You’ve agreed to record an episode for the Science for Policy podcast. Great! Here’s what you need to know about how it works.
Podcast episodes take the form of a friendly one-on-one conversation. Don’t think of it like a conference presentation. Think of it more like an informal interview with a journalist — but one where you can decide what to talk about. You can choose the topic and we agree the questions in advance.
We’ll have the conversation over the internet using Skype, Zoom, or whatever platform is comfortable for you. It will be recorded, then edited and later published as an episode of the podcast.
We cover a wide range of topics on the podcast. The best way to get an idea is to browse through the titles of our recent episodes.
The two main rules are that your topic should be:
But these can both be loosely interpreted! People who are interested in science advice might also be interested in science communication, science diplomacy, policymaking, philosophy of science, science and politics, and many other linked topics. Don’t feel too constrained. If you find it interesting, and it’s linked to science for policy, it’s probably OK.
One more thing to be aware of: we don’t do pure self-promotion. That is, you can’t come on our podcast and just talk about how important your organisation is. But — we might be very interested in hearing about a challenge that your organisation has faced in the science advice world, or why its role, structure or history are interesting. So be creative.
People who are interested in science advice and evidence-for-policy. It’s mostly people who work in the field, in Europe or beyond. For that reason, we can get into quite a lot of detail about the mechanics of how science advice works, who is involved, the history, the challenges and so on. But it’s a public podcast, so in theory anyone can download it.
The final podcast episode will be 30–45 minutes long. But the recording process will take 60–90 minutes. This allows time for us to get set up, warm up, troubleshoot any last-minute technical issues, and record the actual interview.
No.
The style of the podcast is a natural, free-flowing conversation, so we don’t really edit content unless you ask us to, or unless we accidentally go way over time. We will mostly edit just for audio quality and to cut out long pauses, speech mistakes, technical errors and unexpected noises.
Yes, absolutely. It works best if we can have a quick chat a few days before the recording to agree a topic and a rough outline of what you’d like to cover, so we have a shared understanding. We will then draft some bullet points which we can both refer to as a guide during the conversation. Don’t write yourself a full script, though — it’s supposed to be an informal conversation, not a formal presentation where you read from your notes.
Also, remember that the conversation is recorded, not live. It doesn’t matter if you need to stop and think, or want to have a second try at answering a question. We can edit all that out afterwards. If you’re uncomfortable with anything, we can easily re-record that part, or just cut it if you prefer!
This isn’t a journalistic interview, and we want you to be happy with how you come across. Not only do we agree the questions with you in advance, but during or immediately after the recording, if there’s anything you said that you regret or would rather not include, no problem — we will simply re-record that part, or cut it.
Once the recording process is over and we have edited the interview into its final episode format (usually a few days after recording), you can’t make further changes, but that is more for time than content reasons.
We have three secret weapons to keep things running smoothly:
A few weeks, even a month or two if there are already several recorded episodes in the queue. We are also quite careful with our programming: we like to prioritise very current topics, we don’t like to publish multiple episodes in a row on similar subjects, and we try to maintain a reasonable gender and geographical balance across multiple episodes. For all these reasons, the delay between recording and publishing might be shorter or longer.
The recording you make for the podcast will be of your voice only. This is why it’s important that you use headphones: they make sure that your microphone will only pick up your voice, not mine.
The audio file you’ve recorded will be much too large to email. You can send it to me using any method you like (and we can talk through this on the day). Good options include:
Depending on the length and audio quality of your recording, as well as the speed of your internet connection, the file could take a few minutes to upload. Please don’t close the browser window or navigate away from the page until upload has completed.
The recording you make for the podcast will be of your voice only. This is why it’s important that you use headphones. This will make sure that your microphone will only pick up your voice, not mine.
The audio file you’ve recorded will be much too large to email. You can send it to me using any method you like (and we can talk through this on the day). Good options include:
Depending on the length and audio quality of your recording, as well as the speed of your internet connection, the file could take a few minutes to upload. Please don’t close the browser window or navigate away from the page until upload has completed.
If it’s impossible for you to record using a microphone connected to your computer, we can use your iPhone instead. This leads to a much worse sound quality and is a bit more fiddly, but it can be a suitable backup option.
You will still need a computer or tablet to actually connect to our conversation. You can’t do the whole thing with just an iPhone.
The recording you make for the podcast will be of your voice only. This is why it’s important that you use headphones. This will make sure that your phone will only pick up your voice, not mine.
Android phones come in many different shapes and sizes, made by many different manufacturers (Samsung, Huawei, Motorola, Lenovo, Vivo…).
Most of these do not have a high enough quality microphone to make them viable for recording podcast audio.
(Are iPhones really better in this respect? As a rule, yes they are. An iPhone has a quite high-end microphone in it, and some good audio processing hardware. There are some Android phones that are just as good, but unless you are very confident that yours is among them and you have experience in using it for this purpose, let’s not go there.)