How to start your own Podcast in 2026?

You’ve been thinking about starting your own podcast, but every time you do, overwhelm creeps in.

Do you focus on editing, equipment, tech, tools? Where do you begin? I’ll walk you through exactly how to start a podcast using the best tools available today.

Everything here, from idea to launch, is what I teach in my podcasting accelerator. You might be someone who has had a podcast in your heart for years but haven’t known how to bring all the pieces together. Or you might be someone who’s made an episode and isn’t sure where to go next. Either way, you’re going to get a lot of clarity.

Podcast Launch Guide: Step 1 – Clarify Your Podcast Idea

The best podcasts live at the intersection of what you are incredibly passionate about and what your listeners are struggling with or looking for solutions to.

This includes your lived experience, your expertise, and subjects you can talk about forever, combined with audience needs. The convergence of those two ideas is where meaningful podcasts are made.

If you want to make a podcast about your relationship to your plants, I’m not mad at that. But you can’t be upset if not enough people are downloading your podcast.

People download and listen to shows that are useful for them. Useful can mean lots of different things. Maybe it’s entertaining. Maybe it’s funny. Maybe it gets at an emotion they’ve been struggling with and helps them resolve it.

Your job is to make sure you create a podcast that resonates with people if you want a show that gets downloaded. If you don’t know the name yet, don’t get stuck at this step.

Use a placeholder name and keep working through the other steps. You can rebrand or re-record the line with your show name later.

Your name needs to reflect the content and be searchable by your listeners. Those are the biggest things to keep in mind.

Podcast Launch Guide: Step 2 – Write a Script or Script Outline

Before we talk about gear and software, make sure the content has real value. It could be a solo episode, an interview-based show, or a narrative series, but every episode should have:

• A strong hook
• A clear introduction to what your show is about
• A compelling journey you’re taking the listener on
• An ending that leaves your listener feeling different than when they arrived

If they were depressed when they first came, they feel a little lighter when they leave. If they were confused about how to solve a specific problem, your episode takes them somewhere new. If it takes them to a place that’s different than where they started, you can consider that a successful outline or script.

Asking good questions goes into how you structure an episode. If you are doing a solo podcast, you still want to know how to ask good questions, because your job is to answer the questions that came up for you or that you think your audience has for you. Even that should take people on a journey instead of feeling random.

If you’re listening to a podcast you could stop at any time and not return because it’s all over the place, you likely won’t finish that episode.

The kinds of shows like This American Life have a really high finish rate because they take you on a compelling journey in every episode. The more compelling the journey, the more likely your listeners will stay hooked.

Podcast Launch Guide: Step 3 – Record the Episode

This is where most people panic. The solution is simple. Record using a microphone like the Blue Yeti Nano, which is what I use and what I’ve used on many shows.

If you have the budget for something like the Shure SM7B, sure, get that. But don’t overthink the tech and use it as a tool for procrastination.

You need good audio, not Celine Dion’s microphone. Create a minimally viable product. It’s tempting to say you have to get the best of everything before you begin. That’s not how we play this. You’re in it for the long haul, which means you have time to improve and optimize as you go. First get started, then get good, then optimize.

• Remote interviews: use SquadCast or Riverside.
• Solo episodes: record directly into Descript or use those platforms.

You might be asking if you should record video and make this a video podcast. I do not think beginners should start with a video podcast. The complications that come with integrating video and audio, learning to be a good storyteller, and managing the tools are too much.

Start, feel proud, keep going, then improve over time. Do I think you should have a video podcast eventually?

Absolutely, if your show allows for it. At the beginning, I don’t recommend it. Adding that level of complication can keep you from ever getting started. I said it and I meant it.

Podcast Launch Guide: Step 4 – Edit for Clarity, Not Perfection

Use tools like Descript or Riverside’s built-in editor to edit your episodes. We’re in 2026, and we no longer have to edit in GarageBand or Audacity. They’re free, but the cost to your mental health isn’t worth it.

Descript and Riverside allow you to edit using a transcript, so you don’t have to edit by ear. With GarageBand and Audacity you’re looking at wave files and trying to cut parts you don’t want.

That’s harder than removing text that isn’t helpful. Because they’re AI powered, they can remove all ums and a’s. It dramatically reduces the editing fear a lot of people have.

How do you edit so your episode sounds really good past the ums and a’s? You want to feel confident about what you cut and what you keep. Start by:

• Removing rambling
• Cutting parts that aren’t interesting or engaging
• Tightening interview answers so they land better
• Cutting anything that is not serving your audience

If you’re interviewing someone, it might be tempting to keep everything they said. As a beginner, I used to do this.

The truth is, if you tighten what they said, it can make their answers more interesting and make them an even better guest. You editing your guest is a good thing. Don’t go overboard, but anything that loses your attention can go.

When we made Where Should We Begin, it started as a three-hour episode and we cut it down to 45 minutes.

That’s a lot of cutting. The more comfortable you get with removing parts that existed in the raw version but won’t exist for your listener, the better your podcast will be.

Music is optional but nice. You can get music directly from Descript or from a place like Epidemic Sound, which is what I use.

Use royalty-free music only so no one asks you to take your episode down.

Podcast Launch Guide: Step 5 – Publish and Distribute Your Podcast

You are close to the end once you get to this step.

Podcast Launch Guide: Cover Art

Before you can publish and distribute, you need podcast cover art. Spotify and Apple require it. To make your cover art, use something like Canva. You can also hire someone on Fiverr or Upwork.

Podcast Launch Guide: Choose a Podcast Host

A podcast host is the base where your podcast lives. This is its home. From there, it gets distributed to platforms where people listen to podcasts, like Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and Amazon Music.

You don’t have to upload to Apple and Spotify and YouTube separately. You put your episode in the home and send the signal that says, hey Apple, Spotify, everybody, we have a new episode live.

That signal is called an RSS feed. You’ll get your RSS feed from your podcast hosting platform.

Traditional hosting options include Buzzsprout, Libsyn, Captivate, Transistor, and Podbean. These are great for hosting and distributing to Apple, Spotify, etc.

Podcast Launch Guide: Why I Recommend Substack When You’re Starting

When you’re first getting started, keep costs as low as possible to create that minimally viable product.

I recommend hosting on Substack. It’s traditionally a newsletter platform, but it now has podcast hosting. People like Lenny’s Newsletter host their podcasts there. Substack gives you an RSS feed you can send to Apple, Spotify, and more.

You won’t get as much detail about who’s listening in what part of the world or demographics. When you’re first starting, you don’t need that. I love Substack because:

• It encourages you to create a newsletter for your podcast, which I think is necessary. You want a space for listeners to communicate with you directly. If people subscribe with their email, that’s more powerful than a download, because you can be in their inbox on your schedule.
• Because Substack is beautifully designed, you already have a portfolio or website for your podcast. You don’t need to go make a separate site.

When I started, I hosted my first podcast on Libsyn and created a website on Squarespace.

Episodes were uploaded to Libsyn, distributed to Apple and Spotify, then I had to create a new post on Squarespace and add the link. It was too much. Uploading to Substack simplifies your process dramatically.

From there, you can automatically send an email, people can see a list of episodes, and listeners who never visit your Substack can still hear you on Apple or Spotify or elsewhere.

Final Thoughts

The five essential steps of starting a podcast in 2026 are simple:

• Clarify your podcast idea at the intersection of your passion and audience needs.
• Write a script or outline with a hook, clear intro, compelling journey, and a satisfying ending.
• Record simply, avoid tech rabbit holes, and focus on a minimally viable episode.
• Edit for clarity, not perfection. Cut rambling. Keep what serves your listener.
• Publish and distribute with solid cover art, a hosting platform, and a simple workflow.

Start, feel proud, keep going, then improve over time.