Hosting Guide: Swing Left Chicago Podcast

Store media on Google Cloud Storage and serve your RSS feed via Firebase Hosting at podcast.pocz.cc. Your main Squarespace site stays untouched.

1. Set Up Google Cloud Storage (Media Files)

  1. Go to the Google Cloud Console and create a project (e.g., swing-left-chicago).
  2. Navigate to Cloud Storage > Buckets and click Create. Name it pocz-podcast-media. Uncheck "Enforce public access prevention".
  3. Under the bucket's Permissions tab, grant allUsers the role of Storage Object Viewer.
  4. Upload cover.jpg and ep01.mp3.

2. Connect Domain via Firebase (RSS Feed)

  1. In the Firebase Console, open your project. Go to Build > Hosting > Get Started.
  2. Click Add custom domain and enter podcast.pocz.cc.
  3. Add the provided DNS records (A or CNAME) to your Squarespace domain settings.

3. Create feed.xml

Create a folder named public on your computer. Inside, save this simplified file as feed.xml. (You can test your feed format anytime using a tool like Podbase):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd">
  <channel>
    <title>Swing Left Chicago Podcast</title>
    <link>https://pocz.cc</link>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <itunes:author>Adam and Anna</itunes:author>
    <itunes:image href="https://storage.googleapis.com/pocz-podcast-media/cover.jpg"/>
    <itunes:category text="News"/>
    
    <item>
      <title>Episode 1: Pilot</title>
      <pubDate>Thu, 20 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <enclosure url="https://storage.googleapis.com/pocz-podcast-media/ep01.mp3" length="35000000" type="audio/mpeg"/>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

4. Deploy Feed to the Web

  1. Install the Firebase CLI in your terminal (requires Node.js): npm install -g firebase-tools
  2. Log in and initialize in your project folder: firebase login then firebase init hosting (Select your public folder).
  3. Deploy it live: firebase deploy

To publish future episodes: Upload the new MP3 to Cloud Storage, add a new <item> to your local feed.xml, and run firebase deploy. You can then submit your feed URL to Apple Podcasts Connect and Spotify for Creators.