Podcast on Janik von Rotz

Download podcast episodes from Stitcher for offline usage

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 13:58:54 +0200

I love the podcast Philosophize This!. It is freely available, but there is no meaningful way to download all episodes without using a third party app. As a data hoarder I want to have every episode on my hard disk. Therefore I created a simple script to download the episodes from Stitcher.

Here is the script:

# Get list of all episodes
curl 'https://api.prod.stitcher.com/show/philosophize-this/latestEpisodes?count=200' | jq '.' > podcast.json
# Process data and download episode if not downloaded yet
jq -c '.data.episodes[] | {title: .title, slug: .slug, url: .audio_url}' podcast.json | while read e; do 
    TITLE=$(echo "$e" | jq -r .title)
    SLUG=$(echo "$e" | jq -r .slug)
    URL=$(echo "$e" | jq -r .url)

    if [ -f "$SLUG.mp3" ]; then
        echo "File $SLUG.mp3 already exists."
    else
        echo "Download $TITLE ..."
        curl -L "$URL" -o "$SLUG.mp3" --progress-bar
    fi
done

And here it is in action:

janikvonrotz@pop-os:~/Downloads$ ./podcast.sh                               
File episode-163-the-creation-of-meaning-escape-from-evil-90885817.mp3 already exists.
File episode-162-the-creation-of-meaning-the-denial-of-death-89963729.mp3 already exists.
File episode-161-karl-popper-the-open-society-and-its-enemies-89711371.mp3 already exists.
File episode-160-the-creation-of-meaning-kierkegaard-silence-obedience-and-joy-89488860.mp3 already exists.
File episode-159-the-creation-of-meaning-nietzsche-amor-fati-88209087.mp3 already exists.
File episode-158-the-creation-of-meaning-nietzsche-the-ascetic-ideal-87305371.mp3 already exists.
Download Episode #157 ... The Creation of Meaning - Beauvoir ...
######################################################################## 100.0%
Download Episode #156 ... Emil Cioran part 2 - Failure and Suicide ...
######################################################################## 100.0%
Download Episode #155 ... Emil Cioran - Absurdity and Nothingness ...
######################################################################## 100.0%
Download Episode #154 ... Pragmatism and Truth ...
########################################

If the download fails at some point you can restart the script and it should pickup were it failed.

My favorite podcasts

Thu, 29 Aug 2019 16:38:34 +0200

I love podcast and now spend more time than ever listening. It is a growing business and therefore there are tons of good and bad podcasts. Let’s talk about the good ones. Here are my favourites:

Philosophize This!

No clue about philosophy, but looking for a beginner friendly educational podcast? Steven West explains everything you need to know in a genuine and comprehensible manner.

Link: Philosophize This!

Freakonomics

A book, a blog and a podcast. Based on the most readable economics blog and bestseller books Steve Dubner and Steven Lewitt are running a radio show and talking about the hidden side of everything.

Link: Freakonomics

Stuff You Should Know

This is another popular podcast where mostly science related and interesting stuff is discussed.

Link: StuffYouShouldKnow

Caliphate

A very tense audio series following Rukmini Callimachi as she reports on the Islamic State and the fall of Mosul.

Link: New York Time - Caliphate

Verbrechen

If you are German speaking and love crimes and thrillers you will love this podcast.

Link: Zeit - Verbrechen

Servus. Grüezi. Hallo.

Again a gem for the German speakers. A Swiss, Austrian and German journalist from Zeit discussing issues and topics which they share.

Link: Zeit - Servus. Grüezi. Hallo

Eine Stunde History

Short and understandable history lessons in German. They discuss historic events in a non-chronological order with various experts.

Link: Deutschlandfunk Nova - Eine Stunde History

Quote by Richard Thaler

Tue, 17 Jul 2018 09:01:21 +0200

People Aren’t Dumb. The World Is Hard.
– Richard Thaler

Richard Thaler won a nobel prize for showing that humans tend to make irrational decisions. He is the founder of behavioral economics and took an unlikely way to success.

In the latest Freakonomics podcast Steve Dubner interviews Richard Thaler, clears some misunderstandings and gives insight on how Thaler deals with lazyness and his efforts to fix the world.

I love this quote because it emphasizes my personal view point. As an individium we feel obligated to know everything and strive for perfection in every domain of live. In contrast the world has become more complex and only through collaboration people can achieve anything at all.