How to search many podcast episodes across many podcasts.

August 8, 2022 8:16 AM

I want to find podcast episodes of any podcast with a certain topic or a certain guest, how could I quickly search a bunch of podcasts at once even if I have never heard of those podcasts before?

There are a few authors and musicians who give really fun and interesting interviews, and I'd like to find episodes of podcasts they've been on besides the podcasts I'm already subscribed to. Is there a better than doing a Google search for ("$firstname $lastname" AND "podcast") ?

posted by Tehhund to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Best answer: Listen Notes has done a good job for me in the past, but also some podcast apps will show you episode results if you search the guest name. I'd try that before just Googling.
posted by primethyme at 8:23 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

I realize many folks are wary of Spotify for various reasons, but even after I switched my podcasts to BeyondPod and my music listening to YouTube Music, I kept a free Spotify account sepcifically for this. Its search function is peerless at finding episodes on a given topic based on keyword, even if they are from podcasts I don't follow and have never heard of before.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:37 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Podchaser since Listen Notes needs registration and the more advanced searches are behind a paywall
posted by ayc200 at 9:44 AM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

I use Podcast Addict for podcast listening, and it's search function allows you to search for episodes by keyword. There's filters, and it covers the whole podcast ecosystem.
posted by snusmumrik at 12:04 PM on August 8, 2022

The Apple Podcasts app has a way for you to do this. If you don’t have an Apple device, if you want you can memail me and I will do the searches for you.
posted by Night_owl at 8:54 PM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

I think iTunes can do it, too. You can put iTunes on a PC.
posted by Comet Bug at 9:42 AM on August 9, 2022

I was using Spotify for this reason and still do.

(Lately, I think either it is not as effective for searching highly specific keywords as it used to be, or my search terms have become overly specific or academic. More and more, it will return results for popular words that are close to some subject matter-specific words I search for, which is annoying.)

That said, it's still the best option I have found for searching for podcast episodes.
posted by pearl228 at 5:20 PM on August 12, 2022 [1 favorite]