Show notes and transcripts

Transcripts and show notes are the written side of a podcast. A transcript makes an episode accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, lets listeners search for a passage, and gives search engines text to index. Show notes tell a potential listener what the episode covers and link to what was mentioned. Both used to be tedious to produce. The tools here automate most of it.

There are three kinds in this category. Transcription services turn audio into text, either automatically or with a human pass for higher accuracy. Content tools take the transcript further and draft show notes, timestamps, episode titles, social posts and newsletter text. Speech-to-text APIs are for teams that want to build transcription into their own workflow or app.

Automatic transcripts are good enough for search and for finding quotes, but they make predictable mistakes: names, jargon, accents and crosstalk. If you publish a transcript, correct it, or choose a service with a human review option for the episodes where accuracy matters. Label speakers correctly, since an answer attributed to the wrong person is worse than a missing one.

AI-written show notes and summaries need the same care. Read them against the episode, remove anything the guest did not say, and add the links you actually discussed. A summary that overstates a guest's claim can cause more trouble than a short, accurate description.