show across the company is built and grown.

How Are Podcasts Recorded and Edited?

Recording can happen in a professional studio, in a home setup, or remotely via platforms like Riverside. The right answer depends on your budget, your guests and your ambitions for the content – professional studio quality will be a priority for most brands. 

For UCB’s Hypothesise That!, episodes were filmed across multiple locations – including a three-camera studio setup and UCB’s offices in Brussels – with remote guest integration allowing contributors from Stanford University and the Decentralised Trials and Research Alliance to participate without geographic limitation. For Pensions Unpacked, hosted by broadcaster Georgie Frost, a filmed studio format produced social cutdowns and teaser clips alongside the full-length audio release.

That multi-format output is increasingly vital. Al Riddell, Head of Factual Podcasts at Global, was clear at the same event: “If you’re not on video, you’re just missing out. It’s just part of what people expect.” His view, echoed across the industry, is that video is a key aspect of any podcast serious about discoverability and growth.

What Software Do You Need for Podcast Production?

At the most basic level, you need recording software, a DAW for editing, and a hosting platform to distribute your RSS feed to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Acast and others. Global uses its own platform, Captivate, alongside the major gateways.

The more relevant question for most organisations isn’t which software to choose, it’s whether in-house teams have the expertise to use it well enough to produce something that reflects the brand. Post-production for a professional series typically includes multi-camera mixing, sound design, music, and the creation of social assets from every episode. That’s a significant production overhead, which is why many organisations opt for full-service partnerships.

How Long Does it Take to Produce a Podcast Episode?

Longer than most people expect. A one-hour episode might involve several hours of pre-production planning, a two-to-three-hour record (McBride noted that Paul C. Brunson’s relationship podcast regularly records for around three hours per episode), and then editing, sound design, approval rounds and asset creation in post.

Some podcasts can even see recording sessions that run to five hours, which are edited down to a single episode. The ratio of raw material to finished content is rarely 1:1, and the editing process – identifying the moments that land, removing what doesn’t, building pace and rhythm – is a craft in its own right.

Do You Need a Studio to Start a Podcast?

No, but there are caveats. For example, you need to think carefully about your environment. Background noise, poor acoustics and inconsistent audio quality are among the fastest ways to lose a listener. A treated room, a decent microphone and attention to recording conditions can get you a long way – but it’s important to flag that you may start to see strain as soon as you need more than one guest, one location, or one format. 

For client-facing or brand podcasts, studio production typically delivers something a home setup can’t. This includes consistency, polish that communicates credibility, and the logistical infrastructure to handle multiple guests, locations and formats.

Accord Healthcare’s The Unmentionables series with Jeff Stelling, which tackled stigmatised topics in prostate cancer care, required the kind of careful, safe environment that professional production provides: multi-camera filming, remote guest integration and considered post-production that handled sensitive subject matter with appropriate care.

What Makes a Podcast Sound Professional?

Sound quality matters, but it’s not the whole answer. The most technically polished podcast in the world will lose its audience if the conversation is dull. Al Riddell described what separates a good podcast guest from a good radio guest: “With a podcast, if the standard radio interview is the Amazon delivery guy coming in, handing over the parcel and leaving – the podcast is the Amazon delivery guy coming in for a cup of tea. You get to know them.”

That quality of authentic, extended conversation is what audiences are increasingly seeking. The Halifax Pocket Money Podcast – a six-part series on children’s money habits, featuring a celebrity episode with Candice Braithwaite – ranked in the top 25% of all podcasts in its first week. The format worked not because it pitched a savings account, but because it met parents in a conversation they were already having.

Should You Produce a Podcast In-House or Outsource It?

The honest answer is that it depends on what you’re making it for. If the goal is building an ongoing content platform that extends into video, social, community and thought leadership – as it was for Brightwell, UCB, Logistics UK, Halifax and Accord Healthcare – full-service production delivers consistency, strategic thinking and multichannel output that’s difficult to replicate without dedicated resource.

Rona Hunnisett of Logistics UK put it directly: “Working with Broadcast Revolution has changed the way we actually communicate as an organisation.” Leading on Logistics has run for over two years and now serves as a key content pillar, not just a podcast series.

What Are the Biggest Podcast Production Mistakes to Avoid?

Treating the episode as the end product. The most successful podcasts today are built with the second and third waves in mind from the start: the social clips that drive discoverability, the video content that builds community, the archive that keeps working long after the episode drops. As Al Riddell noted, a podcast is now “a landing page – for the video, the audio, the social channels, the Discord server, the newsletter, the communities that pop up online.”

The other mistake is starting without a clear sense of the audience. McBride’s point about Diana McCall‘s show targeting midlifers – “we’re not going to talk about leaving university for the first time, because although we have a small percentage of younger listeners, that’s not our core audience” – applies equally to brand podcasts. Knowing exactly who you’re making it for, and being ruthless about serving that audience, is what separates the shows that build communities from the ones that stall after a handful of episodes.

The biggest takeaway across all of these examples is this: the question of what you need to create a podcast is inseparable from why you’re creating it. Get the strategy right, and the production decisions follow. Get it wrong, and even the best equipment in the world won’t create the impact you’re looking for.