know.

CookbookBooks and writingNo. 7

A podcast seasonguest research, episode briefs and show notes

Recipe No. 7 · Books and writing

For: A podcaster planning a ten-episode narrative season

You get: A sourced brief per episode, a season schedule and show notes

Time: An evening, then two per episode

See it in know.sh

The season’s arc, with its production schedule as a Gantt chart in the overview and a section per episode below.

Branch Line — Season 3No. 34

Season 3the arc

10 sections, 2,160 words, about 9 minutes, filed 18 August, revised 24 September, 2 highlights.

Ten episodes on the Harlan Valley interurban, from the first car to Dunmore to the last one in 1939. Each episode stands alone; together they ask what a valley loses when its railway goes.

Editing episodes 6 to 10 is the tight stretch: it ends the day before episode 6 is due. If a recording slips, the release moves, not the edit.

Sections

  1. 1Ep. 1 — Opening dayObservation, 1 noteGuest: none. The listener learns what an interurban was, and why a valley of farms wanted one.
  2. 2Ep. 4 — The Pickett Hill collision, August 1919Observation, keyGuest: Marian Voss. How train orders worked, and why one piece of paper mattered.
  3. 3Ep. 6 — The milk runObservation, 1 noteGuest to confirm. The freight that paid for the passengers; the opening year to settle against episode 1.
  4. 4Ep. 10 — The last car, 1939Observation, keyGuest: a volunteer at the county trolley museum. What went when the line did.

and 6 more sections

Claude researching one episode through know.sh: primary sources first, disagreements filed as questions, an untraceable quotation left out. The railway and the guest are invented.

Claude, connected to know.sh

You

Using know.sh, research the August 1919 collision at Pickett Hill on the Harlan Valley interurban. Prefer primary sources: newspapers in Chronicling America, the state accident inquiry, the county historical society catalogue. Add what you find to the document “Ep. 4 — The Pickett Hill collision” on my shelf “Branch Line — Season 3”, one Evidence section per point with its sources. Anything you found in only one secondary source goes in as a Question. Do not include any quotation you did not see in the original.

Claude

I searched the web and read nineteen pages, including five newspaper pages from August 1919 and the historical society’s catalogue entry for the inquiry report. Filing now.

document_get Read Ep. 4 — The Pickett Hill collision: 4 sections, the fixed shape

section_add Added “Harlan Daily Courier, 12 August 1919: the first report” (Evidence), 2

section_add Added “The inquiry blamed a train order never delivered to car 14” (Evidence), 3

section_add Added “Deaths reported as six, seven or nine” (Question), 4

section_add Added “Guest: Marian Voss — public record” (Evidence), 5

Claude

Four sections added. Three things to check. The papers disagree on the number of deaths, so I filed it as a Question with all three sources. The inquiry report is catalogued but not online; its section cites the catalogue entry and a 1920 newspaper summary of it, not the report itself. A line often quoted online as the motorman’s last words appears in no 1919 paper I could find, so I left it out. For Marian Voss I used only her museum page, her 2019 exhibition catalogue and two recorded talks.

An episode after the host’s pass in the editor: the research in telling order, the facts it stands on marked Key, the open questions in plain sight.

know., Ep. 4 — The Pickett Hill collision, August 1919 · Look up, New, ⋯

Branch Line — Season 3, No. 38

Ep. 4 — The Pickett Hill collision, August 1919

10 sections, 3,480 words, about 16 minutes, filed 2 September, revised 23 September, 4 highlights, shared.

☆ Star, Focus, Share, Move, Edit

The night car 14 met the milk car head-on below Pickett Hill, and why the train order that would have held it at Dunmore never arrived. Recording with Marian Voss of the Harlan County Historical Society on 30 September.

The episode turns on section 3. Everything said aloud about the inquiry comes from it.

Sections

  1. What this episode is for (Decision). By the end the listener knows how train orders worked, and why one piece of paper mattered.
  2. Harlan Daily Courier, 12 August 1919: the first report (Evidence, key). Front page, columns 3–4. Gives the time as 9.40 p.m. and names both crews. (highlighted)
  3. The inquiry blamed a train order never delivered to car 14 (Evidence, key, 1 note). From the 1920 newspaper summary; the report itself is at the historical society. (highlighted)
  4. Deaths reported as six, seven or nine (Question). Courier: six. Dunmore Herald: seven. A 1954 anniversary piece: nine. Check the county death register.
  5. Guest: Marian Voss — public record (Evidence). Curator since 2014. Her 2019 exhibition “Wires Over the Valley” and two recorded talks.
  6. Facts to verify before recording (Question, 2 notes). Five open: the death toll, the dispatcher’s name, the Dunmore siding length, the car number, the weather.
  7. Questions for Marian (Suggestion). Rewritten 23 September. Start with the object in the exhibition she would save from a fire.

and 3 more sections

How it works

A narrative season is ten small research projects wearing one coat. Your assistant finds the 1919 newspaper reports and the inquiry, files a brief per episode with the same sections every time, and lays out the schedule as a Gantt chart. You check every date, write the questions, and publish the show notes on a link.

  1. Have your assistant lay out the season

    Give it the premise, the ten working titles and the guests, and ask for an arc document plus a brief per episode, each with the same sections in the same order.

  2. Send it to research, primary sources first

    Ask it to research each episode and guest on the web, filing every point with its source, and anything found in only one secondary source as a Question.

  3. Check it and make it yours

    In the editor, drag the research into the order you will tell it, mark the facts the episode stands on as Key, and rewrite every question in your own voice.

  4. Publish the show notes

    After release, write the final notes and credits, then Share the episode with every other section left out, and paste the link into the episode description.

Try this prompt

Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model):

Using know.sh, research the August 1919 collision at Pickett Hill from primary sources, such as newspapers and the accident inquiry. Add what you find to the document “Ep. 4 — The Pickett Hill collision” on my shelf “Branch Line — Season 3”, one Evidence section per point with its sources. File anything from only one secondary source as a Question, and quote nothing you did not see in the original.

Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model):

Research my guest for episode 7, [name], using only what they have published or said in public: books, articles, talks, interviews and their employer’s page. Do not look for their address, family or private accounts. Using know.sh, write it as the section “Guest: public record” in “Ep. 7 — …” on my shelf “Branch Line — Season 3”, with a source link for every line.

Made with

ShelfDocumentYour AI assistantElementsLook upPublic link

See also