podcast-dialog

name	podcast-dialog
description	Write the dialog modality (dialog.md) of a spec-driven journal post — a two-host, podcast-style conversation derived from spec.md and index.md, rendered as the Conversation tab on the post page. Use when asked to add, write, or update a dialog, podcast script, conversation, or two-host discussion for a post in _journals/*/posts/*/.

Podcast Dialog (the dialog modality)

Goal

Write dialog.md next to a post's index.md — a two-host, podcast-style conversation that renders as the Conversation tab on the same post page. The dialog makes the record's reasoning audible: one host carries the argument, the other probes it the way a skeptical colleague would.

Contract rules

• spec.md is the contract; index.md is the source content. Never edit either from this skill. Flag spec/article drift instead of papering over it.
• The dialog dramatizes the record's actual reasoning — it must not invent positions, numbers, or examples that appear in neither the spec nor the article. The skeptic's objections should be the real ones from the spec's Open questions / Decision log (rejected alternatives) and the article's Anti-Patterns.

Workflow

1. Read spec.md (Intent, Success criteria, Non-goals, Open questions, Decision log) and index.md. The post must already have an index.md.
2. Write dialog.md in the format below.
3. Run python3 _wiring/build.py; confirm [built] <journal> and that docs/<journal>/<permalink>.html contains "key": "dialog".
4. Tell the user the Conversation tab is live at <permalink>.html#dialog.

Format

• Two named hosts, consistent across the journal. Default cast:

  • Ana — carries the argument; knows the record and defends it.
  • Ben — the skeptic; asks what a smart, busy colleague would ask.

  Keep the same names across all dialogs in a journal so regular readers recognize the voices. Check an existing dialog.md in the journal first.

• One paragraph per turn, speaker in bold with a colon:

  **Ben:** So give it to me straight — why does this need to be a rule
  and not just good advice?
  
  **Ana:** Because advice doesn't survive a deadline. The record exists
  precisely for the moment when skipping it looks cheapest.
  

  The renderer's existing **bold** rule handles this — no template work.

• Optional segment headings in Title Case (## The Problem, ## The Pushback, ## Where This Breaks) every 4–8 turns to keep the tab scannable.

• Arc:

  1. Cold open — Ben asks the bluntest version of "why should I care?".
  2. Body — walk the spec's Success criteria as conversation beats; Ben raises the rejected alternatives and Open questions; Ana answers from the article's Rationale.
  3. Closer — Ana names the Non-goals ("what we're explicitly not saying") and the revisit condition.

• Length: 1,200–2,000 words.

• Stage directions at most (laughs)-level italics, used sparingly. No sound-effect markers, no scene descriptions.

• Optional front matter: timetoread: "8 min listen".

• Plain markdown only; [[permalink]] cross-links allowed (put them in the speech naturally: "that's the whole point of [[small-and-simple]]").