Free agenda tool
Podcast Agenda Template
This is a free podcast agenda template with timings on every segment, editable in the browser with nothing to download. Most podcast templates plan the production — ideas, research, editing, promotion. This one plans the recording itself: the cold open, the segments, where the mid-roll goes, how long the listener questions get, and what time you actually stop. Change any segment's length and the rest of the episode re-times itself, so you know before you hit record whether the plan fits the runtime you promised.
15 items, 99 minutes, pre-filled and fully editable. Free, no sign-up.
Total length
1 hr 39 min
Finishes at
11:39 AM
- 10:00 AM
- 10:10 AM
- 10:20 AM
- 10:22 AM
- 10:24 AM
- 10:27 AM
- 10:30 AM
- 10:42 AM
- 10:57 AM
- 10:59 AM
- 11:11 AM
- 11:19 AM
- 11:24 AM
- 11:27 AM
- 11:29 AM
Podcast Agenda Template
| Time | Agenda item | Owner | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00 AM | Room and levels check | Producer | 10 |
| 10:10 AM | Guest greeting and pre-record brief | Host | 10 |
| 10:20 AM | Cold open — the hook | Host | 2 |
| 10:22 AM | Theme music and show intro | Host | 2 |
| 10:24 AM | Housekeeping and sponsor read | Host | 3 |
| 10:27 AM | Guest introduction | Host | 3 |
| 10:30 AM | Segment 1 — background and setup | Host and guest | 12 |
| 10:42 AM | Segment 2 — the main story | Host and guest | 15 |
| 10:57 AM | Mid-roll sponsor break | Host | 2 |
| 10:59 AM | Segment 3 — practical takeaways | Host and guest | 12 |
| 11:11 AM | Listener questions | Co-host | 8 |
| 11:19 AM | Rapid-fire round | Host | 5 |
| 11:24 AM | Where to find the guest, call to action | Host | 3 |
| 11:27 AM | Outro and sign-off | Host | 2 |
| 11:29 AM | Debrief and file handoff to editor | Producer | 10 |
| 11:39 AM | Finish | 99 |
Your agenda says 15 minutes. Your speaker takes 23.
Planned time on paper and what actually happens live are two different numbers, and every minute of the difference comes out of whatever was scheduled next. asktimer.com is the part that runs after the agenda is written.
A real countdown for every speaker
The minutes on this page are a plan. In the room, the plan needs enforcing. Load the same running order into asktimer.com and every speaker gets their own confidence monitor — a large countdown for their slot that turns green to amber to red as their time goes, readable at a glance from the podium. No card waved from the back of the room, and no speaker quietly wondering how long they have left.
Audience Q&A tied to the same session
The audience opens one link on their phones, submits questions and upvotes the ones they want answered, so the question the room actually cares about rises to the top instead of the loudest voice getting there first. The speaker can show that list on their own monitor when they're ready for it, and whoever is hosting marks each question covered as they work down it — so nothing gets asked twice and nothing gets lost.
One link each. Nothing to install.
A private link for the host running the show, one monitor link per speaker, and one public link for the audience. Everyone opens a browser tab — no app to install, no accounts for your speakers or your attendees, and no software to get working on a venue laptop ten minutes before doors.
How to use this Podcast agenda template
- 1
Set your start time
Type the time the meeting actually begins. Every row below recalculates its own clock time from that one field, so you never re-type a single time again.
- 2
Edit the items and durations
The template is already filled in with a realistic running order. Rename anything, add the person presenting it, and set how many minutes each item gets.
- 3
Add, remove and reorder
Move an item up or down and the whole schedule re-times itself instantly. Nothing breaks the way it does when you drag a row in a spreadsheet full of hard-coded times.
- 4
Check the finish time
The running total and the computed finish time sit at the top. If the finish time is later than you promised people, trim minutes until it isn't.
- 5
Copy or print it
Copy the whole agenda as plain text to paste into an email or calendar invite, or print a clean one-page version for the room.
How to structure a podcast episode rundown
Decide the runtime before you decide the content. A podcast that is "about an hour" is an hour and twenty in the edit, and the twenty minutes you cut are cut badly, under time pressure, from material you were attached to. Fix the number first, then divide it: an hour-long interview episode is realistically three twelve-to-fifteen-minute segments plus the top, the break and the close — and once you can see that on a page, you stop trying to fit five topics into it.
Time the top of the show much more tightly than the middle. Listener drop-off is heavily front-loaded, and the top is exactly where shows are self-indulgent: a two-minute hook, a two-minute intro and a three-minute sponsor read is a lot of runway before the guest has said anything. Keep the whole pre-guest block under ten minutes, and put the most interesting thing the guest will say in the cold open.
Leave the segments deliberately underfilled. A rundown is a container, not a script. The best interview moments are the ones you did not plan, and they need somewhere to go, so plan roughly eighty percent of each segment and let the conversation take the rest. Plan a segment to the second and you will either cut the good tangent or blow the runtime, and both are worse than a slightly loose plan.
Put the non-negotiables on the page as rows in their own right. Sponsor reads, the call to action, the where-to-find-the-guest — these are the things that get forgotten at the end of a recording that ran long, and re-recording them afterwards never sounds the same. A row with minutes against it is much harder to skip than an item you are holding in your head.
Keep a live recording on schedule
asktimer.com gives every host and guest their own countdown for the segment they are in, so the rundown holds even with a studio audience, a co-host in another city or a live stream running. Your listeners in the room submit and upvote questions from their phones, so the question the audience most wants asked is the one that rises to the top. Free to start.
Podcast Agenda Template: what usually goes wrong
- Give the mid-roll a real position in the rundown, not "somewhere in the middle". Ad reads land far better on a natural segment break than dropped over a good answer.
- Send the rundown to your guest, not the questions. Guests over-prepare answers to specific questions and under-prepare for a conversation; a rundown tells them the shape without scripting them.
- Record the levels check and the guest brief as rows with minutes against them. They always take ten minutes, and pretending they take zero is why podcast sessions overrun.
- Keep one rundown per episode and version it. A show that reuses a single living document loses the record of what actually aired each week.
- If you record in front of an audience, time the question block explicitly. Open-ended audience questions are the single most reliable way for a live recording to overrun.
Frequently asked questions
What is a podcast agenda?
A podcast agenda, or episode rundown, is the ordered list of segments in an episode with a length against each one: the cold open, the intro, sponsor reads, the interview segments, listener questions and the sign-off. It is what keeps a recording to the runtime you planned instead of fixing it in the edit.
How long should each podcast segment be?
For an hour-long interview show, three segments of twelve to fifteen minutes works well, with the whole pre-guest top under ten minutes and a couple of minutes for the close. Shorter formats scale down proportionally — the ratio matters more than the absolute numbers.
What is the difference between a podcast agenda and a podcast script?
An agenda times the shape of the episode; a script writes the words. Most conversational shows want a fully scripted top and close — the hook, the intro, the sponsor read, the sign-off — and a timed agenda with bullet points for everything in between.
Is this podcast agenda template free?
Yes, entirely. There is no sign-up and nothing to download. Edit it in the browser, then copy it as plain text into your notes or print it for the studio.
Can I use this for a live podcast recording?
Yes, and it matters more there, because you cannot edit a live show. Time the question block explicitly, keep the segments a little shorter than you would for a recorded episode, and give whoever is hosting a visible clock.
More free agenda templates
- Meeting agenda templateThe general-purpose one. A 60-minute meeting with realistic slots for updates, discussion and actions.
- Team meeting agenda templateFor the weekly team check-in. 45 minutes of updates, blockers, priorities and one real deep dive.
- Board meeting agenda templateA formal 90-minute board agenda: minutes, declarations, reports, matters for decision and risk.
- Conference agenda templateA single-day conference: registration, keynote, Q&A, breakouts, lunch, panel and lightning talks.
- Workshop agenda templateA facilitated three-hour workshop: framing, silent ideation, group work, playback and prioritization.
- Agenda template with time slotsThe generic time-slotted agenda. Set a start time, give each item minutes, times fill themselves in.
- Run of show templateThe full event-day rundown. Crew call to load-out, with every handover, break and Q&A slot timed.
- Run of show cue sheet templateCue by cue, for the crew calling the show. Standby, video roll, mic live, stage reset — each with its own duration.
Turn this agenda into a live run-of-show
Load the same running order into asktimer.com and every speaker gets a live countdown, your audience gets Q&A they can upvote from their phones, and you get one link each for host, speaker and audience. Free to start, nothing to install.
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