Podcast show notes template

Updated October 7, 2026.

Show notes do three jobs: tell a scrolling listener why this episode is worth an hour, help search engines and podcast apps understand what it covers, and let people jump to the part they want. The template below covers all three, and every block is optional. Under it is the same template filled in for a real episode.

1. The template

[HOOK: one question or tension the episode answers, in the listener's words]

[SUMMARY: 3-5 sentences. Who the guest is, in plain terms. What they talk about. One specific detail only this episode has.]

- [Key moment 1: a concrete idea, story or claim, not a topic label]
- [Key moment 2]
- [Key moment 3]
- [Key moment 4-6, optional]

CHAPTERS
00:00 [What actually happens in the first minutes]
MM:SS [Chapter title, 3-8 words, specific]
MM:SS [...]

PULL QUOTES
"[Exact words from the episode]" (MM:SS)

LINKS
[Guest site / book / anything mentioned on air]

2. What each block is for

• Hook. Most apps show only the first line or two before "more". A question the listener already has beats "In this episode we talk about".
• Summary. Name the guest and what makes them worth hearing, then one detail nobody else's episode has. That detail is what makes the notes yours, not generic.
• Key moments. Write what is said, not the topic. "Why stepping in to fix your kid's friendships usually backfires" beats "Friendship advice".
• Chapters. On YouTube, timestamps in the description become chapters when the first one is 00:00, there are at least three, and each is at least 10 seconds long (YouTube's rules). Spotify reads chapters from your description too, needs at least 3 and 30 seconds between them (Spotify's rules). Full details per platform: how to add chapters to your podcast. Check a list before you publish with the free chapters checker.
• Pull quotes. Verbatim lines with a timestamp. They double as social posts and audiogram captions. Copy them from the transcript, never from memory.
• Links. Only things mentioned on air, so the notes stay trustworthy.

3. Filled-in example

From Zero To Travel Podcast, "8 Million Ways to Happiness (Wisdom from the Heart of Japan) with Hiroko Yoda". This is a ChapterDesk sample made from the public episode; see the full sample and others.

What if happiness had less to do with what you believe and more to do with what you notice?

Tokyo-born author, translator and folklorist Hiroko Yoda joins Jason to talk about her book 8 Million Ways to Happiness: Wisdom for Inspiration and Healing from the Heart of Japan. Hiroko explains the old idea of yaoyorozu no kami, or 8 million spiritual beings, and why most Japanese people don't know how to answer the question "Are you religious?" ...

- Why the Japanese word for religion, shukyo, was only coined in the late 19th century
- A Shinto priest's view of kami as a space in your heart you fill with gratitude
- What Shugendo mountain practice teaches about our dependence on nature
- How to behave respectfully at Japanese shrines and temples, and why Asakusa is a textbook example

CHAPTERS
00:00 Sponsor: Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing
01:39 Jason on Japan's non-spiritual spirituality
08:17 AltJapan, peace studies and rural Indiana
14:20 Culturally religious, 8 million kami
21:37 A Shinto priest's definition of kami
26:03 Shugendo mountain practice and happiness from the sea
...

PULL QUOTES
"Mountains are not something that you conquer" (29:04)

4. Common mistakes

• Chapters that don't start at 00:00. YouTube then ignores the whole list.
• Timestamps from the raw recording. If you trimmed an intro or inserted ads, every time after the edit is off. Take times from the final published file.
• Topic labels instead of content. "Intro, Background, Main discussion, Outro" tells nobody anything.
• Quotes from memory. A paraphrase in quotation marks is a misquote. Check against the transcript.
• Same notes on every platform without chapters. Paste the chapter list into both the YouTube description and your episode description so YouTube and Spotify both pick it up.