If you've been podcasting long enough, you'll eventually hit that moment: you're about to talk about something, and a little voice in the back of your head says, “Wait… haven't I covered this before?”
That's exactly what happened to me recently. When I recorded my previous episode (“10 Reasons to Celebrate the Independence of Podcasting”), I later realized I had covered the independence of podcasting before (episode 312 from 2017).
Like so many things in podcasting, when the question includes the word “should,” the answer really depends on you, your podcast, and your audience. So I'm not going to hand you a yes or no. Instead, I'll give you four questions to help you figure out the right answer for your show.
1. Do you have more to add?
If you've covered something in the past, maybe you've had more thoughts since you hit publish. That could happen the very next day, when you slap your forehead and think, “Oh man, I should have mentioned that.”
It could also come from your audience. Maybe listeners raised points you hadn't considered, or they have follow-up questions that deserve a follow-up episode. And honestly, sometimes just the passage of time gives us more ideas, or better ones.
If you genuinely have more to add, that's a great reason to revisit the topic. But if it's just the same basic stuff worded slightly differently, that's probably not the time to publish a new episode.
What about a topic that's suddenly timely again because of what's going on in the world? Should you re-record just because it's newly relevant? That's up to you. Maybe you have fresh tie-ins to the present moment. Or maybe you decide to simply point people back to the old episode, or run it again as a rerun. (Reruns are their own separate topic, and I'll cover those in a future episode very soon.)
2. Is your original episode still available?
Depending on the tool you use to publish, you might have a limit on how many episodes appear in your RSS feed. Look at big shows like This Week in Tech and many others. They may have published thousands of episodes, but inside a podcast app you'll often see only the latest 10, 50, or 100. That's because they limit what goes into their feed. There are good reasons to do that, and some not-so-good ones too.
I dug into this in a previous episode, “What You Need to Know about Episode Limits and Your Podcast RSS Feed”.
Here's how it applies to repeating topics: if your original episode on the subject is no longer in your RSS feed, that gives you more grace to publish new content on the same topic. Think about it from the listener's side. Someone browsing your podcast today might not see that old episode at all if your feed is limited. As far as the podcast apps are concerned, that topic simply isn't in your show anymore. So it's perfectly reasonable to either rerun the episode or record a fresh take on the same idea.
3. How much time has passed?
If it's only been a couple of weeks and you want to cover the same topic again, you're most likely adding to it or following up on audience feedback. That's great. You don't have to repeat all the same information. You can do a quick review or just refer people back to the earlier episode for the details.
One important reminder: try to make sure every episode delivers its full value as a standalone. The exception is a serialized podcast, where episodes must be consumed in order. That's not only for storytelling shows, whether fiction or nonfiction. It also applies to educational series, like lesson 1, lesson 2, lesson 3, where each one builds on the last.
But if a lot of time has passed and people have forgotten the original, even if it's still in your feed, then yes, it may be the right time to cover it again. This is especially true if years have gone by and you now have a more refined perspective or more experience. Maybe your old episode taught a particular method, and now, after years of practicing it, you want to share the results. Same topic, but with something new to add. (Notice that's questions 1 and 3 working together.)
And remember how audiences flow in and out, plus our natural forgetfulness. Many of your listeners either don't remember the original content or never heard it because they found you long after it aired. Publishing more on that same topic is often just fine.
4. Do you have a different approach to the topic now?
This one opens up all kinds of opportunity. Sometimes you'll want to approach the same subject in a completely different way.
Maybe your first episode on the topic was an interview with an expert, and now you want to cover it from the perspective of your own experience. Maybe you've changed your mind. I did exactly that with episode numbers. Years ago I essentially said episode numbers are unnecessary for most podcasts. Now I see more uses for them, so I released new content reflecting that shift. Same topic, different approach.
You might bring on a guest or host a roundtable for more perspectives. You might feature audience feedback and their experiences. You could do this years later, or in the very next episode.
I like the word “approach” because it captures so much: your style, your perspective, your experience, your presentation method, and more. Just think about episode titles. I've covered how to use episode numbers in titles, how to combine numbers with episode numbers, how to use season numbers, how to do SEO with your titles, and much more. It's all about episode titles, but each one is a different approach.
One caution: if the content is very similar, don't stack it too close in time to the original. But if you truly have a different approach, you'll probably end up saying mostly different things anyway, even with the same core topic.
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This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.
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