S5 115. I Tried to Record a Podcast in an Airport. Here's What Season 5 Experiments Will Look Like
Deciding to take your podcast on the road is one of those ideas that feels obvious in theory and complicated in practice. The vision is clear — new exciting environments, vertical content, a lean setup, a fresh format. What nobody tells you is that the airport corner that looked quiet on camera sounds like a construction site in post-production.
This is season five of The Podcast Space, and I'm doing something different. I'm recording while traveling through four countries — with just a phone, a tripod, and a pair of mics — and turning the entire experiment into a case study for you. Every format decision, every mistake, every moment of "I'll just fix it in post" that didn't get fixed: it's all going in here for you to see.
One of the most useful insights from this season's launch? The question that stopped me from publishing a subpar episode is the same one I tell my clients every single time: does this last piece of content you published reflect your values, your ethics, and how you want to be perceived?
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to Season 5 — and Take Two
01:30 Why I'm Taking the Podcast on the Road
01:46 Lesson 1: The Airport Recording That Didn't Make the Cut
02:45 Lesson 2: Always Pre-Record Content Before You Travel
03:31 How to Set Audience Expectations When You Change Formats
04:14 Platform-Agnostic Listeners and What That Means for Your Show
05:44 What Season 5 Looks Like: Formats, Experiments, and the Lean Setup
05:52 Episode Formats I'm Testing: Clips, Mini-Episodes, Q&As
06:09 The Question Every Episode Should Answer
07:48 Stress in Podcasting on The Go
Something I notice consistently in my work with podcasters is how often the idea of experimenting gets separated from the idea of strategy — as if the two can't coexist. This episode is my attempt to prove that they can. There's a version of "going on the road" that looks spontaneous but is actually intentional, and a version that looks intentional but quietly loses the thread of why the show exists in the first place. The difference comes down to one question, which I'll come back to throughout this season.
The Real Cost of Recording on the Go (And How to Avoid It)
My first attempt at a season five opener was recorded in an airport. The lighting was good, there were no obvious signs in the background, and I found a quiet-enough corner. I was confident it would work. It didn't.
What I thought would be fixable in post turned out to be unfixable — there was simply too much ambient noise in the early seconds of the recording. And before I could justify publishing it anyway, I came back to the question I ask my clients all the time: is this the last piece of content something that reflects your values, your ethics, and how you want to be perceived?
The answer was no. So I shelved it.
That decision cost me a delay. I was also in the middle of a significant (Top Secret for now) client project, and then came the trip to The Podcast Show in London, then back to Portugal — and the season launch got pushed. That's the second lesson: always pre-record content (and do a quality-check) before you travel. Even with +15 years of experience in this industry, I did not anticipate how quickly variables would stack up.
Experimenting Without Losing Your Podcast Strategy
Here's what I want you to know before you plan your own on-the-road season: the question isn't whether you can record while traveling. The question is whether the episode you're planning actually maps to your goals.
Every episode I create this season has a specific role. This one, for example, exists because I'm using my own experience as a live case study for clients who ask me the same things: should I take my podcast with me? What do I do if I can't record? How do I keep my audience engaged when I change formats?
The data backs this up, too. Listeners are increasingly platform-agnostic — meaning they switch between Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube depending on what they need in the moment. If they're commuting, they listen to audio. If they're at a desk or in their living room, they might watch the video version. That shift means there's real room to experiment with format without losing your audience, as long as you're transparent about it.
Setting Audience Expectations Is Part of the Strategy
One of the things I hear from podcasters who want to try something different is: "But my audience is expecting X." And what I want to offer as a reframe is this: your audience can only hold expectations you've set. If you tell them you're experimenting — which is exactly what I'm doing right now — you've already done the work.
This season, I'm filming vertically on a lean setup: a phone, a tripod, and a pair of mics. The content is designed for social media format. Episodes will vary in length, including some that are as short as three minutes. That's not a lack of quality but a deliberate experiment to see how a single, well-made point performs against a longer episode.
What Season 5 Actually Covers
For more focused guidance, book a discovery call to plan a content strategy that suits your goals and minimizes the overwhelming noise.
Alongside the format experiments, here's what I'm planning to dig into this season. This is not in any particular order — I'm giving myself some flexibility to follow what's most relevant as the season unfolds, including three bonus episodes.
1. Are systems overrated for podcast success? I'll be examining what's actually driving consistent output versus what just feels productive.
2. What makes a podcast description work for both humans and machines? A practical look at how to write descriptions that serve your listener and the algorithm at the same time.
3. The social media strategy most podcasters skip. And why skipping it is costing them reach they could be capturing with almost no extra effort.
4. What the biggest podcasters do — that you shouldn't copy. This one will challenge some common assumptions about what success looks like at scale.
5. What no one tells you about podcast seasons — and the specific thing that blindsided me and created a lot of unexpected stress. I'm turning it into a short, focused episode because it deserves its own space.
6. Why your podcast listeners aren't buying. I've been getting this question from clients consistently, and the answer isn't what most people expect.
7. Reframing the value of your podcast in your business. An episode I'm genuinely excited about — it will shift how you think about what your show is actually doing for you.
8. Live from The Podcast Show. Field recordings and conversations from the conference, with a heads-up that the audio will have some background noise — it's a live event, and that's part of it.
9. Incorporating listener feedback into your show. Testimonials, quotes, voice messages, and how to use them as content without it feeling awkward.
I also have one episode recorded at an undisclosed location that I'm not ready to reveal just yet.
The Lean Setup — and What It Taught Me Before Season 5 Even Started
Recording vertically on a phone is a different experience from sitting at a desk with a professional mic and a webcam. There are things you don't anticipate: stabilizing a phone in a public space, worrying about someone walking into frame (or worse, walking off with your gear), trying not to disrupt the people around you.
These aren't complaints, really, they're real practical considerations I want you to have before you decide to do something similar. If you're traveling with family, finding a quiet recording space becomes harder. Jet lag affects your delivery more than you'd think (hello to spending hours editing out mistakes). And if you miss a connection or your schedule shifts, that can cascade into your release timeline in ways that are hard to recover from quickly.
What I've learned is that the lean setup works when the content is strong enough to carry it. And the way to make sure the content is strong enough is to keep coming back to the same question: does this episode serve my audience and reflect the standard I hold myself to?
Discover how to build a podcast season around real-world constraints — travel, lean equipment, shifting schedules — without compromising the quality your audience expects.
Walk away with a clearer framework for deciding when to experiment with format and when to hold the line, grounded in the same questions I use with every client I work with.
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ABOUT THE HOST
Hi, I’m Ana Xavier, a multilingual award-winning podcast marketing and content strategist specialized in generating online visibility for women, multilingual, and minority impact-driven business owners.
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