5.6 – Turn Podcasts Into Videos: Descript Lesson

Lesson Overview

Converting podcasts into videos is a practical way to expand your reach across major platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, and social media. In this lesson, you’ll discover how Descript can take your NotebookLM AI-generated podcast audio and turn it into a polished video presentation. This process helps you cater to audiences who prefer video content or consume podcasts via sites that require video files.

This lesson highlights straightforward techniques—such as adding dynamic captions, engaging backgrounds, and basic visual elements—without needing specialist video editing skills. While Descript automates much of the process, you have the flexibility to manually change backgrounds or use stock footage to illustrate your narrative.

Knowing how to present your podcast as a video unlocks new distribution channels and lets you experiment with different creative styles—whether for business, education, or personal branding. This skill is especially useful for marketers, educators, creators, or anyone who produces content to inform or engage others.

Who This Is For

If you have podcast audio and want to turn it into engaging video content, this lesson is designed for you. It’s especially helpful for those who:

• Are new to video creation but need to publish podcasts on video-driven platforms
• Want to enhance podcasts with visuals for business, education, or personal projects
• Create branded content and need a streamlined workflow without advanced editing tools
• Manage social media content and want short, engaging clips from longer podcasts
• Work in marketing or PR and must adapt audio assets for wider digital distribution

Where This Fits in a Workflow

You’ll use these techniques after producing your AI-generated podcast in NotebookLM and completing any audio editing. This lesson’s process comes right before you publish or promote your podcast as a video. For example, you might:

• Take your finished podcast episode, then use Descript to add captions, choose backgrounds, and time visual changes for interest
• Prepare video versions of your podcast for YouTube uploads or short social media teasers, customizing visuals to suit your audience

These skills help you create assets suitable for both full-length and snippet sharing, supporting a more flexible publishing strategy and greater audience reach.

Technical & Workflow Benefits

Traditionally, adding visuals and captions to podcasts required advanced software and manual, time-consuming steps. Using Descript, you benefit from automated transcription, easy drag-and-drop visuals, and a simple editing interface—all in one package.

Instead of struggling with video tools designed for experts, Descript allows even first-time users to add stock backgrounds, animation effects, and perfectly timed captions quickly. For content creators, this saves hours and improves accessibility. Marketing teams can turn a single podcast episode into several video assets—full-length for YouTube, short clips for Instagram—without starting from scratch each time. Ultimately, your workflow becomes more efficient, your videos look more professional, and you maintain consistency across platforms.

Practice Exercise

Try turning part of your own podcast or any audio file into a video using Descript:

1. Import your chosen audio into a new Descript project.
2. Add captions, select two different backgrounds from the stock library, and arrange them to change at a key talking point.
3. Experiment with waveform or animation elements to see how visual effects align with your message.

Reflect: How does the resulting video compare to the plain audio experience? What feedback do you get from viewers when you share your video?

Course Context Recap

This lesson builds on the previous steps where you imported and transcribed your AI-generated podcast with Descript. Now, you’re adding visuals and enhancements to prepare your content for wider video-sharing platforms. Up next, you’ll explore how to customize voiceovers using Eleven Labs for an even more polished final product. Continue through the course to unlock everything you need to produce and share standout AI-powered content from start to finish.