Coming up with episode ideas for your podcast—or any creative endeavor, really—can be challenging. With so much going on in our day-to-day lives, it can be difficult to force inspiration to strike when it’s convenient for you.
In this post, we’ll teach you four simple steps to build an ever-expanding list of ideas for your podcast.
How to Come Up With Podcast Ideas in 4 Steps
Having a constant supply of podcast topics and ideas to pull from is easier than you might think once you get started. In fact, you can create an extensive pool of episode topics by implementing these four simple steps into your podcasting process.
Step 1: Have a Place for All Your Podcast Ideas
All the idea-generation strategies in the world will not help you come up with podcast episode topics if you aren’t keeping track of new ideas when they hit you.
Some simple options for keeping track of new podcast ideas are:
- Writing them down in the Notes app on your phone.
- Writing them down in a spreadsheet, Google Doc, or other easily accessible document.
- Keeping a pen-and-paper notebook with you at all times and physically writing down new podcast ideas there.
- Dictating voice memos to yourself on your phone when new ideas come to you and transcribing them to one of the above-mentioned options later for easier recall.
Whatever you find easiest for recording and saving new ideas is fine! The point is just to have one central location where you can go for inspiration when you need new episode ideas.
Step 2: Save Every Idea
The key to always having new ideas for your podcast is making sure you save them every time a new idea comes to you.
Don’t judge your ideas before writing them down. If you do, you’ll probably talk yourself out of saving 50% or more of them. Instead, take the stance that there are no bad ideas.
Every time you have an idea for a topic or question related to your podcast, save it in your designated tracking place.
The goal is simply to write down every idea that comes to you so you have a pool to draw from when you need topics. Even “bad” ideas can spark better ideas later, so keeping them in your notes can be helpful.
You might be surprised to see just how many ideas you actually have once you start recording them all in one place.
Step 3: Seek Out Podcast Topic Inspiration
But what if you don’t have a ton of podcast ideas popping into your head each day?
In that case, get into the habit of priming your brain to generate new episode ideas by seeking out topic inspiration.
Here are a few places you can draw podcast inspiration from:
- Other podcasts you like and admire, even if they aren’t about the same topic as yours. How could you put your own twist on what your favorite shows do that resonate with you?
- Use search trends and intent tools like Google Trends, Ahrefs, or Semrush to see what people are searching for related to your podcast.
- Look at what content related to your podcast is trending on social media apps like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, etc.
- Ask your listeners and social media followers directly what subjects they want to hear more about on your podcast. If you don’t have enough of a following to do this yet, ask your friends and family what they’d want to hear or learn more about.
- Consider what topics you are personally very interested in. Covering a topic you are highly passionate about is often palpable to listeners and can resonate with them because of the energy you put into covering that subject.
- Who are the subject matter experts in your niche? Are the guests you could interview to get an additional perspective?
- Chat with your cohost (if you have one) about the topics that interest them or topics that you both have unique perspectives on.
Step 4: Set Aside Time for Podcast Idea Brainstorming
Sometimes, in order to have new ideas, you need to set aside time for yourself to just experience having those ideas.
It sounds so simple that you might brush this step aside, but it works. If new podcast ideas and episode topics aren’t coming to you in other moments of your life, set aside a little bit of time each day to just sit down and brainstorm.
For example, you could hold yourself accountable for brainstorming ideas in the following ways:
- “For the next five minutes, I’m going to write down every episode idea that comes into my head, no matter how good or bad I think it is.”
- “I’m going to come up with 10 new topic ideas and I can’t leave this spot until I do.”
By simply setting aside time to exclusively focus on generating new ideas, you can get your brain in the habit of brainstorming. You might be surprised how many other ideas pop into your head throughout the day after you’ve done this, too.
How to Choose a Good Podcast Topic
Once you’ve spent some time brainstorming and saving podcast topics, it’s a lot easier to choose which ones you want to create episodes on.
If you need some help deciding which podcast topics to make into full-fledged episodes, consider the following:
- Which topics interest you most?
- Which are your listeners most likely to be highly interested in?
- What topics can you and your cohost talk about at length?
- Do any of your topics align with current world or news events?
The more time you spend getting into the habit of thoughtfully cultivating your podcast ideas, the better you’ll get at it!
