🎙️ Podcasting · Content · AI Productivity
AI Tool to Write Podcast Show Notes from a Transcript
(Workflow + 2 Prompts)
You finished the episode. Now you need show notes, and the thing you want to do least is stare at an empty box. A free AI chatbot can turn a transcript into a first draft of podcast show notes in a few minutes. But some parts of the draft, mainly timestamps, names and quotes, are the parts AI gets wrong. This guide gives you the order of work, two prompts, and a checklist for what you must verify.
Write show notes for the listener first
Show notes have two readers. The first is a person deciding whether to press play, or looking for a link you mentioned. The second is a search engine. Write for the person. If the notes help a real listener find what they need, the search side is usually fine, and no result is promised.
That changes how you judge an AI draft. Do not ask "does this sound smart?" Ask "would a stranger know what they get, and where to find it?"
The six parts of a useful set of notes
| Part | What it does | Who writes it |
|---|---|---|
| One-line hook | Says who the episode is for and what they learn | AI drafts, you pick |
| 3-5 takeaways | Short bullets a skimmer can read in ten seconds | AI drafts, you trim |
| Timestamps | Lets people jump to a topic | You confirm every one |
| Links mentioned | Every site, book or tool named out loud | You, from the transcript |
| Guest line | Name, role, one sentence of who they are | You, from the guest |
| Call to action | One next step: subscribe, reply, visit a page | You |
The transcript-to-notes workflow, in order
- Get a clean transcript. If you do not have one, see AI meeting transcription tools. Fix obvious mistakes in names first.
- Split into chapters. Ask the chatbot to mark where the topic changes. Do this before writing any summary.
- Check the timestamps yourself. Listen to each chapter start. Details are in the next section.
- Write the summary and takeaways from the chapters, not from the whole raw text.
- List the links and open each one.
- Add the guest line and call to action, then read the whole page once as a listener.
Why timestamps need your ears
A chatbot can only point to a time if your transcript has times in it. If it does not, the bot may still produce neat-looking timestamps. Those can be invented. Even with times in the transcript, the bot may pick the wrong moment, or round to a time that never happened.
The fix is simple. Play each chapter start and ask: does the topic begin here? Fix the time if it does not. Ten chapters take about ten minutes.
Prompt 1: split a long transcript into parts
A very long transcript may not fit in one chat message, and a bot can lose detail in the middle. Cut the text into parts of a few thousand words each and run this on each part.
This is part [number] of [total parts] of a podcast transcript about [topic].
Timestamps in the text are in the format [hh:mm:ss].
1. List the topic changes in this part, with the timestamp that is written in the text just before each one.
2. Give each chapter a plain title of 6 words or fewer.
3. List every name, company, book, tool or website said out loud, spelled as in the text.
Do not invent timestamps. If a time is not in the text, write: NO TIME.
Transcript part:
[paste text]
Prompt 2: build the notes from your checked chapters
Paste in your confirmed chapter list, not the full transcript.
Write show notes for a podcast episode. Use only the facts below.
Show: [show name]. Audience: [who listens].
Guest: [name, role, one fact].
Checked chapters with times: [paste list].
Output: 1) a one-line hook under 25 words, 2) 3 to 5 bullet takeaways,
3) the chapter list as given, 4) a "mentioned in this episode" list, 5) one call-to-action line: [your action].
Simple English. No quotes unless I paste them. Do not add facts, links or numbers.
Guest names and quotes
Speech to text often spells names wrongly, especially names from other languages. Ask the guest for the exact spelling of their name, company and links. Better still, copy it from their own site.
Quotes are riskier. A chatbot may polish a sentence until it is no longer what the person said. Only use a quote if you find those exact words in the transcript and hear them in the audio. Never let AI write a quote and put a guest's name on it.
Before and after: one fictional episode
This is a made-up example (fictional). A show called "Small Shop Talk" has a 40-minute chat with a guest, Dana, who runs a candle shop.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| "Episode 12. Dana talks about her shop." | "How a one-person candle shop plans its holiday rush, in 40 minutes." |
| No takeaways | Four bullets: order stock early, set a shipping cut-off date, answer questions in one place, write down what worked. |
| No times | 00:00 Intro, 03:10 Dana's start, 14:40 Stock planning, 28:05 Shipping dates, 36:30 Advice |
| Links forgotten | Her shop site and the one book she named, both opened and checked |
In this example the AI first gave "28:50" for shipping dates. Playing the audio showed the topic began at 28:05, so the owner fixed it. That is the check doing its job.
Fix list: bad show-note drafts and what to do
| If the draft... | Do this |
|---|---|
| Has timestamps your transcript never had | Delete them and add real ones by listening |
| Spells a guest name two ways | Ask the guest and use one spelling everywhere |
| Contains a quote you cannot find in the transcript | Remove it |
| Says "in this episode we dive into" and nothing else | Rewrite the hook to say what the listener learns |
| Names a link or book not in the audio | Remove it, or add it yourself and say so |
| Gives ten long bullets | Keep the best three to five |
Reuse the notes after you publish
Good notes are also raw material. The chapter list can become the outline of a blog post, and the takeaways can become a short email. For ideas, read about AI content repurposing tools. To turn a written piece into an email, see writing a newsletter from a blog post. Do not paste raw notes as a post: add your own words and context.
When not to use AI for this:
Do not publish AI notes for an episode with sensitive subjects, such as health, legal or money advice, or private stories, without reading the whole page against the audio. Also skip AI if the audio has a guest who asked not to be quoted. For a short episode, five minutes by hand may be faster than checking a draft.