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New to podcasting and drowning in jargon? Here's a plain-English glossary of the 30 terms you'll actually run into, from RSS feeds to dynamic ad insertion, organized so you can find what you need fast.
Every industry has its own shorthand, and podcasting is no exception. If you're new to the medium, whether you're launching a personal show or overseeing a branded podcast for your company, it's easy to nod along in a meeting while quietly wondering what half the terms actually mean. This glossary covers the 30 you're most likely to run into, explained in plain English.
Podcast
A series of audio, or audio and video, episodes released on a regular schedule and distributed through an RSS feed (or YouTube feed) so listeners can subscribe and get new episodes automatically.
Episode
A single installment of a podcast, the equivalent of one issue of a magazine or one chapter of a series.
Season
A grouped set of episodes released over a defined period, often used by shows that take planned breaks between production cycles rather than releasing continuously.
Show Notes
The written summary that accompanies an episode, typically including a description, links mentioned in the conversation, and timestamps.
RSS Feed
The technical backbone of podcasting: an XML file that lists a show's episodes and their audio files, which podcast apps read to know when a new episode is available.
Host
In podcasting, this word carries two meanings. It can refer to the person presenting the show, or to the platform storing and delivering a show's audio files, as in "who's your podcast host?"
Cold Open
A brief, attention-grabbing clip played at the very start of an episode, before the usual intro, designed to hook a listener before they decide whether to keep listening.
Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI)
A technology that inserts ads into an episode at the moment it's downloaded or streamed, rather than baking them permanently into the audio file, allowing different listeners to hear different ads in the same episode slot.
Baked-In Ads
The opposite of dynamic insertion: ads recorded directly into the episode's audio file, permanent and unchangeable once published.
Trailer
A short promotional episode, usually under two minutes, that introduces a new or upcoming show to help potential listeners decide whether to subscribe.
Podcast Directory
A platform like Apple Podcasts or Spotify that lists shows for listeners to browse, search, and subscribe to, pulling episode data from a show's RSS feed.
Podcast Host (Distribution)
The service, separate from the directories themselves, that stores a show's audio files and generates its RSS feed, distributing that feed out to every directory the show is listed on.
Chapters
Markers embedded in an episode that divide it into named, timestamped sections, letting a listener jump directly to a specific part rather than scrubbing through the whole runtime.
Cross-Promotion
An arrangement where two shows feature each other, often by running a trailer or clip of one inside an episode of the other, to introduce each show's audience to the other.
Video Podcast
A podcast recorded and distributed with a video component alongside its audio, increasingly common now that YouTube has become a major discovery channel for podcasts.
CPM (Cost Per Mille)
The price an advertiser pays per one thousand ad impressions, the standard pricing unit for podcast advertising.
Host-Read Ad
An advertisement voiced by the podcast's own host in their normal speaking style, generally considered more effective than a pre-produced ad because it carries the host's existing credibility with the audience.
Pre-Roll, Mid-Roll, and Post-Roll
The three standard positions for an ad within an episode: before the content begins, somewhere in the middle, or after the episode ends. Mid-roll ads typically command the highest rates since they reach the most engaged listeners.
Branded Podcast
A show created and funded by a company as a marketing channel, rather than sold as third-party ad space on an independent show.
Sponsorship
A paid partnership where a brand's message is integrated into a show, ranging from a simple ad read to a deeper, ongoing association with the podcast itself.
Download
Historically the standard measurement unit in podcasting: one instance of an episode's audio file being requested by a listener's device, whether or not they actually listened to it.
IAB Certification
A standard set by the Interactive Advertising Bureau that verifies a podcast's download and audience measurement methodology meets industry-recognized accuracy standards, often required by larger advertisers before they'll buy ad space.
Listen-Through Rate
The percentage of an episode's total runtime that an average listener actually plays, a more meaningful engagement signal than a raw download count.
Engaged View
On video platforms, a view that counts only once a viewer has watched past the first few seconds, distinguishing genuine engagement from someone scrolling straight past.
Retention Curve
A graph showing what percentage of listeners or viewers are still tuned in at each point across an episode's runtime, useful for spotting exactly where an audience tends to drop off.
Guesting
Appearing as a guest on someone else's podcast, often used as a growth tactic to reach an audience that doesn't yet know your own show.
Evergreen Content
An episode whose value doesn't depend on when it was released, staying relevant and discoverable to new listeners long after publication, as opposed to a news or timely episode.
Repurposing
Turning a single episode into multiple additional pieces of content, such as short clips for social media, a blog post, or an audiogram, to extend its reach beyond the original episode.
Feed Split
Publishing different versions of a show, such as separate ad-free and ad-supported feeds, or region-specific feeds with locally relevant sponsorships.
Explicit Tag
A setting in a show's RSS feed marking an episode as containing mature language or content, which directories use to apply content warnings or filtering.
Thirty terms won't make you a podcasting expert overnight, but they'll get you through your first production meeting, ad negotiation, or analytics review without having to ask what everyone else already seems to know.
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