Exercise 2 – Compare and Contrast 2 Podcast Episodes

The more episodes a podcaster produces, the better his approach to audio production will become. In fact, many things may change over the lifetime of a podcast, including its structure or focus.

Instructions: Choose a podcast to listen to, preferably one that’s been around for a while, with at least 50 or even 100 episodes. Using the same procedure as Exercise 1, listen to two episodes of the same podcast, one early episode and one more recent. Write down the timecode and make notes about each segment. After you’ve listened to each episode, go back over your timeline and flesh out your notes, describing what happened in each segment. Be sure to include as many details as you can.

Compare the two episodes and answer the following questions:

1. How different are the two podcast episodes?
2. What changes has the podcaster made and why do you think he made them?
3. How do the new elements improve the podcast? If you don’t think they improve the podcast, why is that? What’s missing?
4. What elements are the same? How have those elements changed for the better or worse?
5. How has the production quality changed? How do the multiple elements flow together? Does the podcaster seem more assured in his delivery?
6. Are there changes made to the podcast between the earlier and later episodes that you didn’t expect? Have the changes strengthened or diminished the program? What would you do differently?

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