What’s There and What’s Not: A Guide to Constructive Criticism for Podcasts

Building a cadre of critical listeners — and what podcasters can do to equip themselves for feedback

Ma'ayan Plaut
Bello Collective

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Any time you hear podcasters ask for a rating or review of their show, that is a request for audience feedback. A podcaster might entice with benefits like a bump in the podcast charts or helping other listeners find their show — both worthy, useful ways of confirmation that a show has appreciative listeners — but ultimately they are participating in a direct ask for listener input. As a listener on the other side of the earbuds, this message is mixed in with several other calls to action — again, all worthy, important requests that boost a show like supporting financially on Patreon or subscribing to a newsletter. It can be easy to gloss over the feedback request amidst the others, especially if it feels like the only tool to do so is through a review on Apple Podcasts (a hurdle, whether on an Android device, using another app, or can’t remember your iTunes password). However, it is quite possibly the most important one, since it allows a listener to meet and influence a creator: to be heard by someone who affected your thoughts, opinions, and life. I would like to urge all podcasters to become open to hearing more, and listeners to become critical listeners.

When I say critical listener, I refer to people who listen to podcasts with a discerning ear — not someone who listens with a plan to negatively cut down a creator. A critical listener is here to help build up a show, both reinforcing the great and offering useful direction on how to make it better. “Criticism” sounds like it’s all bad, but the best kind of criticism is one that closely examines what is there (and what is not) and uses what they’ve heard to build their own creation: a response of love, of care, and of appreciation. Constructive criticism helps creative work reach new heights never seen before, based on a close collaboration between a consumer and a creator. Most importantly for the future of the on-demand audio industry: well-intentioned criticism makes future podcasts better. Critical listeners become critical co-creators, and aspiring podcasters that read criticism will hopefully produce more thoughtful shows from the beginning. This act is not, and should not, be reserved solely for the capital C Critics out there; it’s within reach of all who choose to listen and respond.

This vital relationship between a podcaster and their audience is a unique one, and speaks to something truly special about the world of podcasts. Podcasts are a medium born in the digital space, where the distance between a maker and an enjoyer is shorter than ever, and where engaging effectively comes with an investment of time. And through listening to close, intimate, and meaningful conversations, we are connecting through one of the first things we begin to internalize as humans: the human voice. We feel, believe, and understand differently when we hear rather than read or watch, and that kind of hearing is something that is not only reserved for listeners.

What follows is a guide for tangible, applicable feedback that will build a relationship between a podcaster and a listener. I firmly believe that with a stronger investment from listeners through directed audience engagement, a better show will be the result. I will shift between addressing podcasters and listeners throughout this guide, since this kind of mutual connection is how I see this kind of constructive criticism working best over time: it’s a symbiotic relationship in which both creators and consumers can see where each are at and hear where they would like to go, and that in listening, we are also heard.

Everything with a grain of salt

Simply the act of making a podcast (as opposed to some other type of media) means that you are making it for other people. You may be making your show for yourself, but in pressing publish, it becomes something for everyone. The relatively closed loop of “Make a thing, put it out there, and no one can respond directly in the comments section attached in perpetuity to that creation” was one of the first things that appealed to me as a podcast listener–my experience with it was solitary, and all mine, and not like the other blogs and social media my life was steeped in day-to-day. It took a few months to realize that I was, however, still responding to what I had heard: I was writing about podcasts, discussing them on social media, and bringing them up regularly in conversation. Even though I didn’t usually connect directly back with the creators themselves, I knew that it was boosting up their show even more that I was talking about it. But what if I, a listener, could be heard by the people I was hearing every single day?

Dear podcasters: I know, receiving negative criticism is quite hard. Unconstructive criticism is especially taxing: it can severely undercut your creativity, paralyze your processes, or constantly cause you to question how you go about producing your show — if you even should continue producing it at all?! (No, please no, don’t do that.)

Criticism has its shining bright spots, though, too: it’s mind-opening in a way that allows you see new potential in the near future, and can excite you enough to get working on it right now. When someone from outside your earbuds pops in with a brilliant suggestion you couldn’t have thought of yourself, brings in a perspective you hadn’t yet considered, or otherwise shares an opportunity for growth, these can irrevocably change how you think about and continue to develop your show over time.

So before you get all overwhelmed by what all criticism can do for the future of your show, take a deep breath. I’m not proposing that you open up the floodgates to anyone sharing anything with you whenever. I’m making a call for mutual vulnerability, on the side of a podcaster hoping to make the best show possible for their audience, and on the side of an audience who has been deeply changed by a show to contribute to the overall success and longevity of a podcast moving forward.

As a podcaster, think about what you will do with the feedback you request of your listeners.

  • What goals are you hoping to better achieve by hearing directly from your audience?
  • Are you ready to hear what they want to share?
  • Will you respond to the constructive feedback provided, either by making changes to your show and/or by writing back to your listeners?
  • How can you utilize their praise when you talk about your show or update your website/press kit?

Dear listeners: even if you don’t ever want to connect with a show you like a lot, I encourage you to listen with a critical ear. Think about what makes something stunning, that makes you stand stock-still in the middle of a walk or burst out laughing on the train or spontaneously cry while cooking dinner. Think about what makes something worth sharing with someone else, and why you think it’s worth passing along. Think about how that piece was made, how it affected its makers as it is affecting you. Deep breath. (It’s a lot sometimes.)

If you are ready to take the leap into constructive criticism, I applaud you! It is a hard thing to verbalize your thoughts, especially to someone whose voice you have heard a lot even if they have never heard yours, whose work you admire so deeply that you spend time with them weekly. With this act of becoming a constructive critic, you are entering a hallowed relationship with a podcaster: you are someone who reached out. You become a person with a face and a voice in a crowd of otherwise unknown listeners. It’s an honor to be this representative, so do it justice. Another big deep breath — the kind that makes you sit up a little straighter, knowing you are about to proceed with pride into a great unknown.

As a listener, think about why you would like to provide feedback to a podcast.

  • How will your feedback improve their show?
  • Is your feedback specific and applicable to their show’s content or style?
  • Is there a particular skill or background you have that grounds your feedback and could, by extension, help this show reach their self-defined goals?

Stop, collaborate, and listen

Now that we’ve established some of the background that sets up the podcast world for constructive criticism, it’s time to do that thing. Consider some of these approaches, dear listeners, to giving constructive criticism. First off, how do you want to offer up constructive criticism to this show?

  • Praise, Question, Polish (Shoutout to my third grade teacher for this one!) This structure is not the “compliment sandwich” where you try to temper a negative thought with two positive ones. The Praise, Question, Polish approach is about overall improvement, leaning heavily on things that are working and can push something from good into great territory. The basic structure is:

> I like this thing! Do more of it.

> I don’t know about this thing. How did you come to this, and why do you do it this way?

> Here’s something I enjoyed and could see it being better if you do even more of this.

  • Talking about creative works by expanding upon initial reactions. “I like” or “I dislike” is the beginning of a sentence, not a full sentence. Try adding the word “because” and then continue. The “Yes, and” encouragement of improv comedy applies here: set the scene by saying what works or what doesn’t and then explain yourself.
  • Be specific and have examples. Include something specific they did right and can use as a model for the future. Instead of “Your characters sound too scripted,” consider instead: “You have moments of dialogue that sound too formal or a little robotic.” And be deliberate in how you choose to share these: inundating a podcaster with examples of things they did poorly isn’t the best opener to a conversation, but having that list on hand could be useful if asked.
  • Everyone’s a human, so think about how this feedback will be received. Reread — out loud! — your words to hear how you construct your constructive criticism, and how it would feel for those words to be heard. You listen to the voice of the podcast host regularly, this may be the first time they hear from you, so make that first impression that of a friend rather than a foe.
  • What can a podcaster actually change? Usually this is content based and the things that surrounds it like sound/audio quality, editing or narrative style, etc.
  • What can’t a podcaster change? Usually these are human-based: things like their voice (including the sound of it, how they say their words, their accent, etc.), their experiences, or their gender.

Now, dear podcaster, that you’ve read some of the suggested ways a listener may provide feedback to you, it’s time to think about how to ask and how you wish to receive this constructive criticism, as well as readying yourself for the feedback you’ll be taking in. Some approaches could be:

  • Ask on your show and in your show notes for the preferred way in which a listener can get in touch with you, and ask for something specific for your listeners to respond to. Is this best answered in a survey? An email address with a specific subject line? A reply or DM on Twitter? Through a voice memo? This is a more productive call to action than “rate and review” — this is not an available option for all listeners, and doesn’t necessarily build or deepen a relationship between you and your audience.
  • If you’ve opted for email, set up an email filter for a subject line you requested to be used, or that includes the following filters: “constructive criticism” “feedback” “reviewing your show” and other key phrases. If you can bear it, send it straight to that folder without it showing up in your inbox first and then don’t touch this folder — read OR reply — til you’re ready to read the messages and engage with it. Set up an auto-responder for this same filter thanking people for writing to you and give them a realistic idea of if/how they might hear back from you or see their feedback in action.
  • Whether you work solo or with others, give yourself time to read through, process, and think about the next steps of what you’ll do with this feedback. If you work alone, consider reaching out to your closest supporters to discuss (focus group!). If you work with others, plan for an upcoming conversation that focuses solely on processing and working through the feedback. In the wise words of podcast host Amanda McLoughlin: do not reply right away. Sit with the words. Your listeners have been doing so, too.

How we continue to build

Not all feedback is productive for sustaining or growing a podcast, but given how much time listeners and creators alike dedicate to a show, I do feel that podcasts should live beyond the water cooler or cocktail hour conversational space of other listeners. The open nature of creating and distributing a podcast should go both ways: anyone can make anything at any time, and anyone can choose to engage with it at any time, too.

That depth of engaged listening time and then how someone has been changed through the foundational act of listening–a greater understanding of the varied experiences surrounding them, a deeper appreciation for fellow humans, a window in worlds previously unseen–that’s a really amazing thing, unparalleled by any other media that I can think of. I believe it should be embraced as a benefit of podcasts rather than an unexplored or ignored element of things. This industry only continues its upward trend if we podlisten as much as we podcast, as listening both increases empathy for people hearing a show and overall deepens these already meaningful podcaster-audience relationships.

Listeners, it’s time to start doing what your podcasting heros are doing regularly: construct your thoughts, with an audience in mind, and with purpose and care and deliberation.

Podcasters, it’s time to start doing what your audience does every episode: listen.

The Bello Collective is a publication + newsletter about podcasts and the audio industry. Our goal is to bring together writers, journalists, and other voices who share a passion for the world of audio storytelling.

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Content Strategist & Podcast Librarian, @RadioPublic. Oberlin alum, #foodhat wearer, writer, educator, audio curator. Always listening.