How to turn one podcast episode into a week of shorts

Recording the episode is the hard part. The hours that come after it are what keep most shows from posting every day: scrubbing through the recording for good moments, cutting them out, reframing them for a phone screen, writing captions and hashtags.

Here’s a routine that turns one long episode into a week of shorts in SecondCut.

1. Start with the full episode

Paste the episode’s YouTube link (public or unlisted works) or upload the file: MP4, MOV or WebM, up to 5 GB and up to 3 hours long. Don’t pre-cut anything. The more of the conversation SecondCut sees, the more moments it has to choose from.

2. Ask for more clips than you need

You can ask for 1 to 10 clips per video, and 5 is the default. For a week of posts, ask for 10. You won’t post all of them, and having a few spares makes the next step easier. SecondCut picks the length of each clip to fit the moment, usually somewhere between 20 and 60 seconds.

3. Decide the look before you start

Captions are burned into the video, so choose them up front:

• One word puts a single word on screen at a time. It suits fast, high-energy conversation.
• Clean subtitles suits calmer, thoughtful episodes.
• Pill and Bold pop add emphasis for punchier moments.

Keep the shape on 9:16 vertical for Shorts, Reels and TikTok, and switch on your logo if you want it, in the corner you choose. You can also set the caption position, custom colours and a time range under the advanced options.

4. Let the score set the order

Every clip comes back with a score from 0 to 100: SecondCut’s estimate of how likely the clip is to stop the scroll. Use it to plan the week:

1. Monday: the highest score.
2. Tuesday to Thursday: the next three.
3. Friday to Sunday: the clips you like most from the rest, even when they scored lower.

The score is a starting point, not a verdict. Watch your top picks once, and trust your own sense of what your audience cares about. There’s more on that in what the SecondCut score means.

5. Trim, export, paste

If a clip starts a beat too early or runs a beat too long, trim it in the editor. Then export the MP4 with the captions already burned in.

Each clip also comes with a title, a ready-to-post caption and hashtags, each one click to copy. Paste them where you post, adjust the wording to sound like you, and schedule the week in whatever tool you already use. SecondCut doesn’t post for you, so you stay in control of every account.

6. Make next week automatic

If your episodes go up on YouTube, connect your channel with Channel Watch (“Monitor a channel” on Home). SecondCut checks the channel once a day and clips each new upload automatically. Shorts, live streams and premieres are skipped, and only videos published after you connect are picked up.

Next week, the clips are waiting before you’ve even thought about them.

The routine, in one line

Upload the full episode, ask for ten clips, set the look once, post by score, trim what needs trimming, and let Channel Watch handle the next one.