Where your guests come from
Your guest list fills in from your show notes and from every episode you process. How the two fit together, and how to take someone off an episode.
Podato builds your guest list for you, from two places: your show notes, and the transcripts of the episodes you process. To see it, choose Guests in the sidebar. Choose any guest to open their page, which lists every episode they're on.
From your show notes
When you add your show, Podato reads the title and show notes of every episode in your feed and lists the guests they name. Episodes you import later are read too, and if you change an episode's title or show notes in your feed, Podato reads it again the next time it checks your feed. So your whole back catalogue's guests can be in Guests before you've processed a single episode. Like the rest of reading your feed, it doesn't count towards your plan.
Until a transcript confirms them, these guests are marked From show notes. A guest named only on episodes you never process stays on your list with that label. On a guest's page, an episode only the show notes know about says Named in the show notes. Not processed yet.
Your hosts, as named under Hosts in Show settings, are left out of the guest list. Finding a guest in the show notes doesn't research them. Opening their page does, or choose Research on their row in Guests.
From an episode you process
Processing an episode reads its transcript, so Podato knows who actually spoke. See Process your first episode.
It also researches the episode's guests, finding their bio, photo and links, if they're among the five most recent guests on your show. Older guests are researched when you open their page. On the free trial, Podato asks first, because each one uses one of your free guest researches.
If the show notes already named a guest, the transcript confirms that same guest instead of adding a second one, and the From show notes label goes.
When the notes and the transcript spell a name differently, Podato keeps the notes' spelling. For a guest it already knew from a transcript, it asks instead: their page offers the notes' spelling, and choosing Rename to … renames the guest wherever they're listed. The old spelling still points to them.
If the transcript doesn't find someone the notes named, they stay on your list, still marked From show notes.
The same guest twice
If Podato thinks two names are probably one person, Guests asks "Is … another name for …?" above the list. Choose Same person: keep … to merge them under that name, Different people to keep them apart, or Skip for now.
A social account that isn't theirs
On a guest's page, choose Not theirs under a social account to hide it. For an account they've stopped using, choose Mark inactive: it stays on their page, labelled Inactive, and drops off the Guests list. Undo puts either back. If Podato later finds a different account, that one shows.
Taking a guest off an episode
On the episode's page, find them under Guests, choose the cross beside their name, then Remove guest.
- A guest from the show notes stays off that episode, even when Podato reads the notes again.
- A guest from the transcript comes back if you process the episode again.
Either way, their page and their other episodes stay. To remove someone from your list entirely, use Delete guest on their page.