When researching topics it's important think expansively.
Not all ideas are good ideas, but a great idea could come after five bad ideas.
This is the expansive part of researching ideas that can go into a show. As such, spend some time "going down the rabbit hole" and seeing where your thoughts and research take you, and what are some interesting ideas that arise from the topic area.
Afterwards you (and others) can refine the research
You'll discuss with the project lead about ideas to work on for podcast episodes. You can also consult the long list of episode ideas for inspiration.
From the initial episode idea think about various directions that the story could go, and what are important aspects to cover. To do this:
Once you have a good sense of the topic area you should present your research in a way that makes it easy for others to give feedback.
A messy document of hyperlinks is difficult to give feedback on and therefore group your research into different segments that will form the first draft of Write script outline.
In the initial stages it's best to maintain flexibility and keep things in bullet point form