Every episode starts as a draft. Publishing sends it through Mato Distribution so your show page, RSS feed, and CDN audio all switch over together. This guide covers publishing, watching it complete, and taking an episode back down.
Before you publish
Publishing needs audio. If the episode has no rendered audio yet, the header shows a Generate audio button (next to Edit script) instead of a publish button. See Make an episode or Edit your episode script if you have not generated audio yet.
If the script is waiting on your approval, the header shows Review and approve instead, which takes you to the script editor. See Review and approve a script.
Publish your episode
Once audio exists and nothing else is blocking it, the episode header shows a Publish button.
Click Publish. A confirmation dialog asks "Publish this episode?" and explains that the episode will go live and be distributed to your listeners. Click Publish again to confirm.
While Mato Distribution runs, the button reads Publishing. Once it finishes, the header's publish button is replaced with Create clips, since the episode is now live and ready to turn into social clips.
Where it went
The side rail's Where it went card shows the status of every destination the episode is going to: Mato first, and any other destination your show has configured, such as WordPress or a linked Buzzsprout feed. Each shows as live, pending, or failed, with an error message under any failed row.
Unpublish an episode
Once an episode is published or distributed, the header's more menu (the three dots) has an Unpublish item. Unlike publishing, unpublishing does not ask for confirmation: clicking it takes the episode down right away.
Unpublishing returns the episode to draft and clears its distribution status. It does not delete the episode, its audio, or its script; everything stays in your workspace and you can publish again at any time.
Delete an episode
The header's more menu also has Delete episode. This one does ask for confirmation, since deleting an episode permanently removes it along with its audio, transcript, and analytics. This cannot be undone.
Related articles
- Episode detail covers the rest of the episode page, including the side rail and more menu this guide references.
- Episode lifecycle states explains exactly what each status label means.