It would be interesting to have an overview of how various people choose to prepare and record their episodes, for newcomers to get some idea of what might suit them.

The way I have done it recently is to write the show notes and while I do so, basically play in my head what I will say about them, and then come up with side tracks I ought to provide references to, etc.

I don't rehearse, and lately I haven't cut anything out either.

Earlier, I've cut my episodes a bit, because I had gone off track or there was too much ambient noise when I've been out walking, but now I'm aiming for as little threshold as possible before I publish. I had that one episode that I procrastinated for a year because I wanted to edit it down for length. Finally I just published it.

Worse is better. For me, anyway.