Glossary: Podcasting from Scratch

Every key term from the course, in plain English. When a lesson says a word you don't know, it lives here.

Show concept

The specific promise your podcast makes: who it's for and what they get. 'Marketing for dental practices' is a concept; 'business chat' isn't.

Niche

A narrow slice of a big topic. The narrower your niche, the easier you are to find and the more loyal your listeners.

Cadence

How often you publish — weekly, biweekly, monthly. The right cadence is the one you can keep on your worst week.

Room tone

The background sound of your recording space. Taming it — soft furnishings, closed doors, right time of day — matters more than mic price.

Plosives

The popping 'p' and 'b' sounds that hit the mic. Fixed with mic placement (slightly off-axis) or a $10 pop filter.

Noise floor

The constant background hiss in a recording. A low noise floor (quiet room, right gain) makes editing ten times easier.

Rough cut

The first editing pass: removing mistakes, long pauses, and dead air. Gets you 80% of the way there.

Loudness normalization

Setting your episode's overall volume to podcast standards (around -16 LUFS for stereo) so it plays at the right level everywhere.

RSS feed

The machine-readable file that tells Apple, Spotify, and every other app where your episodes live. Your host generates it; you submit it once per directory.

Podcast host

The service that stores your audio files and generates your RSS feed. Not the same as your website host.

ID3 tags

The metadata embedded in your MP3 — title, episode number, artwork. Directories read these to display your episode correctly.

Audiogram

A short video clip of your audio with a waveform animation and captions — the standard format for promoting episodes on social media.

Launch runway

The episodes and promotional assets you prepare before day one — typically 3–5 finished episodes plus clips and posts.

Back catalog

All your published episodes. New listeners binge it, which is why a strong first ten episodes matters more than a strong episode fifty.

Call to action (CTA)

The one thing you ask listeners to do — subscribe, rate, join the list. One per episode; more than one means none get done.