Building and running an accounting podcast

Interested in launching a podcast to reach potential students or employees but don’t know what’s involved? Here’s how we produce the Journeys of Accountancy podcast at Boise State University. For more on the background and impact of the podcast, see the article “Using Podcasting to Attract Accounting Talent.”

To start with, neither of us had podcasting experience, so we learned as we went. We didn’t have a budget to set up a high-tech podcast recording studio. Instead, we had our department purchase three microphones and a USB Hub for $186 and used free online software from Audacity and Voicemeeter Banana to record, mix, and edit audio tracks. (See the sidebar “The Starter Kit.”)

We record the interviews in one of our offices. We didn’t even spring for microphone stands or podiums. Instead, we use old accounting textbooks to elevate the microphones. Doing so adds to the low-rent ambience of our “studio,” and it’s practical. We can add or remove a book to suit our guest’s height.

In the division of labor, one of us is responsible for the technology, recording, editing, and distribution. The other is in charge of booking the talent and writing a draft list of questions for each guest. Because we have both been teaching for many years, networking at student recruiting events, and keeping in touch with our former students, we have a lot of alums and non-alums we could book as guests. To focus on each individual’s story, we interview only one guest in each episode.

We try to feature guests from a range of backgrounds, levels of experience, specialties, and career tracks. Some serve in the traditional roles of audit or tax in CPA firms, from small firms to the Big Four and from new staff accountant through partner. Other guests have come from roles in private industry, the state and federal government, and not-for-profits.

Each recording follows a routine that involves:

• Sending the guest a draft list of questions about a week in advance of the recording: The questions are tailored to the guest’s background and experiences, what drew them to accounting, and how accounting has helped them in their career. (See the sidebar “Sample Interview Questions.”)
• Meeting guests at about 12:15 p.m. and taking them out for lunch at a café located in our building’s lobby: Over lunch we talk informally to help the guest relax and identify some important themes that might be good to address during the podcast. We assure the guest that mistakes are allowed; our podcast is edited. (Usually, we, not the guests, make mistakes that require editing.)
• Recording the podcast after lunch: We set up the appropriate number of textbooks based on the guest’s height and engage the guest in small talk to help calibrate the microphone. We also take the guest’s picture facing the microphone and in front of a “Smile” sign that has long adorned a wall in one of our offices. We post the picture next to the podcast episode online.

Most podcast recordings run from 30 to 45 minutes. We take turns asking questions. We start with a predetermined list of questions but quickly pivot to other topics based on the guest’s answers.

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Having had years of real-world accounting and teaching experience has helped us identify, highlight, and explain in plain English key lessons as they arise in the interviews. In doing so, we are careful to explain any acronyms or jargon that the guest is using.

We always end with a question about the guest’s interests and hobbies outside of work — to show that accountants are not just accountants.

• Editing the recording: A graduate assistant does an initial edit, removing gaps or mistakes and fixing technical issues. One of us then does the final edit, reducing the podcast length to 20–30 minutes and assigning each episode a title based on the key theme that emerged during the recording.

We have found that key lessons emerge organically. We never have to prod interviewees. In fact, a common refrain we use is “we didn’t pay the guest to say that.” And it is amazing how many times a guest will explain an issue they’ve been working on that one of us recently discussed in class.

HOW WE USE THE PODCASTS IN CLASS

During the 2023–2024 academic year, we used the podcasts in our introduction to managerial accounting course. This large-section course is taught by one of us and one other instructor and has two sections of about 200 first- or second-year students each. It is required of all students majoring in a business discipline, is the second required accounting course (the first is introduction to financial accounting), and is a prerequisite to being admitted to the college of business.

Podcasts were posted to the course’s Canvas site (our course management system where students download course materials and upload their completed assignments), and students were required to listen to five podcast episodes and reflect on what they learned. Importantly, students got to choose which podcasts they listened to — allowing some flexibility based on their interests. (See the sidebar “The Podcast Assignment.”)

The assignments, graded by teaching assistants, provide a welcome respite from traditional course activities like reading or doing homework problems.

We recorded 30 episodes between August 2023 and June 2024 and will curate them in three 10-episode seasons once they are all posted. Our plan is to assign one season of the podcast in introduction to managerial accounting (where it is currently used), another season in introduction to financial accounting, and the third season in foundations of the accounting profession (a subsequent course for accounting majors that reviews the accounting cycle and covers professionalism issues).

The plan is to continue recording episodes, at least another 10, but we don’t know yet how to fit them into classes.

Academic accounting programs are welcome to use the episodes in their courses — or to follow our example in creating their own podcasts. We have not monetized our podcast; we got into podcasting for the students and for the profession.

The starter kit

Podcast equipment:

• 3 Adesso Xtream M4 microphones with USB, $41.99/each. Total: $125.97.
• StarTech.com 7-Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Hub, desktop USB Hub with power adapter — black. Total: $59.99.
•  Textbooks for microphone stands. Total: free.
• Recording software: Audacity. Total: free.
• Software to use multiple microphones: Voicemeeter Banana. Total: free.

Sample interview questions

1. What is your background? Where did you grow up and what led you to study accounting?

2. Tell us about your journey of accountancy. What roles have you played and how has your career advanced?

3. What excites you about your job?

4. Take us through a typical day at your job.

5. Tell us about the best project you ever worked on.

6. What aspect of your work might surprise people?

7. Many students are put off by the work involved in, and the stereotypes surrounding, accounting (boring; long hours; stressful; you work with numbers, not with people). What would you say to students about those stereotypes? Are they true?

8. If someone is in business school and they are taking their first accounting course and think they like it, how would you convince them to consider majoring in accounting?

9. For those in nonaccounting roles: How did majoring in accounting get you where you are today?

10. For those who are CPAs: Many students today are leery of taking the CPA Exam. What advice would you give them?

11. For those who work or worked in public accounting: Many students are put off by public accounting — the stories of long hours and stress, etc.— but what did you get out of your time in public accounting? What did it do for you?

12. For those with a master’s degree: What value did you see in earning the master’s in accounting or taxation? How has it helped you in your career?

13. What do you wish you had known while you were in school?

14. What other advice do you have for our current students?

15. Our journeys are not all about accountancy. Tell us about what you do outside of work.

The podcast assignment

Question 1: Which podcast did you listen to?

Question 2: In well-constructed paragraphs*, write what you learned from listening to your chosen podcast.

• Paragraph one: What did you enjoy about the podcast?
• Paragraph two: What did you learn about accounting?
• Paragraph three: What did you learn that can be applied to your major or that can help you be a better future employee?

*According to the four square writing method, a well-constructed paragraph contains an introduction sentence, three supporting sentences, and a conclusion sentence.

About the authors

Mark J. Cowan, CPA, J.D., is a professor of tax law, and JoAnn B. Wood, MSA, is a lecturer of accountancy, both at Boise State University. To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Jeff Drew at Jeff.Drew@aicpa-cima.com.

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Article

 “10 Tips for Starting Your CPA Podcast,” JofA, Sept. 17, 2018

Podcast episode

“Serious Presentation Tips From a Stand-Up Comic,” JofA, Oct. 7, 2019