How to write a podcast script (with a full episode example)

A podcast script is the written plan for an episode: either every word the host will say, or an outline of segments with the key lines written out. To write one, settle the one point of the episode, outline it as timed parts (cold open, intro, segments, breaks, outro), write the intro, transitions, ad reads and outro word for word, draft the rest in short spoken sentences or bullets, mark the music and tape cues, and read it aloud with a timer. Plan on 130 to 150 spoken words a minute, so a fully scripted 20-minute episode runs about 2,600 to 3,000 words.

Scripted, outlined or hybrid

There is no single podcast script format, because a narrated documentary and a two-friends conversation show need different things from the page. Pick the amount of script by format, not by nerves.

Full scripts give you control and accuracy, and they cut editing time because there are fewer false starts to remove. Their risk is a flat, read-aloud voice, which rehearsal fixes. Outlines sound natural and drift: the tangent that felt lively in the room becomes eight minutes of audio you have to cut. New hosts usually do best starting with more script than they think they need and loosening it once they hear themselves played back.

How long the script should be

The National Center for Voice and Speech puts average conversational American English at about 150 words a minute. Podcast guides suggest anything from 120 to 160 for a scripted read, and the right number is the one you measure. Plan at 130 to 150, read one segment at your natural pace with a timer, and correct the table below to your own speed.

Interview and conversation shows don't scale this way. Their script is a page or two however long the episode runs, because the guest supplies most of the words. For those, budget time per segment instead (“guest story, 0:04 to 0:15”) and write the times into the outline, so the host can see from a glance at the clock whether to move on.

The parts of a podcast episode

Nearly every episode, scripted or not, is built from the same few parts. Knowing what each one is for tells you how much to write.

Cold open

A cold open plays before the theme music: a strong clip, a line of scene-setting or a question, dropped in medias res so the listener is inside the story before anyone says the show’s name. Keep it short and write it last, when you know which moment in the episode is the best one. For serialized shows, Rob Rosenthal at Transom, the radio craft site, argues against “previously on” recap montages: open with new action and fold in the reminders listeners need as you go.

Intro

The spoken intro names the show and the host and makes a promise: what this episode is about and what the listener will have by the end. Write that promise as a one-sentence logline before you write anything else; if you can’t, the episode isn’t ready to script. Leave housekeeping (merch, tour dates, last week’s corrections) out of the first minute. The listener hasn’t been given a reason to stay yet.

Segments and transitions

Give the body two to four segments, each with one job: tell the story, hear from the guest, explain what it means, hand the listener something to try. Listeners can’t see headings, so the script has to say them: “Two things changed that year. The first was money.” A transition is one bridge sentence that closes the last segment and opens the next, sometimes with a music sting under it. Signposts and deliberate repetition are old rhetorical devices, and on audio they do the work that paragraphs do on a page.

Ad breaks and sponsor reads

Ads sit in three places: pre-roll (before the episode starts), mid-roll (a break inside it) and post-roll (after it ends). Sponsors send either a finished script or talking points. Turn talking points into a word-for-word read in your own voice and time it, because unscripted ad reads run long. Say plainly that it is an ad: in the US, the FTC’s endorsement guidance says that when a claim is made out loud, the disclosure should be made out loud too. Rules change, so check the current guidance if you take sponsors.

Outro

Restate the one point in a sentence, ask for one thing, tell the listener what’s next, and roll the credits. One call to action is a request; five (rate, review, subscribe, join, follow) are a list listeners skip. Script the outro in full every time, since it comes when you are tired and most tempted to wing it.

How to write a podcast script, step by step

1. Write the episode’s promise in one sentence

   Finish this: “By the end of this episode, you’ll ___.” Hear why a famous first line works. Know which retirement account to open first. Understand why the bridge closed. Every segment has to earn its place by serving that sentence, and the sentence becomes your intro.

2. Gather and log your material

   Collect the research, the interview recordings and the clips. Transcribe the tape and mark the moments you might use with timestamps, so you write around real quotes instead of half-remembered ones. For interviews you haven’t recorded yet, prepare with interview notes and order the questions so the first one is easy and the best one comes after the guest has warmed up.

3. Build a run sheet

   List the parts in order with a start time and a length for each: cold open, intro, segments, breaks, outro. Mark each part “full script” or “outline.” The run sheet keeps the episode honest about time before you’ve written a line.

4. Tell it out loud, then draft

   Explain the segment to a friend, or to your phone’s voice recorder, before you type it. Where you naturally pause, explain twice or skip ahead is where the script needs work. Then draft in the same spoken voice, in the tone of voice the show already has.

5. Script the set pieces word for word

   Intro, every transition, every ad read, the outro. On an interview show, also write the guest introduction and the first question in full. These are short, they repeat from episode to episode, and they are where unprepared hosts lose the listener.

6. Mark the cues

   Add every music, sound and tape cue on its own line, with the clip’s first and last words and its length. Your editor, or you in three days, needs to find each clip without listening through the whole interview.

7. Read it aloud with a timer, then cut

   Record a rough read of the whole thing. Anything you stumble over twice gets rewritten. Anything that runs long gets cut, starting with the second example in a segment. If you have a co-host, do one table read together so each of you knows who carries which line.

Write for the ear

A reader can glance back up the page; a listener can’t. Writing for audio means giving up the things the eye handles and the ear doesn’t: long subordinate clauses, parentheses, dates in brackets, sentences that hold the verb until the end. The same facts, written both ways:

The second version is longer, and it’s easier to follow. Each sentence holds one fact, the story runs in time order, and the last line hands off to what comes next. A few more rules that carry most of the weight:

• Round numbers and say them as you would speak them. “Almost a third,” not “32.7 percent.” “Sixteen years later,” not “in 1813.”
• Name the speaker before the quote. “Here’s how Ruth put it” prepares the ear; an attribution after the quote comes too late.
• Write hard names phonetically the first time they appear: Siobhan [shiv-AWN]. You will not remember on the day.
• Say a web address once, short, and put it in the show notes. Nobody can type while driving.
• Repeat the line that matters. On a page, repetition is padding. On audio, it tells the listener what to keep, and it helps everyone who zoned out for ten seconds.

Short sentences and plain words are most of what readability means on a page; for a listener, they are the whole of it.

Podcast script format and example

Lay out the page

No industry-wide format exists for podcast scripts, but most share the habits of radio scripts: a label for who speaks, cues on their own lines in brackets, and every clip logged with its in and out words. Use whatever labels your team agrees on and keep them consistent from episode to episode.

SHOW NAME · Ep. [number] · "[Episode title]"        Draft [n] · runs [mm:ss]

[MUSIC: theme in, 5 sec, then under]

HOST:   [What you say, in short spoken sentences.] /
        [The line that matters.] //

[TAPE: Guest name, 0:48]
  IN:  "[First words of the clip...]"
  OUT: "[...last words of the clip.]"

HOST:   [Bridge sentence into the next segment.]

[SFX: page turn]
[MUSIC: theme out]

/ = short pause      // = full pause      bold = stress this word

Print it in large type (14 point or more) with wide line spacing, number the pages, and end each page at the end of a sentence, so you never turn a page halfway through a thought with the microphone on. For a video podcast, the two-column A/V script puts what the camera shows beside what the audience hears.

Example: a 12-minute episode

Here is a marked-up script for a 12-minute solo episode with one interview. The show is fictional: First Lines, a weekly show that takes one opening sentence from a book and asks how it works. Episode 31 is about the first line of Pride and Prejudice. Four parts are written word for word and two run on an outline, which is a typical mix.

Notice what the script does. The cold open is the best twenty seconds of the interview, not a greeting. The intro makes a promise the outro keeps. Segment 1 is written in full because its argument depends on exact wording; segment 2 is an outline because Ruth’s tape carries it. The sponsor read starts by saying it is sponsored, and the outro asks for exactly one thing. A blank version of this layout is in the podcast script template.

Mistakes that show up on the recording

• A long warm-up. Two minutes of “how was your week” before the first real sentence. Move the chat to the end or cut it.
• Essay sentences read aloud. If a sentence has a semicolon or a parenthesis, it was written for the eye. Split it.
• No times on the run sheet. Without them, segment 1 eats the episode and the best material gets rushed in the last five minutes.
• Winging the ad read. It runs long, misses the sponsor’s required points or skips the disclosure.
• Clips without cues. “The bit where she talks about her dad” costs your editor twenty minutes. In and out words and a length cost you thirty seconds.

Writing podcast scripts in Strokes

A podcast script is a working document that changes up to the moment you record, and often after. In Strokes, keep a project for the show with a document per episode, plus one for the standing intro, outro and sponsor reads so you copy them instead of rewriting them. Page view gives you numbered pages to print for the recording session. Export to PDF or Word covers a co-host or producer who wants a file, and share to web sends a guest one link to the outline while the file stays on your machine. Version history keeps every draft, so the segment you cut at midnight is one click away if you want it back.

The AI Assistant helps with the read-aloud pass. Select a paragraph, press ⌘K and ask for it rewritten for speaking, with shorter sentences and contractions. Or ask in the Assistant panel for every sentence over 25 words and every number that should be rounded. Read the suggestions aloud before you accept them; your voice is the one on the recording. The same habits carry over to writing a presentation script.