How to Start a Podcast in 2026: Step-by-Step, From Mic to RSS Feed

“How do I actually start a podcast?” is the question we get more than any other — usually followed immediately by “and what’s an RSS feed?” The good news: starting a podcast in 2026 is a weekend project, not a production. The confusing part isn’t the recording — it’s the plumbing between “I have an audio file” and “my show is on Spotify.” This guide walks the whole path in order: format, mic, recording, editing, hosting, the RSS feed everyone overcomplicates, and turning each episode into a week of clips.

Step 1: Decide the format before you buy anything

Most podcasts don’t fail from bad audio. They fail because the host never decided what the show actually is. Answer these before spending a dollar:

• Premise: Finish this sentence — “This is the show where [specific person] gets [specific value].” If it takes a paragraph, it’s not ready.
• Format: Solo commentary, co-hosted conversation, or interviews. Solo is easiest to schedule; interviews are easiest to fill but hardest to book. Pick one and commit for 20 episodes.
• Length and cadence: Shorter and weekly beats longer and “whenever.” A tight 25-minute weekly show is easier to make and easier to finish than a rambling 90-minute one.

Write down titles for your first ten episodes. If you can’t, revisit the premise, not the mic aisle.

Step 2: The equipment (two mics, one decision)

Your entire hardware decision comes down to your room.

Quiet, soft-furnished room: Blue Yeti (~$100). Still the default first podcast mic for a reason — plug into USB, pick the cardioid pattern, sound clean. Its weakness is that it’s a sensitive condenser mic: in an echoey or noisy room it faithfully records the echo and the noise.

Echoey or noisy room: Shure MV7 (~$250). A dynamic mic that picks up your voice and largely ignores the room. If you record in an untreated apartment, near a street, or in a kitchen-adjacent “office,” this is the better buy — it’s the difference between sounding like a bedroom and sounding like a studio, no acoustic panels required. It also has an XLR output, so it survives any future upgrade.

Either way, add a RØDE PSA1+ boom arm (~$129). It positions the mic at your mouth instead of on the desk, which improves your sound more than most mic upgrades would — and it keeps keyboard thumps and desk bumps out of the recording.

Skip for now: audio interfaces, XLR cables, mixers, “podcast studio” bundles. USB in, record, done.

Mic	Price	Best for	Watch out for
Blue Yeti	~$100	Quiet rooms, first-timers	Picks up echo and background noise
Shure MV7	~$250	Untreated, echoey rooms	Costs more; overkill in a treated space

Step 3: Recording (solo and with remote guests)

Solo shows are simple: mic in, record into your editing app (next step), done.

For interviews, don’t record over a standard video call — compressed, gluey audio is the fastest way to sound amateur. Riverside records each participant locally on their own device and uploads the full-quality tracks, so a guest’s shaky Wi-Fi doesn’t wreck your episode. You get separate audio (and video) tracks per person, which makes editing dramatically easier, plus built-in AI cleanup and text-based editing. Guests just click a browser link.

Step 4: Edit like it’s a document, not a timeline

You don’t need to learn an audio editor. Descript transcribes your recording and lets you edit the audio by editing the text — delete a sentence from the transcript and it’s gone from the recording. Cut the tangent, delete the filler words (it does this in one click), tighten the intro, export. A first episode that would take an evening in a traditional editor takes under an hour this way.

Editing rule for episode one: cut ruthlessly at the start — the first 60 seconds decide whether a new listener stays — and stop polishing after two passes. Shipped beats perfect.

Step 5: Choose a host

Here’s the thing that confuses everyone: your podcast doesn’t live on Spotify. It lives on a hosting platform, and the directories (Spotify, Apple, and the rest) just read from it. Two honest picks:

Buzzsprout is the easiest on-ramp. There’s a free plan to test the workflow — but note episodes on it are only hosted for about 90 days, so treat it as a trial, not a home. The ~$12/month plan is the realistic starting point for a weekly show, and the dashboard is the friendliest in the category.

Transistor (from ~$19/month, no free tier) is the pro pick: multiple shows under one subscription, stronger analytics, and built-in private podcast support. If you already know you’ll run more than one show — or a company podcast plus a personal one — start here and skip a migration later.

Start with Buzzsprout if you’re testing the waters; start with Transistor if you’re already sure.

Step 6: Get your RSS feed (the part everyone overcomplicates)

The RSS feed is the piece people email us about, so let’s kill the mystery: you never make an RSS feed. Your host makes it for you, automatically, the moment your show exists.

An RSS feed is just a web address — something like feeds.buzzsprout.com/123456.rss — that describes your show: title, artwork, and a machine-readable list of every episode with links to the audio files. It updates itself every time you upload an episode. Think of it as your show’s home address; the directories are just places that have it on file.

The whole workflow, once:

1. Find the feed URL in your hosting dashboard — both Buzzsprout and Transistor display it front and center (usually labeled “RSS feed” with a copy button).
2. Spotify: Submit the feed URL through Spotify for Creators — or skip even that, since most hosts offer one-click distribution that does it for you.
3. Apple Podcasts: Submit the feed via Apple Podcasts Connect. Approval can take a few days, so submit before your planned launch date.
4. Everything else: Amazon Music, Pocket Casts, Overcast, and the rest — your host pushes to these automatically or with one click.

That’s it, forever. After this one-time setup, uploading an episode to your host publishes it everywhere at once. You never touch the feed again — and if you change hosts later, every host has a migration tool that redirects the old feed so you keep your subscribers.

Practical launch tip: release two or three episodes on day one, so a new listener who likes episode one has somewhere to go.

Step 7: Turn every episode into a week of clips

In 2026, the episode is the raw material, not the finished product. Clips are where new listeners actually discover podcasts now — almost nobody browses a directory looking for shows. Two tools do the heavy lifting:

• Opus Clip pulls short vertical clips from your full recording for YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Reels, reframing and captioning them automatically and scoring which moments are most likely to travel.
• Buzzsprout’s Cohost AI drafts your show notes, episode titles, chapter markers, and a transcript the moment you upload — the admin work that otherwise eats an evening per episode, handled by the host you’re already paying.

If you recorded video in Riverside, you also have a full YouTube version for free — upload the episode there too, since YouTube is now one of the biggest podcast discovery surfaces on earth.

Realistic growth expectations

Honest numbers: most podcasts are small, and growth is slow even for good ones. Expect your first episodes to reach mostly friends. Podcast audiences compound through consistency — the medium’s superpower is that listeners give you 30 minutes of attention, not that it delivers fast reach. Commit to 20 episodes before judging anything. If after 20 you still like making it, you’re ahead of the majority of shows ever started, most of which quit long before that.

Do this today

Write your one-sentence premise and ten episode titles. Order the mic your room needs — Blue Yeti for a quiet space, Shure MV7 for an echoey one — plus the RØDE PSA1+. Then open a free Buzzsprout account and record a two-minute trailer tonight on whatever mic you have. The show starts when you press record, not when the gear arrives.