With podcasts continuing to grow as strong sources of information, knowing how to properly cite them is the latest addition to any writer’s repertoire. Podcasts can range from entertainment to academia, revolving around pop culture news, comedy, murder mysteries, the science of life, and many many more.
Many professionals in academia are beginning to expand their work to podcasts due to their increased demand from listeners. Many listeners will even use podcasts as continuing education rather than reading certain materials.
Naturally, with more academia appearing on podcast platforms, knowing how to cite it for your own academic work is necessary.
Why it’s Important to Know How to Cite a Podcast
Writing an essay for a college class, conducting research for your current job, or using it as an example during your own blog post are all situations you could find yourself in where a podcast is an answer, therefore, its important to know how to properly cite a podcast and/or it’s individual episodes.
Depending on the guidelines you were given from your particular university or place of work, there are a few different ways to create a citation. So for this post, I will show MLA, APA, and Chicago styles as they are the most popular. Moreover, no matter what format you are using to cite a podcast, there are a few important details you will need to know.
- Full name of the podcast host or narrator, their username, or possibly the name of the company used to post the podcast
- Title of podcast
- Title of episode
- Podcast platform
- Date posted
- URL for podcast
Once you know the basics of the podcast, you will be ready to confidently create a citation for the podcast using any format.
For all of my examples, I will use a podcast from Spotify titled Beck and Call with the episode “Blogging, Babies and Living Your Best Life with Kathleen Barnes”.
Let’s get started with MLA
MLA
The Modern Language Association format is most commonly used to cite resources in literature, humanity, and cultural studies.
Structure:
Last Name, First Name (of whoever posted Or the name of the company Or the Username), Author’s title (if applicable). “Title of the Podcast Episode.” Title of the Podcast, Name of Publisher/platform you listened to it on (only include if different from the author or title), Date it was posted, URL.
Example:
Beck, Merritt, host. “Blogging, Babies and Living Your Best Life with Kathleen Barnes.” Beck and Call, Spotify, 8 Nov. 2022, https://open.spotify.com/show/58gypODekuxuyiSsbojYv0?si=b3a2477ea60146c3
APA
The American Psychological Association format is typically used for work with the social sciences, life sciences, and businesses.
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Structure:
Last, F. M. (Contributor title). (Year, Month Date). Podcast episode title [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from URL.
Example:
Beck, M. (Host). (2022, November 08). Blogging, Babies and Living Your Best Life with Kathleen Barnes [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://open.spotify.com/show/58gypODekuxuyiSsbojYv0?si=b3a2477ea60146c3
Chicago
Additionally, Chicago Style was unsurprisingly created in Chicago at the University of Chicago and has a mix of APA and MLA voices supporting mostly history, humanities, social sciences, and life sciences.
Structure:
Last Name, First Name. “Episode Title”. Podcast Title. Podcast audio, Month Date, Year of publication. URL.
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Example:
Beck, Merritt. “Blogging, Babies and Living Your Best Life with Kathleen Barnes ”. Beck and Call. Podcast audio, November 08, 2022. https://open.spotify.com/show/58gypODekuxuyiSsbojYv0?si=b3a2477ea60146c3
Conclusion:
So after reading this blog you should have a better understanding and possibly a newfound appreciation of how podcasts are becoming more and more popular to the point of creating citations. Now that you know how to properly cite your favorite podcasts, it opens up a whole new world for granting recognition to creators in written copy.
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