Research a Guest From Their Past Interviews
A guest who has been on ten podcasts has usually told the same three stories on all ten. If you only read their bio, you end up asking the questions they have answered many times, and your listeners hear an episode they have already heard somewhere else.
Import a few of the guest’s previous interviews and ScreenApp’s AI reads them side by side. It tells you what they were already asked, which stories they repeat, and which topics nobody has explored, then suggests questions that give your episode something new.
Previously asked questions
The questions other hosts already asked, so you can skip or build on them.
Repeated stories
The anecdotes the guest tells on most shows, and where each one appears.
Unexplored topics
Subjects that come up briefly but nobody followed up on.
Suggested questions
New questions built on those gaps, ready for your run sheet.
How Guest Research Works
The tool works in two steps: one transcript per interview, then one chat across all of them.
It transcribes every episode
Each interview you import is transcribed with speaker identification, so the guest's answers are separated from the host's questions. You can open any transcript and read exactly what was said.
It compares them in one chat
Put the interviews in one folder. ScreenApp has one AI chat that searches and answers from every recording in your library, or a single folder, so a single question is answered from every interview at once, not one episode at a time.
Speaker labels name voices as speakers, not as people, so tell the chat which speaker is your guest in each interview. In ScreenApp you can also click a speaker label to rename it, match it to a team member, or reassign a single segment, which keeps the guest’s name consistent across the folder.
What You Get Back
This shows the shape of the brief. The guest and the findings are made up for this example, and real results depend on the interviews you import.
The guest: a startup founder with four past interviews in the folder.
| Finding | Example | Found in |
|---|---|---|
| Asked before | ”How did you get your first customer?” | In 3 of 4 |
| Repeated story | Quitting a corporate job the week after a product demo | In 3 of 4 |
| Mentioned once | A failed first company, covered in one sentence | In 1 of 4 |
| Not covered | How they hire and run the team today | In none |
| New question | ”What did the failed first company teach you about hiring?” | Built on the gap |
Get a sharper brief in three steps
Name the guest
Say which speaker is the guest in each interview.
Use recent interviews
Three to five from the last year or two.
Check before you ask
Open the transcript for any quote you plan to use.
Every finding points back to a transcript in your library, so you can read the original answer before you build a question on it.
How to Research a Podcast Guest
- Make a folder for the guest. Create one folder in ScreenApp for the guest’s interviews.
- Import three to five interviews. Paste each episode’s link into the tool above, or upload the audio files. ScreenApp imports one link at a time; playlist URLs are not imported as a batch, and it supports bulk upload of multiple files.
- Ask across the folder. Open the library chat for that folder, tell it which speaker is the guest, and ask for previously asked questions, repeated stories, unexplored topics and new questions.
Links from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Vimeo and Loom links, direct audio and video links, PDFs and web articles work. Many podcasts post full episodes on YouTube, and audio files from the show’s own website upload directly. Spotify links cannot be imported, because ScreenApp cannot import Spotify and other DRM-protected streaming services. For Apple Podcasts episodes, see the Apple Podcasts transcript page.
What You Can Do With the Research
Ask questions nobody has asked
Build your run sheet around the gaps, so the episode adds something the guest has not said on other shows.
Get past the stock stories
Know which anecdotes are coming, and ask the follow-up that takes the story somewhere new.
Write a better intro
Pull the guest's background from how they describe themselves, in their own words.
Brief a co-host or producer
Share one brief instead of asking everyone to listen to hours of old episodes.
Prepare a panel
Put each panelist in their own folder, then compare what each of them usually says.
Prepare any interview
Journalists, event moderators and YouTube interviewers can research a guest the same way.
Questions to Ask Across the Folder
Once the interviews are in one folder, keep asking in the same chat:
What It Can and Cannot Do
Good at
- Comparing several interviews at once in one folder
- Spotting questions and stories that repeat across episodes
- Pointing to the transcript behind each finding, so you can check it
- Long-form interviews, recorded as audio or video
Not built for
- Finding the interviews for you: you choose and import the episodes
- Streaming-only episodes: Spotify and other DRM-protected streaming services cannot be imported
- Knowing who is who: speaker labels are not names until you tell the chat
- Checking facts: it reports what the guest said, not whether it is true
On the free plan, ScreenApp includes 2 transcriptions of recordings up to 45 minutes each and 3 uploads, so researching three to five interviews usually needs a paid plan. Plans start at $19 a month billed annually. Treat every finding as a lead to check, not as a quote to read on air.
Podcast Guest Research vs Other Tools
| Feature | ScreenApp | Castmagic | Listening yourself |
|---|---|---|---|
| How you compare interviews | One chat across a whole folder | Up to 10 interviews in one page | Notes across hours of audio |
| Repeated stories and asked questions | Yes | Yes | If you take notes |
| Transcript for each interview | With speaker labels | Yes | No |
| Record your own episode | Yes | Not stated | Not applicable |
| Entry price | $19/month annual, 50 transcriptions | $19/month annual, 30 hours of audio | Your time |
Sources, checked 2026-10-09: ScreenApp pricing, Castmagic guest research guide, Castmagic pricing
- vs Castmagic: Castmagic supports this workflow directly: its guide describes bundling up to 10 of a guest’s past interviews and asking for questions they were already asked. Its Hobby plan is $19 a month billed annually with 30 hours of audio. ScreenApp answers across a whole folder and also records your own episodes, so research and recording stay in one library.
- vs listening yourself: Listening is the most reliable way to know a guest, but four interviews can be four or more hours of audio. Use the brief to decide which moments are worth hearing in full.
Who Uses Podcast Guest Research
Podcast hosts who book experienced guests and want their episode to sound different from the guest’s last ten appearances.
Producers and bookers who prepare research packs and run sheets for a host before recording.
Journalists and writers who interview public figures and need to know what has already been said on the record.
YouTube and video interviewers who research a guest’s previous long-form conversations before filming.
Event and panel moderators who need fresh questions for speakers who have given the same talk many times.
