How to Make a Podcast

New at the University of King’s College, a podcasting workshop open to the public, running Tuesdays from Jan 30–Mar 19, 2024

Bring your podcast idea and we’ll help you build a roadmap for it and show you the tools you need to get there.

This 8-week (8 session) synchronous online Introduction to Podcasting workshop, is a non-credit offering, featuring instructors from Canada and the US who are among the most experienced podcast makers in the business.

Students will come away with an understanding of the podcast environment, a podcast plan and skills to execute it, along with insights on how to make it successful.

Classes will consist of lectures, listening samples, exercises to help build skills and a production plan.

 

The basic details

When | Tuesdays, 7–9 p.m. Atlantic, January 30–March 19.

Max enrolment | 12

Cost | $599 + HST

15% discounts for King’s alumni, staff and students, and members of the Mi’kmaq and African Nova Scotian communities

 


 

Podcast Workshop Registration form

 


 

Workshop Outline

The Podcasting Landscape & Getting Started
7 p.m. AST, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024

Hour 1 – The Podcasting Landscape

A welcome, and an introduction to the fast-evolving ecology of podcasting. We’ll talk about podcast formats, what makes a great podcast, the skills you need and a bit about the financial model that supports podcasting.

Instructor – Pauline Dakin

Hour 2 – Getting started with recording and editing

We’ll introduce the tools and skills for recording, and demonstrate how to use a free desktop audio workstation (ProTools Intro) to do simple edits.

Instructor – Shawn Cole from Pacific Content

 


Show Values & Development
7 p.m. AST, Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024

How do you make your show distinct and help it find an audience? This session will focus on all the choices you make such as pacing and tone, host(s), series art, title, music, to make your show stand out.

Instructor – Karen Burgess from Pacific Content

 


Podcast Show Concept & Producing
7 p.m. AST, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024

How do you conceptualize and then prepare to make your podcast? We’ll find out what’s involved in producing a podcast.

Instructor – Golda Arthur

 


Interviewing for Podcasts
7 p.m. AST, Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024

An interview is more than a conversation. This class will show you how to prepare for an interview, including chasing guests and researching, conducting it and making the editorial choices for editing it.

Instructor – Golda Arthur

 


Structuring & Writing
7 p.m. AST, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024

How to storyboard and structure both an episode and a season, developing “rolling hooks” to keep your audience listening.

Instructor – Karen Burgess

 


Writing for Performance
7 p.m. AST, Tuesday, Mar 5, 2024

Learn how to write a podcast script so that your or your host can deliver it in a way that’s conversational and compelling. Then get tips on performance for more professional sound.

Instructor – Leah-Simone Bowen

 


Sound Design
7 p.m. ADT, Tuesday, Mar 12, 2024

Every great podcast has a sonic world; the sound and music that works with the interviews and script to make it immersive and compelling. This class will introduce these concepts get you thinking about sound, the superpower of podcasting.

Instructor – Shawn Cole

 


Finding (and growing) your Audience
7 p.m. ADT, Tuesday, Mar. 19, 2024

How do you know if you’re connecting? Dan is an expert on audience development and will tell you what you can do to find and keep your audience.

Instructor – Dan Misener

 


Instructors

Golda Arthur is an award-winning executive producer and audio journalist in New York City. She began her career in audio at CBC Radio in Canada, where she was a reporter and producer, and went on to produce Newshour, the flagship news program for the BBC World Service in London. She teaches audio at Columbia Journalism School.

Leah-Simone Bowen is a podcast and audio producer with CBC podcasts where she works in both development and in the production of various series. She is the creator and co-host of the hit irreverent history series The Secret Life of Canada, and the host of Podcast Playlist, a weekly show that also airs across the US on PRX. In addition to her work in podcasting, she is an award-winning playwright, producer and director who has worked across Canada and the US.

Karen Burgess is the executive producer of Pacific Content. She has run daily current affairs programs for the CBC, headed up the CBC Vancouver newsroom, and created content for pretty much every digital, audio, and broadcast platform you can use to tell a story. She writes a regular blog that shares podcast insights and wisdom.

Shawn Cole is the Head of Audio Design and Production at Pacific Content Podcasting, where he leads an award-winning team of sound designers who help brands tell stories with audio. As a principal owner of Fader Master Studios in Vancouver, Shawn spent 15 years finding unique ways to create compelling soundscapes for music and storytelling.

Pauline Dakin is an award-winning podcaster and journalist who teaches all things audio at the University of King’s College School of Journalism, Writing & Publishing in Halifax. Her CBC podcast Run, Hide, Repeat was the number one podcast in Canada in late 2022, was downloaded more than a million times, and was named one of the top podcasts of 2022 by Amazon Podcasts. It also won a prestigious New York Festivals award.

Dan Misener is the co-founder of the podcast growth agency Bumper. Before that he was Director of Audience Development at Pacific Content, and spent a decade working in public radio at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), where he was involved in the CBC’s earliest podcasting efforts. He’s taught podcasting and audio storytelling at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, the RTA School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University, and through the Podcast Career Accelerator program at the Hot Docs Podcast Festival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Banner photo: Unsplash photo by Austin Distel