Show Notes, Summaries, and Transcripts

The Post-Production Bottleneck

You have recorded a great episode. Now comes the part that kills motivation: writing show notes, creating timestamps, drafting episode descriptions, producing transcripts, and making social media content.

By the end of this lesson, you will have an AI-powered system that handles post-production in minutes instead of hours.

Quick Recall: In the previous lesson, we covered recording techniques for clean, professional audio. Now let us tackle everything that happens after you hit stop, the production work that often takes longer than the episode itself.

The Transcript-First Workflow

Here is the key insight: a transcript unlocks everything else.

Once you have your episode as text, AI can generate every piece of post-production content from it. The transcript is the foundation.

AUDIO → TRANSCRIPT → Everything Else
                      ├── Show notes
                      ├── Episode summary
                      ├── Timestamps
                      ├── Social media posts
                      ├── Newsletter snippet
                      └── Blog post version

Getting your transcript:

• Free: Upload to YouTube (auto-generates captions), then download
• Budget: Whisper (free, open-source, runs locally)
• Paid: Otter.ai, Descript, or Riverside (auto-transcribe during recording)

AI-Powered Show Notes

Show notes are your episode’s landing page. They help with discoverability and give listeners reference material.

Feed your transcript to AI with this prompt:

Here is a podcast episode transcript. Create professional show notes that include:

1. EPISODE SUMMARY (2-3 sentences capturing the key value)
2. KEY TOPICS (bullet list of main points discussed)
3. TIMESTAMPS (major topic changes with time markers)
4. RESOURCES MENTIONED (any books, tools, websites, people referenced)
5. KEY QUOTES (2-3 memorable or quotable moments)
6. CALL TO ACTION (subscribe, review, share)

Write in a conversational tone that matches the episode's energy.

[PASTE TRANSCRIPT]

In two minutes, you have show notes that would have taken 30-45 minutes to write manually.

Quick Check: Why is the transcript the foundation of the post-production workflow? What can you generate from it?

Writing Episode Descriptions

Episode descriptions appear in podcast apps. They need to hook a potential listener in 2-3 sentences.

Based on this transcript, write 3 variations of an episode description.
Each should be 2-3 sentences max.
Include a hook that makes someone want to press play.
Mention the key takeaway or transformation.

[PASTE TRANSCRIPT OR SHOW NOTES]

Good description formula: [Hook question or surprising fact] + [What the episode covers] + [Why it matters to the listener]

Example: “Did you know 90% of meal prep fails by week three? In this episode, we break down the three reasons prep plans collapse and share a flexible system that actually sticks. Plus: the one-container trick that changed everything.”

Creating Timestamps

Timestamps let listeners jump to topics they care about. They also improve engagement metrics because listeners navigate rather than abandon.

Review this transcript and create timestamps for every major topic change.
Format: MM:SS - Topic Description

Keep descriptions concise (5-8 words each).
Include an intro and outro timestamp.

[PASTE TRANSCRIPT]

Example output:

00:00 - Introduction and episode overview
02:15 - Why traditional budgeting fails
08:40 - The envelope method explained
15:20 - AI tools for tracking spending
22:05 - Building your first budget template
28:30 - Common mistakes to avoid
33:15 - Wrap-up and next steps

If your transcription tool does not include timestamps, estimate based on your talk track segments and episode length.

Transcript Cleanup

Raw transcripts are messy. Filler words, repetitions, and incomplete sentences make them hard to read.

Clean up this podcast transcript for publication:
- Remove filler words (um, uh, like, you know)
- Fix incomplete sentences
- Add paragraph breaks at topic changes
- Keep the conversational tone and personality
- Maintain the speaker's voice (don't make it formal)
- Format speaker labels clearly: "HOST:" and "GUEST:"

[PASTE RAW TRANSCRIPT]

A cleaned transcript serves double duty: it is accessible content for hearing-impaired listeners and SEO-rich text for search engines.

Quick Check: What are three types of post-production content you can generate from a single transcript?

The Complete Post-Production Workflow

Here is the entire system from recording to published:

That is an 80% time reduction on the work that burns out most podcasters.

Batch Processing Multiple Episodes

If you record multiple episodes in a session, batch your post-production:

1. Generate all transcripts at once
2. Run the show notes prompt for each transcript back to back
3. Create all social content in one session
4. Schedule everything in advance

Batching reduces context-switching and lets you knock out a month of post-production in one focused session.

Try It Yourself

Take any recording you have made (even a voice memo) and run the workflow:

1. Transcribe it (use a free tool or your phone’s voice-to-text)
2. Paste the transcript into AI with the show notes prompt
3. Generate an episode description
4. Create timestamps

Notice how fast the process becomes when AI handles the writing and you handle the editing.

Key Takeaways

• The transcript is the foundation: generate it first, then derive everything else from it
• AI creates show notes, descriptions, timestamps, and social content in minutes instead of hours
• Clean transcripts improve accessibility and search engine discoverability
• The complete AI-assisted post-production workflow takes about 20 minutes versus 3 or more hours manually
• Batch processing multiple episodes in one session maximizes efficiency

Up Next

In Lesson 6: Branding, Artwork, and Identity, we will build the visual and verbal identity that makes your podcast recognizable and professional.