The first question most practice owners ask before applying for a podcast slot is some version of the same thing. What am I actually signing up for, what does it cost me in time, and what do I walk away with. Those are the right questions to ask. This post answers them straight, in the order they tend to come up.
Between Patients is a 30-minute interview podcast for private dental practice owners. The recording window is 35 to 45 minutes. The asset turnaround is 10 days. Every guest walks away with a full content pack that they can use commercially, in perpetuity, with no watermarks and no revocation. The format is deliberately small in time and large in output. The point of the post below is to make all of that concrete.
Why we built a thirty-minute format
Most dental podcasts run between 60 and 90 minutes. A few run longer. The reason for the long format is usually that the host wants to surface every detail of the guest's practice, and the guest is generous with their time. The downside is that almost nobody finishes a 90-minute podcast episode in one sitting, and many listeners never come back to finish it.
We chose 30 minutes because that is the length of episode a practice owner can actually finish on the drive home. It is also the length of episode a practice owner can actually record without losing a half-day at the chair. The format respects the audience and the guest equally.
The shorter format does not mean the conversation gets thinner. It means the editing gets sharper. We record longer than we publish. We record between 35 and 45 minutes. The 30 minutes that gets published is the part of the conversation that has the most useful operational specifics. The rest is cut. The cut version is sent back to you before publication for editorial review.
The trade-off is real. A longer-form host might surface a deeper anecdote about your first practice purchase. A shorter-form host has to pick the moment that lands hardest. We have made the call that the shorter format wins more listeners than it loses depth. That is the choice the format is built on.
We covered the broader thinking behind the show in our overview post on Between Patients, and the guest criteria in our criteria post. The format choice flows from both.
The recording: how the conversation works
The recording is one sitting. We block 60 minutes on the calendar but record 35 to 45. Sometimes it runs shorter. We do not run it longer than the agreed time.
There are no scripted questions sent in advance. Before the call, we read about your practice. We look at the website, the trade press coverage if there is any, and the social profiles. We come into the recording with three or four directions we might want to take the conversation in, and we let the conversation choose between them.
The reason there are no scripted questions is partly editorial and partly practical. Editorially, scripted questions tend to produce scripted answers, and the conversation lands flat. Practically, a practice owner who has a script in front of them tends to over-prepare, which costs more time than the recording itself.
What you do see in advance is the kind of ground we want to cover. We tell you up front that we are interested in operational specifics, in the parts of running a practice that do not show up in trade press, and in the decisions you made when the easy option was clearly the wrong one. If a topic is off-limits, you tell us before the recording, and we do not steer there. If something comes up during the recording that you would rather not have on tape, you say so, and we cut it. There is no negotiation about cuts.
The recording itself is two cameras and a clean audio feed. You do not need to organise anything technical on your end beyond a quiet room and a decent internet connection. We send a calendar invite with the join link. You hit the link, the recording captures, and you are done in under an hour total.
The 10 day asset turnaround
After the recording, the production work begins. The asset pack lands in your inbox within 10 days.
Each pack contains the full-length video episode, edited to roughly 30 minutes, with intro and outro. It contains three to five short-form vertical clips, each between 60 and 90 seconds, pulled from the moments of the conversation that landed hardest. It contains a set of branded quote graphics, drawn from the lines of the conversation that travel best on social media. It contains the audio episode, formatted and tagged for the distribution platforms. And it contains a written feature page on the podcast site, drafted from the conversation, that lives at a permanent URL.
That is five categories of asset out of one 35-to-45-minute sitting. The maths is the point of the format. Thirty minutes of recorded conversation becomes a year of usable material for your practice. We chose every asset on the list because it is something a practice owner can actually deploy, not something that looks good on the deliverable list.
The 10 day window is firm. If anything in the cut needs revising before publication, the review cycle starts inside the 10 days, and we do not push the publication date until you have signed off on the edit. The asset pack is yours when the edit is signed off, whether or not the episode has gone live on the distribution platforms yet.
What you do with the assets
The licence on the asset pack is broad. You get full commercial use, in perpetuity, with no watermarks and no revocation. You can use the clips in your practice's social feeds. You can use the quote graphics in your patient newsletters. You can use the video episode on the practice website. You can use the audio episode wherever you want.
This is the part of the format that often surprises practice owners. The default in most podcast partnerships is that the host keeps the rights and the guest gets a link to share. We do not run it that way. The reason is that the conversation is yours. The thirty minutes is yours. The assets that come out of those thirty minutes should be yours too.
There is one small exception. We use the same assets ourselves, to publish the episode on the Between Patients distribution feed and to promote the show. We do not gate that against your reuse. Both versions of the file live in parallel. We do not chase you to take down a clip you have posted. We do not revoke the licence later. You can use the assets the day they land, and you can keep using them for as long as the practice exists.
The listening side of the show is covered by 12 platforms plus the RSS feed. You can hear the trailer and see the full distribution list on the Between Patients landing page. Once your episode is published, the same 12-platform distribution applies.
Editorial control: you see the edit before publication
The final part of the format that practice owners ask about is editorial control. The short version is that you have it.
The edit is sent to you before publication. You watch it, listen to it, or read the transcript, whichever works for you. If anything in the cut should not be in the final, you tell us, and it gets cut. No questions. No negotiation.
This is the part of the format that is harder to design than it sounds. Editorial control means real editorial control. It does not mean we ask you politely whether you would prefer a softer wording. It means if a 90-second section needs to come out, the 90 seconds comes out, and the conversation is re-stitched around the gap. If a number you mentioned was wrong, the number is removed. If a person you named would rather not be named, the name is removed.
The reason this matters is that the show is asking you to be honest on tape about a business you have spent years building. We get that honest answers sometimes need a small edit before they go out. The structure protects the conversation.
The editorial control does not extend to changing the substance of the conversation in the cut. We will not invent a sentence you did not say. We will not make a section stronger than the version you recorded. We will not put a quote in the graphics that you did not actually say in the recording. The integrity of the conversation as recorded is part of the editorial standard, and that is the line we hold.
You can read more about the lineage and editorial philosophy behind the show in our post on four generations of dentistry.
If the format above sounds like something you would want to be part of, the application is on the landing page. Three short steps, around three minutes. We respond to every application within 48 hours. By invitation, no fee, no agenda.
