Tools I use
Notes from any podcast, free
A 2-hour episode hides the 5 minutes you want. Free tools can find them. In 15 minutes, you learn how to get notes with times from any episode.
- Transcript
- The whole talk, written down as text.
- Whisper
- A free program that turns speech into text. It runs on your own computer.
- Time stamp
- A label like 38:20. It tells you where in the episode a line comes from.
- Prompt
- The instruction you give an AI.
01 · The question
The 2-hour episode
A friend says: "Episode 214 changed how I think about money. One part, in the middle."
You open it. It is 2 hours and 10 minutes long. You do not have the time. You also do not know which part he means.
What if a computer could write the whole episode down, with times? Then you could search it and jump to the right part.
First, a quick guess.
02 · Your guess
What does it cost to turn a 1-hour talk into text?
A wrong guess costs nothing. Guessing first helps you remember the answer. Pick one to open the next part of the lesson.
03 · The 6 steps
From a sound file to notes you can jump into
Press Next step to see each step. Each step shows how I do it, and an easy way that needs no setup.
04 · Remember
Text is fast. Sound is slow.
You can only listen to sound at one speed. You can search text, skim it, and paste it into an AI.
The time stamps connect the text back to the sound. That is how you jump to the best part.
In the kitchen
A cooking video runs 20 minutes. The recipe card has 10 lines. You cook from the card. You watch the video only when you get stuck.
At school
A friend sat through the lecture. He gives you notes with page numbers. You read the notes, then open the book at the one page you did not get.
A good note has 3 parts
- Who. Who said it: the host or the guest. Mixing up the speaker is the most common mistake in AI notes.
- When. The time stamp, like 38:20. You can open the episode there.
- Why. One line on why it matters. If you cannot say why, cut the note.
Free transcripts that already exist
Many episodes have a transcript. Check this first. It saves steps 1 to 3.
| YouTube | Open the video description and tap Show transcript. It works for videos that have captions. Tap any line to jump there. |
| Apple Podcasts | On iPhone or iPad, open the player and tap the Transcript button. If it is grey, that episode has none. You need iOS 17.4 or newer. |
| Spotify | Some shows have a transcript. Not every show does. |
Why can Whisper be free?
Whisper is open source. That means anyone can use and copy its code. It has an MIT license, which allows free use. It runs on your own computer, so your audio stays there. Source: github.com/openai/whisper.
05 · Two checks
Pass two checks to finish
A miss is fine. Each miss gives you a new case. The names and shows here are made up.
Check 1 of 2 · Pick the best note
Check 2 of 2 · Put the 6 steps in order
Tap the steps from first to last. If you tap the wrong one, you get a hint.
06 · Tell a friend
Your one-minute answer
A friend asks: "How do you get through so many podcasts?" Say it in your own words. Here is a version you can use:
The one-minute version
"I do not listen to the whole episode first. A free program on my laptop turns the sound into text. It does not upload anything. Then an AI writes notes from the text. Each note has who said it, the time, and why it matters. I check the names and numbers. Then I jump to the best part and listen to only that. If the episode already has a transcript on YouTube or Apple Podcasts, I skip the program and use that."
Try it today · 5 minutes · free · safe
Pick any podcast episode on YouTube. Open the description and tap Show transcript. Select the text, copy it, and paste it into Claude or ChatGPT with this prompt:
Below is a podcast transcript with times. Write notes from it.
Each note has: the time, who said it, the fact, and one line on why it matters.
Give me the 8 best moments. Add nothing that is not in the text.A long episode may not fit in a free chat. Paste the first half, then the second half.
Check: pick one note. Open the episode at that time. Does it match? Check one name and one number the same way.
| No transcript? | Run Whisper on the audio. It is free, but it needs some setup. Ask Claude to walk you through it. |
| Wrong name? | Whisper and AI can both get names wrong. Search the transcript for the name. |
Stuck? Ask Claude. Say "explain how to get a transcript of a podcast like I am new".
Get this skill
podcast-notes: My own skill. Free. The page has step-by-step install help.