Podcasts on Mac: listen and read along

You can listen to podcasts right in the Stream of channelBar for macOS. Each episode shows what it comes with: its length, the number of chapters and an icon if there’s a transcript. Click the episode to start it, and the player opens. Click the chapter count or the transcript icon to open the player right at the chapters or the transcript.

Controls and chapters

The arrows in the controls jump back or ahead one chapter. If you’re more than three seconds into a chapter, the back arrow first takes you to its start. The double arrows jump 15 seconds, or 60 seconds with a right-click. On the bar below, click or drag to any point in the episode.

Below are the chapters. A click jumps straight to the start of a chapter. The circle in front of the current chapter shows how far along it is, and its remaining time is on the right; for the other chapters, you see their length there. Hold down the Option key, and every chapter shows its start time.

Speed and TRIM

Are the hosts too slow for you, or do you want to get through an episode as fast as possible? A click on the number speeds it up, up to 3×; a right-click slows it down, down to 0.5×. After 3× comes 0.5× again. The speed applies to the current episode; the next one starts at your default speed again.

TRIM shortens long pauses. It’s on by default and then cuts every pause of a second or more down to half a second. The little clock in the controls shows how many seconds you’ve saved so far. Click “TRIM” to turn it off for this episode, or back on.

You set the defaults for all podcasts in Settings under “Advanced” and “Podcasts”: “Speed” for the playback speed, “Silence Trimming” for TRIM and “Silence Threshold” for how much of a pause remains.

Transcript and search

If the episode has a transcript, “TRANSCRIPT” opens it right beside the player; with the chapters collapsed, it appears below. The current line is highlighted, and the text follows along. Click a line to jump straight there. If the podcast doesn’t provide a transcript, “VTT/SRT” loads your own VTT or SRT file.

Looking for a certain part? The magnifying glass above the transcript searches it, for example for “deep sleep”. Every match is marked in yellow, the counter next to it shows which one you’re on, and the arrows take you to the next. Upper and lower case and accents don’t matter.

Show notes and a compact player

“INFO” shows the show notes, just as the podcast provides them. They have a magnifying glass of their own for searching.

Need more room for other things? Close the transcript, and the icon to the right of the buttons collapses the chapters. Then the player only shows the current chapter; click the icon again, and all chapters are back.

History and other devices

Once you’ve listened to other episodes, the clock at the top right of the player opens “Recently Played”. The list shows what you listened to last and how much of each is left. One click, and you pick up right where you left off. “Remove from History” in the context menu takes an episode out; “Clear History” empties the list except for the episode that’s in the player.

If you’re in a sync group with other devices, they get the current position too. You can even just press play there: your Mac stops, and the episode continues almost seamlessly from the same spot.

On top and in the menu bar

The pin at the top right keeps the player above all other windows; it’s on by default. Feel free to close the player, the episode keeps playing.

The menu bar shows the playing episode too: in its channel’s menu, the episode’s icon moves. Move the mouse onto it, and a small player opens, with controls, speed, TRIM and the chapters. If the episode has a transcript, “TRANSCRIPT” opens the full player with the transcript from there.

You can bring the player back at any time, as long as there’s an episode to continue: with “Show Podcast Player” in the channelBar icon or in the “Window” menu.