Five Podcast Mistakes To Avoid

The most common miscues made by new podcasters

Most podcasts aren’t born successful, brimming with caffeinated buzz, recommended by influencers and pulling healthy listener numbers right away. In most cases, podcasts grow by beta testing formats, ideas, tempo, narration and even hosts.

For example, comedian Paula Poundstone started her first podcast as Live At The Poundstone Institute and after several months then retooled with her highly successful Nobody Listens To Paula Poundstone podcast. Showing keen analytic skills, the Poundstone team decided to keep what works — her interaction with co-host Adam Felber — and her comedic tour into various careers coated with improvisational humor and actual learning.

Even an established NPR game show like Ask Me Another tinkered with its format two years ago, cutting in half the number of contestants and expanding the celebrity guest interviews.

As famed UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once said, “Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be.”

Photo by Tommy Lopez from Pexels

Podcasters make mistakes or simply discover that changes need to be made.

Here, we will review some common changes podcasts — and podcasters — make to improve their shows.

Too Much Happy Talk