Ship Your Pod

Guide

You film a talk show and need someone to turn it into posts

A podcast or interview show needs four editing jobs done well: picking the moments worth clipping, captioning them, pulling thumbnails from the footage, and writing titles and descriptions that match what was said. Color grading, motion graphics and fancy transitions sit far down the list for a show that is two people talking. Hire, or set up, for the four jobs first and judge the rest by whether it adds a reason to watch.

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Clipping is most of the job

The full episode will be watched by people who already like you. New viewers meet you through a short clip, so the editor's main skill is finding the thirty to ninety seconds where a guest says something clear, surprising or useful, and cutting it so the point lands inside the first few seconds. A good clip has a start that sets up the question, a middle where the answer arrives, and an end that stops before the conversation drifts.

Ask for several clips per episode with a reason attached to each one. A reason like "the guest contradicts the common advice about pricing" tells you why the clip was chosen and lets you decide quickly which ones to post. A clip delivered with no reason leaves you rewatching to work out whether it is any good.

Captions that match what was said

Captions let a clip work on a muted phone and carry it for anyone who turns the sound up late. The two things that matter are accuracy and timing: the words on screen should be the words that came out of the speaker's mouth, appearing as they are spoken, with a guest's name spelled the way the guest spells it. A misspelled name in a caption is the mistake a guest will notice before anything else.

Give your editor a list of names, product terms and recurring phrases from your show once, and expect it to be used from then on. If your editor or service has a spelling list in settings, fill it in before the next episode goes in, and add the guest's name for a particular episode in the notes for that episode.

Thumbnails and titles come from the footage

A talk show thumbnail works when it is a real frame of a real face mid-reaction, with a few words that pose the question the episode answers. Stock graphics and template layouts look like every other channel. Ask for several thumbnails pulled from frames of the episode so you can pick the expression that fits the title.

Titles should be specific to what was said. "How she doubled her list" is a worse title than the actual claim the guest made, in her words, shortened. Writing that title means watching the whole episode, so it makes sense for the same person or service to handle the clipping, the titles and the thumbnails together.

Descriptions, chapters and post text

Chapters let a listener jump to the segment they searched for, and they double as a table of contents for the description. The description itself should say what the episode covers, name the guest, and list the chapters with timestamps. Post text for each platform is a separate job, because the line that works above a vertical clip reads differently from the line under a full episode.

The cleanup that matters, and the cleanup that does not

Trimming dead air and filler words makes a recorded conversation feel sharper without changing what anyone said. Voice cleanup matters when a guest recorded on a laptop mic. Framing that follows the person speaking, with a split screen when two people talk over each other, keeps a vertical clip watchable on a phone.

Color grading, animated lower thirds, sound design and B-roll are film skills. They are fine to have, and a show with a budget can add them, but a plainly captioned clip of a good answer does more for you than a beautifully graded clip of a dull one. If an editor's reel is all transitions and motion graphics, ask to see the clips they cut from an interview.

How to brief each episode

Keep the brief short and specific to the episode. The guest's name spelled correctly, the one moment you want kept, and anything to leave out, such as a segment the guest asked to cut or a time range where the audio dropped. That is enough for a competent editor to work from, and it is what the single notes box on an upload form is for.

Expect the brief to apply to that episode only. If you want a standing rule, like always cutting the ad read, put it in the notes every time or keep a short checklist you paste in. Names and terms are the exception: keep those in a settings list so they carry forward.

Check the delivery before you post

Watch each clip once on your phone, because that is where it will be seen. Check the first three seconds, the caption spelling, and the last frame. Then ask for changes in plain words: cut it earlier, drop the part after the laugh, fix the spelling of the town. A service that lets you request a change on a specific clip from the delivery page saves the back and forth of describing timestamps in email.

Post from your own accounts, on your own schedule. Nothing should go out until you have chosen it, and your guest can get a copy to post on their side if you want the reach of their audience too.

Where Ship Your Pod fits

If the editing is the part that keeps you from posting, send the episode instead. 8 to 15 Shorts come back within a day (same day on Pro), captioned, scored and ranked best first, with teasers, thumbnails from real frames, and the title, description and chapters. You post them yourself, full quality, no watermark. Pro is $149 a month for 12 episodes, 15 Shorts each, plus the Facebook cuts, the newsletter and the article. Starter is $59 a month for 4 episodes. The price goes down every month you stay. Month to month, cancel any time. Pro has a 14-day free trial for your first episode.

Pro: up to 180 Shorts, 36 teasers, 60 thumbnails and 24 Facebook cuts a month, from 12 episodes. Starter: up to 32 Shorts, 8 teasers and 12 thumbnails a month, from 4 episodes.

Before you hire anyone or sign up for anything, write the four jobs on a list: clips with reasons, exact captions with names spelled right, thumbnails from real frames, and titles taken from what the guest said. Judge every editor against that list.

Questions

Do I need a video editor for a podcast that is only two people talking?

You need the clipping, captions, thumbnails and titles done for every episode. Whether a person or a service does that is a budget decision; the tasks are the same either way.

What should I give an editor with each episode?

The episode file or link, the guest's name spelled correctly, one moment you want kept, and anything to leave out. A longer brief rarely improves the result.

Should captions be cleaned up or exact?

Exact words, with filler trimmed from the audio so the captions and the voice still match. Rewritten captions drift from the mouth movements and viewers notice.

How many clips should one episode produce?

Enough that you can post a few a week without stretching, usually several Shorts plus a teaser. Rank them and post the strongest first; the weaker ones can wait or be dropped.

What does Ship Your Pod cost?

Pro is $149 a month for 12 episodes, 15 Shorts each, plus the Facebook cuts, the newsletter and the article. Starter is $59 a month for 4 episodes. The price goes down every month you stay. Month to month, cancel any time. Pro has a 14-day free trial for your first episode. Pro: up to 180 Shorts, 36 teasers, 60 thumbnails and 24 Facebook cuts a month, from 12 episodes. Starter: up to 32 Shorts, 8 teasers and 12 thumbnails a month, from 4 episodes.

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Last updated 2026-10-23.