Podcast Guest Research & Interview Brief Creator

Researching podcast guests is a massive time sink that often results in surface-level conversations. This skill automates the labor-intensive process of vetting sources, synthesizing guest backgrounds, and drafting non-obvious interview questions. It transforms your raw source links, articles, and bios into a structured production brief designed to keep the host informed and the conversation flowing.

What it does

• Source synthesis audits provided articles, books, and transcripts to extract recurring themes and specific milestones.
• Angle development generates distinct narrative paths for the episode based on show audience and guest expertise.
• Interview architecture maps out a logical arc from introduction through core concepts to practical takeaways.
• Question drafting creates open-ended, non-repetitive questions and targeted follow-up probes.
• Host prep delivery produces a copy-ready introduction, transition notes, and a verification checklist for recording day.

How it works

1. Provide the guest name, episode goals, and source materials like links or document excerpts.
2. The skill audits the source pack to identify key claims, credentials, and potential gaps in the data.
3. Review the generated background brief and choose from the suggested episode angles.
4. Receive a full run-of-show including timed segments, main questions, and a bank of follow-up probes.

Frameworks & tools

This skill is platform-agnostic and works with any text-based input from research tools, PDF transcripts, or web clippings. It outputs GitHub-flavored Markdown optimized for Notion, Obsidian, or Google Docs.

Why this beats prompting it yourself

Generic prompts often result in "hallucinated" guest bios or generic questions that guests have answered a hundred times. This skill enforces strict grounding rules, ensuring every question is tied to a specific source and every fact is verified against your provided materials.

Use cases

• Preparing for a technical deep-dive with a founder or industry expert.
• Developing a structured narrative arc for a long-form biographical interview.
• Rapidly generating a backup bank of follow-up questions for high-stakes recordings.
• Creating a standardized production brief for guest-facing podcast teams.

Known limitations

Does not perform live web searching unless your agent has an active browsing tool. Requires the user to provide the initial source material for accurate results.