Podcasts

ForeverLM can extract transcripts from Apple Podcasts episodes, making your podcast listening available as sources for AI-assisted learning.

Apple Podcasts is the supported podcast source

Podcast discovery and episode identity come from Apple Podcasts. Apple Podcasts caches its transcripts as files on your Mac, which ForeverLM reads directly when available.

Other podcast players — Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and the rest — are not supported, because they don't make transcripts easily available: transcripts either don't exist or stay locked inside the player, with no local files or public API another app could read.

If you normally listen elsewhere, you can still get an episode into ForeverLM: find it in Apple Podcasts and open its transcript view once, and ForeverLM will pick it up from there.

How Episodes Are Discovered

ForeverLM queries your local Podcasts database for episodes you've recently played (last 90 days) and checks whether a transcript is available.

This requires Full Disk Access in macOS System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access (toggle ForeverLM on).

Transcript Availability

Apple Podcasts downloads transcripts on demand. They are not available by default. To make a transcript available:

1. Open Apple Podcasts on your Mac.
2. Navigate to the episode.
3. Click Transcript in the episode detail view. This triggers Apple to download and cache the transcript locally.

Once cached, ForeverLM can extract it. If Apple has no accessible transcript, the episode remains available for transcript recovery.

Hidden shows and episodes do not use the automatic transcript worker. Unhiding one starts its pending transcript work again.

If Apple says an episode has no accessible transcript, ForeverLM automatically searches YouTube when the YouTube connector is connected. It proposes video matches in the reader, but never chooses one itself. Confirm that a video is the same episode before selecting Use Transcript; only then are its captions attached to the Apple Podcasts source.

Transcript Cleanup

During ingestion, ForeverLM uses the model selected for Transcript Formatting to make podcast transcripts easier to study:

• Adds paragraph breaks at natural topic transitions
• Replaces diarized speaker IDs with real names when the episode evidence is clear
• Removes confidently identified sponsor messages and ad reads, including their promotional transition lines

The model identifies exact spans rather than rewriting Apple Podcast transcripts. ForeverLM deletes a proposed ad only when both boundaries match one unambiguous, bounded passage; uncertain passages remain. Editorial discussion of a company or product, guest affiliations, disclosures, credits, and substantive content are preserved.

When a confirmed YouTube video supplies a missing podcast transcript, the same podcast-specific ad cleanup runs while the captions are formatted for readability.

Using Podcasts with AI

Once transcripts are extracted, they appear as sources in Studio. Select them and your AI assistant can:

• Summarize key points from the episode
• Quiz you on specific claims or mechanisms discussed
• Compare ideas across multiple episodes or with your other sources

Tips

• Episodes with long-form interviews and technical discussions work best.
• Make sure to open the transcript view in Apple Podcasts before trying to extract.
• Podcast sources use local file paths, ensuring they're tied to the actual transcript you listened to.