whileseated / podcast-episode-combiner

Combines episodes in a given RSS feed. Perfect for defunct podcasts or mini-series style podcasts with less than 10 episodes.

Podcast Episode Combiner

This Python script is designed to download and combine podcast episodes from a specified RSS feed into a single MP3 file.

Prerequisites

• Python installed on your system.
• ffmpeg must be installed and accessible in your system's PATH. This is crucial for the script to combine audio files.
• curl should be installed on your system as it's used for downloading episodes.

Quick Start

1. Clone the Repository or Download the Script: Get the script onto your local machine.

2. Install Required Python Packages: Ensure requests is installed. You can install it using pip: pip install requests

3. Find Your Podcast's RSS Feed: Visit Listen Notes, search for your podcast and copy the url of the RSS feed.

4. Run the Script: python3 episode_combiner.py

5. Follow On-screen Prompts: You'll be asked for the RSS url, and which episodes you'd like to combine; all, the most recent five, or the most recent three.

6. Output: The final combined mp3 will be saved in the same directory as the script. Some podcast apps, like Pocket Casts, grant the ability to upload an mp3 as a new file, and the app will remember your progress through the file, just like an audiobook (or podcast).

Notes

Why? In creating DefunktCast, I wondered why there are so few workable solutions for listening to older podcasts. Podcasts are great while they're being published and the feed's getting refreshed, but they require a lot of manual manipulation once a show is complete.

This script is a simple solution for surfacing older (or dead!) podcasts. It may not work as expected with non-podcast RSS feeds, with podcasts exclusive to Spotify, or with files that are not in MP3 format.