How to see all the latest of my fave podcasts in one place (no iTunes)?

July 24, 2017 3:33 PM

I love listening to podcasts on my computer but often they are available on different platforms and it's hard to check each one. My preferred platform is SoundCloud -- I like that I can "follow" my favorite podcasts and they just show up on my feed when I go to the SoundCloud homepage. But I have podcasts I enjoy that are on Stitcher, AudioBoom, Art19, some are self-hosted, etc. It's hard to keep track of them all, and I absolutely hate using iTunes.

I just want to see a feed of all the latest episodes of the podcasts I like.

Some parameters: I don't use apps or my phone to listen to podcasts. I just play them on my computer, and then I may or may not use a wireless speaker so I can listen from anywhere in my house. I'd prefer some sort of web-based solution, although a Windows 7 desktop app would be fine, but I'm not interested in anything for my cell phone or an iPod. I also really like just streaming the podcasts, not downloading them.

Is there a good solution I can set up to automate checking for new podcasts for me? Are RSS feeds still a thing? Have we come up with something better than RSS feeds by now, which I remember were a thing like a decade ago? I'm looking for a 2017 solution to this problem and I want something that is really simple and will just work automatically once I set it up. Thanks!

posted by AppleTurnover to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

I use Pocket Casts in part because it has a good enough web interface that works well and which mirrors what's on my phone. It appears that you can register there and then begin adding podcasts without actually having the app (though perhaps if you like the web interface you should also buy the app, even if you don't use it). It almost always has the podcasts I'm looking for, even brand new ones. The rare times it doesn't are these weird academic podcasts that exist only on university department pages and are never added to podcast directories, though, even then, if they have a legitimate podcast feed, you should be able to add it.
posted by Mo Nickels at 4:12 PM on July 24, 2017

Seconding Pocket Casts, I have been very happy with it.
posted by Knicke at 4:17 PM on July 24, 2017

Also possibly relevant is that Soundcloud is running out of money.
posted by grobstein at 7:33 PM on July 24, 2017

Similar to PocketCasts, Overcast also has a web interface. It's pretty bare bones and now that i think about it you may need to have the app to add podcasts. (Or not -- i've never actually tried...) Might be worth looking into though.
posted by cgg at 8:51 PM on July 24, 2017

Best answer: There are several desktop podcast apps. The search term you're looking for is 'podcatcher'. I used to use Miro back in the day, no idea what it's like now.
posted by Happy Dave at 5:35 AM on July 25, 2017

Response by poster: "Podcatcher" was the term I was looking for, apparently, although I've also seen "podcast manager" and "podcast aggregator" used. I found a Chrome extension called podStation that is free and does what I want it to do: It checks for new episodes of the podcasts I subscribed to and shows them to me in a feed by most recent, and I don't need a phone app to use it. It also has a built-in player too, which is nice. Seems to be (almost) exactly what I wanted.
posted by AppleTurnover at 1:55 PM on August 3, 2017