diff --git a/app/models/podcast_episode.rb b/app/models/podcast_episode.rb
index e4248a01c..1cf747ba6 100644
--- a/app/models/podcast_episode.rb
+++ b/app/models/podcast_episode.rb
@@ -30,12 +30,13 @@ class PodcastEpisode < ApplicationRecord
   validates :media_url, presence: true, uniqueness: true
   validates :guid, presence: true, uniqueness: true
 
+  # NOTE: Any create callbacks will not be run since we use activerecord-import to create episodes
+  # https://github.com/zdennis/activerecord-import#callbacks
   after_update :purge
-  after_create :purge_all
   after_destroy :purge, :purge_all
-  after_save    :bust_cache
+  after_save :bust_cache
 
-  after_commit :index_to_elasticsearch, on: %i[create update]
+  after_commit :index_to_elasticsearch, on: %i[update]
   after_commit :remove_from_elasticsearch, on: [:destroy]
 
   before_validation :process_html_and_prefix_all_images
diff --git a/app/services/podcasts/create_episode.rb b/app/services/podcasts/create_episode.rb
index 1c90d10d2..80f3ee56f 100644
--- a/app/services/podcasts/create_episode.rb
+++ b/app/services/podcasts/create_episode.rb
@@ -29,7 +29,9 @@ module Podcasts
         conflict_target: %i[media_url],
         columns: %i[title slug subtitle summary website_url published_at reachable media_url https body]
       }
-      PodcastEpisode.find(import_result.ids.first)
+      episode = PodcastEpisode.find(import_result.ids.first)
+      finalize(episode)
+      episode
     end
 
     private
@@ -42,5 +44,10 @@ module Podcasts
       episode.media_url = result.url
       episode.https = result.https
     end
+
+    def finalize(episode)
+      episode.purge_all
+      episode.index_to_elasticsearch
+    end
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/services/podcasts/create_episode_spec.rb b/spec/services/podcasts/create_episode_spec.rb
index 3967208dd..fb0e976fd 100644
--- a/spec/services/podcasts/create_episode_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/services/podcasts/create_episode_spec.rb
@@ -19,6 +19,11 @@ RSpec.describe Podcasts::CreateEpisode, type: :service do
       end.to change(PodcastEpisode, :count).by(1)
     end
 
+    it "indexes the episode" do
+      sidekiq_perform_enqueued_jobs { described_class.call(podcast.id, item) }
+      expect { podcast.podcast_episodes.each(&:elasticsearch_doc) }.not_to raise_error
+    end
+
     it "creates an episode with correct data" do
       episode = described_class.call(podcast.id, item)
       expect(episode.title).to eq("Individual Contributor Career Growth w/ Matt Klein (part 1)")