As a writer for a small TV company, I sometimes get asked to do the odd Podcast, which is an honor and a really cool thing to happen.
Honestly, I love it. It's a chance to speak my favourite language (college football) with people from a country that I love (the US, and in particular the South), and also give my opinion, which might be liked, and might not be.
I once gave an interview to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and I was standing outside a bar at the SEC Championship Game, and one of the guys said: "Y'all aren't an English journalist who did an interview with the AJC about the SEC and schedules, did ya?" Considering he was around 6 ft 3 and filled with booze, I admitted it, but albeit apologetically. I was glad that a friend came along at the nick of time, or I could have been toast. The moral of the story: Cigarette breaks are bad for your health.
Anyway, I was offered the chance of doing a SEC preview by an online podcast station (we're not going to mention their names, because that would be beyond the pail).
After doing this - and others, I have some commandments for Podcast hosts:
1) If you are interviewing someone, get the technology done properly. Learn how to record a Skype Call for a podcast. If you are incapable of doing so, work out how to record a Google Hangout. If you can't do that, invest in a digital recorder or use your phone. Oh, and during the Google Hangout, make sure that you have the strength of signal at your end that you don't cut out every 2 mins. It'll make you seem at best foolish, and at worst moronic.
2) No-one wants to hear the hosts' opinion during guest-time. If you've invited a guest on the show, don't go on for five minutes after giving your guest 2 minutes of air-time. You'll seem like you are dominating and no-one really wants to hear you spouting off about your experiences of 1960s SEC Football, particularly when you were born in the 1990s. It seems disingenuous.
3) Quit the self-promotion. No-one cares about the book that you're promoting. Especially if it was written by you. And if the guy you're interviewing HASN'T written a book, then hearing "Well, in my book..." doesn't exactly make them want to be around.
4) Work out timelines. If a segment's only for 20-25 mins, don't stretch it out. Otherwise, it'll seem weird if your guest suddenly goes "I've got to go now", and cuts you off. Particularly if you've been talking for a lot of those minutes.
5) Do your research. If you're being nasty about someone, at least know what position he plays in. If you're going to rail on Dorial Green-Beckham at Missouri, don't say: "People thought he would be the second coming of Bo Jackson or Herschel Walker", because they didn't. DG-B's a wide receiver, and therefore unlikely to play in the Bo Jackson/Herschel Walker role.
6) Try not to stutter.... Let the guest do that. You're meant to sound confident. If you want to lessons on how to sound confident, find the 'Around Aggieland' podcast from your iTunes. Those guys are really great.
7) Try not to repeat yourself - Unless you're 10 whiskies down, you'll sound like you don't know what you're talking about.
8) Have some confidence!! You don't know how many people will read your podcast, so you might as well have some fun. Enjoy life. Enjoy it.
9) If you don't like what the guest says, feel free to disagree, but don't shoot him down as someone who 'knows less than you'. It'll end up ****ing him off.
10) When you finish with the conversation, don't disassociate yourself with him via social media so he can't get back in contact with you. He'll end up writing a really angry article. Something like this.
