Citing a Podcast? Here’s Your Guide for MLA, APA, and Chicago Style Format

Podcast as a platform is growing into an incredibly diverse and popular source of information. Until recently, podcasts were used for entertainment and news segment. Today, it is also used as an educational tool. Academic podcasts are increasingly taking their place in the digital world, disseminating research findings, showcasing academic expertise, and creating a reach for new audiences.

Podcasts have also been a unique resource for researchers. This source has helped researchers communicate their research findings and highlight the people who are directly and indirectly (faculty members) involved in the research, giving rightful credit and citing researchers. Podcast technology has become an increasingly effective platform for the dissemination of academic research, research communication, and promotion.

In this article, we will discuss how podcasts are a source of information and how to cite them in different style formats. So if we cite the podcast, what are the important factors we should include in our citation? In our article, you will find examples of how the general format should be when quoting from a podcast, and especially how these quotes should be in the writing styles of APA, MLA, and Chicago.

Why Do We Cite Sources?

Citing sources allows the reader to understand the information given in a research paper with clarity. It gives due credit to people whose words are borrowed for your paper. Moreover, it protects researchers from committing plagiarism.

Effective Use of Podcast to Disseminate Scientific Research

Author Lynn Harter describes the rise of sound recording and its power to reach people in her article “Storytelling in Acoustic Spaces: Embodied and Interactive Podcasting” (2019).

Harter talks about the rise of podcasts and advocates making information available in an audio format based on two discussion points.

1) Podcasts expand the dispositions and capacities of scholars towards multi-sensory forms of inquiry, and

2) Podcasts connect research scholars and increase their interaction.

To support incorporating podcasts into a scholarly setting, resources have subsequently started to emerge to help academics start their podcasts. One such model is available in the UK and they are operating it for over a decade.

Research Impact Through Podcasts

These Research Podcasts with the motto of “Publishing, communicating, educating” state that the podcast platform is “powerful” and effective in the research. These podcasts have the power to communicate complex research in an interesting and accessible way. Within the scope of this model, they also share detailed data about how functional podcasts can be. Accordingly, for busy policymakers, struggling practitioners, academics, and students, podcasting is a great way to learn about research that may be interesting or useful.

As a listener, podcasts can help you reach more people in your research domain. As a creator, you could create your own informative, interesting, easy-to-follow podcasts about your research, and you can freely explain your findings and research outputs. Research Podcasts work with organizations and individuals to reach the people you want and demonstrate the impact of your research findings and how important and effective they are.

When Should You Cite a Podcast?

When you are quoting a podcast host verbatim, discussing based on the ideas mentioned in a podcast, or you are summarizing a podcast’s thoughts or theories, then it is essential to credit them. This is critical to save yourself from committing plagiarism.

A Complete Guide to Cite Podcasts

Citing a podcast depends on the referencing style you are using. If you are unsure as to which referencing guidelines to use, ensure to check with the institution or journal you wish to submit your essay to, as they may stipulate a specific style.

Pay particular attention to italicization, full stops, parentheses, and quotation marks. Although minor details, they play a critical role in the correct citation.

1. To cite a podcast, you will need the following information:
2. The host/narrator’s first and last name
3. The title of the podcast episode (if you are referring to a certain podcast)
4. The name of the podcast series
5. The date of publication
6. The series and episode numbers
7. The URL through which you assessed the podcast.

Cite a Podcast APA Style Format

To cite a specific podcast using APA style referencing, you could start with —

1. The name is where you mention the author, concerning podcasts, you will usually mention the host’s name (you can also mention the executive producer instead).
2. The parentheses contain the preceding person’s role. If you mentioned the host’s name, put (host).
3. The date refers to the day the podcast was first aired.
4. The episode title means the specific title of the episode (Do not italicize this).
5. The episode number indicates the episode’s number in the series. However, if the podcast does not number its episodes, then you can skip this while citing.
6. The square brackets indicate the type of podcast episode.
7. The podcast series’ title must be in italics.
8. The URL is the link to the podcast episode. However, you could leave this information out, if you used an app to listen to the podcast or cannot find the URL.

To cite the whole podcast series, you could follow the above-mentioned details with slight modifications. Instead of mentioning the date, you could write the range of years the series went on.

Cite a Podcast MLA Style Format

To cite a podcast in MLA style, you could list the host of the episode as the author, followed by the episode title, podcast name, mention of the podcast season and episode numbers (if available), publisher, the date, and the URL.

Furthermore, if you wish to highlight a specific quote in an in-text citation, you could use a timestamp.

Cite a Podcast Chicago Style Format

In the Chicago style, you could start with the name of the host, followed by the episode title in parentheses, year, podcast title, published/written/directed by, audio format, running time, and the URL.

Do you find podcasts a good source of reference? Have you ever cited a podcast in your academic essays? Tell us or comment below!