How to turn a podcast into clips
Last updated 2026-10-20
To turn a podcast into clips, pick a moment that makes one point on its own: a claim, a story or a strong answer. Trim it to start on the first useful word and end where the point lands. Crop the wide shot to vertical, follow whoever is speaking, add captions, and open with a short hook title.
Pick the moment
An hour of conversation holds a handful of good clips. You are looking for a stretch that a stranger could watch cold and still understand.
Test each candidate by playing it with no episode context. If it leans on "as we said earlier" or on a name the viewer has never heard, pick a later start or a different moment.
Start on the first word that carries the point, not on the question that set it up. If the question matters, put it in the hook title. End on the sentence that lands, before the next question dilutes it.
- A claim. A sharp opinion someone could agree with or argue against, said in one or two sentences.
- A story. A short account with a start, a turn and an ending, told in a minute or two.
- A strong answer. A reply that makes sense without hearing the question, or one you can sum up in the hook.
How long a podcast clip should be
All three main short-video feeds draw a line at 3 minutes, but it means something different on each. Use the table, then aim well under it.
A ceiling is not a target. A clip should end when its point lands, and 30 to 60 seconds is a sensible starting range. That range is a rule of thumb, not a platform rule. Exact sizes and limits are in the guides linked below.
| Platform | What the platform says |
|---|---|
| YouTube Shorts | Shorts can run up to 3 minutes, and only square or vertical uploads count. |
| Instagram Reels | Instagram recommends videos of 3 minutes or less to people who do not follow you. |
| TikTok | 3 minutes for all creators. Only some accounts get longer limits of 5 or 10 minutes. |
Reframe a wide two-person shot to vertical
Video podcasts are usually filmed wide, with host and guest side by side. A vertical frame is about a third as wide as that shot at the same height, so it shows one person at a time.
Make that a feature. Cut to whoever is speaking: split the clip at each change of speaker and frame each piece on that person. Leave a little room above the head, and keep the speaker off the very edge.
If two people trade short lines every few seconds, constant cutting gets tiring. Keep one framing for the exchange, or show both with a split screen.
Captions and a hook title
Clips play in feeds where people often scroll with the sound off, so captions carry the point. Pick a look that is easy to read at a glance, and check guest names and any term the transcript got wrong.
A hook title is one line of text in the first seconds that says what the clip is about, usually the claim itself. Keep it short enough to read in two seconds, and do not repeat the first spoken sentence word for word.
Clip a podcast in Woven
Woven does not find highlights or score clips for virality. You choose the moments. Woven's AI agent helps by transcribing the episode and reading the text with its word timings, so you can ask it to suggest candidates or give it times yourself. It reads words, not tone, and the transcript has no speaker labels, so listen to your final pick. Transcription uses Woven credits and happens once per file, and captioning those same seconds afterwards costs nothing. See pricing for credits.
Ask in chat
- Transcribe this episode and list five moments that make a claim, tell a story or give a strong answer, with start and end times.
- Make a vertical clip from 23:10 to 24:05 and frame the guest on the right.
- Add captions and a hook title that states the claim.
Or do it by hand
- 1Import. Drag the episode file from Finder onto the timeline. Add, then Video, brings it in too.
- 2Set the canvas. Pick Vertical 1080x1920 from Format in the toolbar. The video fills the frame and the sides are cropped.
- 3Cut the moment. Put the playhead at the start and press ⌘B, then at the end and press ⌘B again. Delete the pieces outside, then drag the clip to the start. Delete leaves a gap, so close it by hand.
- 4Frame each speaker. Split the clip with ⌘B at each change of speaker. The crop stays fixed within a clip, so ask in chat to frame the host in one piece and the guest in the next.
- 5Caption and add the hook. From Add, choose Generate captions, then select the captions and set a look with Caption style on the Style tab. For the hook, choose Add, then Text, and double-click the box to type.
Common questions
Pick a moment that stands alone, trim it from the full episode, reframe it to vertical, add captions and a hook title, then export an MP4 for each platform.
YouTube Shorts allow up to 3 minutes, and Instagram recommends Reels of 3 minutes or less to people who do not follow you. Most good clips land well inside that, often between 30 and 60 seconds.
Set a 9:16 canvas, fill it with the video, and crop to the person speaking. A vertical frame shows one person, so cut to whoever talks.
Add them. Many people watch feeds with the sound off, and captions let them follow the point. Woven burns them into the video.
Woven does not rank moments or score them. Its agent can read the transcript and suggest candidates, and you choose which to cut.
There is no fixed number. Clip each claim, story or strong answer that stands alone. Transcribing the episode once means later captions on those seconds cost nothing.
Sources
- Understand three-minute YouTube Shorts - YouTube Help, checked October 19, 2026
- Instagram for Creators: Frequently Asked Questions, checked October 19, 2026
- Content Posting API media transfer guide - TikTok for Developers, checked October 19, 2026
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