Sari is the founder of Podcast Magic — this interview has been lightly edited for style and readability
Sari Azout: I am the founder of Sublime.app and Podcast Magic, and we make personal knowledge management tools for knowledge workers and creative professionals.
James Cridland: Sari, you you launched Podcast Magic last week. Tell us what that is.
SA: Podcast Magic is the easiest way to capture insights from podcasts. It comes from a compulsive listener of podcasts, that wanted to have the “Kindle highlighting” equivalent for her podcast app. When it comes to podcasts, sharing the podcast episode doesn’t feel like it captures like this one moment that really truly resonated.
Until now - after a run, which is where I listen to podcasts, I run to my computer, I find a way to get the transcript, and I copy/paste it to my app of choice. Or there are some dedicated apps, but they’re not platform agnostic, so it’s a more cumbersome process.
We just wanted to do the more natural things that people already do, which is take a screenshot. And then, use AI to go from that screenshot to extracting the text and generating a clip. It solves for people the ability to retain more of what they listen to. If you’re spending several hours a week listening to podcasts and you can’t remember a lot of what you’ve heard, then a lot of that is lost.
There’s also the sharing piece. Sometimes I’m listening to a podcast, and there’s an incredible insight I want to share with my team. I know they’re not going to listen to the full two-hour episode. How can I best share this one moment?
JC: So, in terms of how you use it, you literally just take a screenshot of the podcast as it’s playing, and then you just email it through to you. Is that how it works?
SA: Yeah. It works on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Overcast - you just take a screenshot when you hear something you love. It could be from the lock screen or the podcast player page: as long as there’s a visible timestamp and a partial podcast title or an episode name, that’s all we need. And then you just email that screenshot to podcastmagic@sublime.app. And then within 30 seconds, you’ve got an email with the transcript of the moment and a video clip that you can share across any platform. And then it syncs to your Sublime library optionally, where you can smart search all of your podcast clips using AI search. You can also click into any podcast clip and see what related clips people are saving. So there’s that downstream stuff. But the basic thing is just take a screenshot.
I think the reason we went with no app - it’s just an email, no login - means you don’t need to remember your email or password to add to these clips, and no subscription, because people hate downloading new apps and they hate recurring subscriptions. So it’s a one-time $20 payment for unlimited moments, and the first three moments are free.
So the idea is fall in love, let us prove that it works, and then if it does, pay a one-time $20 fee for unlimited moments.
JC: What’s Sublime App?
SA: Sublime App is a way to collect and connect anything interesting you come across. So it goes beyond podcasts. It connects to your Kindle highlights, your Twitter bookmarks, your Instagram bookmarks, and then we have a browser extension where you can see anything from anywhere. So Sublime is like a digital haul for your mind. All of the interesting content you come across is smartly searchable and connected.
You can use podcast magic without Sublime, but if you don’t want these podcast clips to just live in your email, athey can just sync directly to Sublime. And I think a lot of people are finding that handy.
The idea behind Podcast Magic came about because we were seeing people add a Spotify link to their Sublime library and then had a note saying, you know, “minute 1114, James is speaking about future of radio”, or whatever. We realised people really want to capture this one moment, not just the the full episode. So that’s where this was born.
What’s interesting about Podcast Magic is that we’ve partnered with a few podcasters that are sharing the tool with their listeners. And what we’re finding is that for creators, knowing what moments resonate is very valuable. There’s an interesting way in which Podcast Magic can help identify those moments.
It’s also very hard for podcasters to get first party data, like emails of who is listening to my podcast. We’re excited as we roll out to solve pain points for podcasters so they can help us in turn distribute this tool.
JC: So you could see a future where a podcaster can sign up to know when people are interested in what they hear, but also potentially be able to contact those people directly - with their permission, I’m guessing. That would enable all kinds of conversations to start on there as well.
SA: Yeah. I’ve been writing a Substack newsletter for five years, and I’ve experienced firsthand the value of an email address. For podcasters, they can’t reach those listeners directly.
JC: So if people want to learn more, where whereabouts do they go?
SA: https://sublime.app to try sublime, https://podcastmagic.app to get a refresher on the instructions for Podcast Magic. And then I write a weekly newsletter on Substack.