Behind the voices: the making of a podcast  

When the light goes on at the Live Fabrik studio in Rüschlikon, it illuminates a surprisingly spartan and purely functional room: a black, oval table with three large microphones on it, several tripods holding video cameras and black curtains all around. As basic as this is, it’s the setting for something lots of people will eventually listen to, namely the latest episode of our “The River” podcast.

However, work on each new episode begins weeks before we go into the studio. Dagmar Laub, Head of Communications and Public Affairs at Swiss Banking and responsible for the campaign “The River”, regularly discusses potential topics and guests with her team. “We think about how we can convey the benefits the banks bring for the population at large in a way that’s easy to understand, entertaining and imbued with emotional resonance,” she explains.

There’s no classic, standard process that comes into play here. The team shares ideas, considers which guests to invite and talks to members. “Sometimes it starts with an idea for a topic, sometimes with a guest we’d really like to speak to,” says Dagmar. It has a lot to do with gut feelings: “People care about different issues in French-speaking Switzerland, and we reflect that in our French-language episodes, which we record in a studio in Geneva with our presenter Carine Riell.”

Once the topic’s chosen, preliminary discussions are held with the guests to provide a summary for the presenters. “These briefings help the presenters to prepare – besides Carine in Geneva, we have the prominent financial journalist Carolin Roth for episodes in German,” she notes. From this point on, it’s the presenters who are responsible for the content. They have full editorial control. This approach was a key part of the concept right from the start: “The podcast should allow for discourse. We want interesting guests who have something to say. We want to hear different opinions.”

The actual recording takes two hours in total, including makeup, technical preparations and the discussion itself. Three technicians are on hand, with one in charge of audio and one in charge of video. Even though the vast majority of our audience listens to the podcast, Swiss Banking puts a lot of effort into making sure the video is of the highest quality. “The video, or at least short excerpts of it, is important for marketing and for putting trailers on social media. Posts about the podcast achieve a very good reach,” explains Dagmar.

In the days following the recording, Live Fabrik owner Fabio Nay and his team handle the post-production. This requires almost surgical precision – removing loud breathing noises, correcting little slips of the tongue and editing scenes together. 

The episode goes live two weeks later, by which time the team has already moved on to planning topics and guests for future episodes. A podcast doesn’t produce itself, it’s the result of a journalistic process involving research, storytelling, technology, editing and the constant search for the best narrative approach. Above all, it’s teamwork. When everything comes together, the result is something special: important voices that get heard.