So if I had to pick any medium or art form for anything, I would pick audio because you as the listener have to participate. In fact, audio is nothing without a listener. My name is Phoebe Lett.
I am a producer in the New York Times opinion section, and I work on a show called The Argument. I listen to a lot of podcasts, so I think a lot about... What makes a great podcast versus just a good one or a not very good one?
First of all, that's very subjective. So whatever you think makes a great podcast is what makes a great podcast to you, and you should try emulating that. Figure out what you're responding to. Is it the way that the host makes you feel like you're at a table with them? Is it the funny banter between the co-hosts?
If you can isolate what parts of it you are enjoying, then you can start to see patterns in your listening like oh i only gravitate toward shows that are history explainers it seems and these are really good ones figure out why um but there's there's a few things that any genre of podcast any any podcast listener appreciates and what makes a good podcast across all genres and formats in my opinion podcasts that have a point so podcasts that You open them up and the host says, we talk about everything. That for me is a little bit too broad. And if I really love that person, I will listen.
But if you want a broader audience, if you want to attract new listeners, then it's really good to have a point that you're trying to make in the show or in the episode. Whether that's, we're going to talk about a new video game every week, or we're going to talk about times that we... Met a dog. It could be anything.
But if I know as a listener and I'm told in the introduction that I'm going to hear this, this, and this, I feel like, okay, there's a point. I get to decide if it's worth my while. If it sounds like something I'm interested in, I'll stick around. If I don't get that at the top and it just seems like it's kind of rambling and ranting and they're just talking about their weekend and whatever, and I don't already love these people, I'm going to A good host is the Other thing that I think regardless of genre or regardless of format is always something that makes a show from good to great. So a good host requires prep.
So preparing beforehand, whether it's for an interview or to tell a story, feeling like this person is really in the know about what they're talking about and they've practiced. This is not the first and only time that they're. Reading this or saying this, a good host not just is knowledgeable, but has a lot of excitement that you can hear in the way that they're speaking to others or to the audience. Oh yeah, another thing a good host does is leads the listener onto a surprising or suspenseful or interesting path.
So a listener will tune in in the beginning and if they're given a little tease of what's going to come or given, you know, a little bit of foresight as to... This episode gets really crazy. Just a little bit of the like hook is a host that cares about me wanting to listen and is thinking, I can tell, is thinking about me as the listener and not just them as the talker.
That's why I love audio too because I feel like an active participant. I am a part of the audio because my ears have to be there and my imagination has to come too.