A podcast interview outline prompt tackles the most anxious step before you press record: the guest is booked and the topic is set, yet the questions you list are either too vague or read like an interrogation, and the conversation runs dry after fifteen minutes. The prompt below fixes the guest background, the episode topic and the runtime first, then has the AI arrange questions in a warm-up, deep-dive and closing rhythm, so you can copy it, fill in the variables and get an outline you can record from directly.
When to outline first instead of just recording
You need an outline most when the guest is new to you, when the guest is an expert who is not a natural talker, or when the episode covers a technical topic that easily drifts. An outline does not script every line; it settles the order and the landing points: help the guest relax first, move into the substantial part next, and finish with something listeners will remember. If the guest is a close friend and the show is a casual chat, forcing a five-part structure will only stiffen the conversation, so skip it there.
The prompt, ready to copy
You are a podcast producer who has planned 100 interview episodes. Based on the information below, lay out an interview outline for one episode that I can record from directly.
Guest: {{guest background}}
Episode topic: {{episode topic}}
Main audience: {{audience and takeaway}}
Episode length: {{target length}}
Show style: {{style}}
Output rules:
1. Arrange the outline in five parts: warm-up, personal story, topic deep dive, difficulties and disagreements, and closing outlook. For each part, note the suggested minutes and the core point that part must bring out.
2. Give 2 main questions and 1 backup follow-up per part. Main questions must be open-ended and able to draw out a concrete experience; do not write questions that can be answered with yes or no.
3. After each main question, add one line noting the follow-up direction, for example: if the guest only gives a conclusion, ask for the details, the key numbers or the turning point at the time.
4. Do not invent experience, data or titles the guest has not provided. Where information is missing, mark it as to be confirmed in advance and state exactly what to confirm with the guest.
5. At the end, give a separate pre-recording checklist: one story, one figure or case the guest should prepare in advance, and any topic this episode should avoid; write none if there is none.
Output the sectioned outline first, then the pre-recording checklist, with no long introduction before the outline.How to fill the five variables so they are not empty
- {{guest background}}: do not write only a name and a job title; state the representative experience and the real story the guest can tell this time. Six years as an indie developer, three paid apps shipped, one of them profitable in its first year is far more useful than head of product at a tech company.
- {{episode topic}}: set one topic per episode. Write how indie developers survive on small products, not a bundle of startups, products and life lessons; a bundle guarantees that everything stays shallow.
- {{audience and takeaway}}: state who is listening and what they should take away. For example, indie developers just starting out, who after listening can judge whether their own product is priced too low.
- {{target length}}: give a concrete number of minutes. Length decides the question count; cramming 20 main questions into a 40-minute outline guarantees a rushed recording.
- {{style}}: choose relaxed chat or deep analysis, or write natural follow-up style. Without a style, the AI defaults to a news-interview tone and the questions come out stiff and formal.
Once you get the outline, cut a third of the questions first
AI outlines usually come back overfilled, and that is normal; do not record from them as they are. Cut in this order: in the part least related to the topic, remove the backup follow-ups first; where two main questions ask the same thing, keep only the one more likely to draw out a story; questions that require the guest to recall an exact figure on the spot without advance confirmation should be deleted or moved to the pre-recording checklist. For a 40-minute episode, keeping 8 to 10 main questions is the safest range, with follow-ups kept for use in the moment rather than asked in full. After cutting, read the order through once and check that each question leads naturally into the next instead of jumping between topics.
When it feels stiff or scattered, adjust with these follow-ups
- The outline reads like a news interview: ask it to rewrite the main questions so each starts from a concrete experience of the guest, telling one story first and drawing the view out of it, instead of asking for a conclusion up front.
- The questions are scattered with no through-line: ask it to keep a single main thread around the episode topic, delete every question that leaves that thread, and state how each part relates to it.
- The guest talks little and you fear dead air: ask it to add a low-pressure warm-up line before each main question, for example asking the guest to describe a recent related scene first, then moving into the formal question.
