Save Podcast Show Notes shortcut

Use Apple Shortcuts to get the currently playing podcast’s show notes from Overcast and save them for later.

This shortcut is designed to get the show notes from the currently playing podcast in Overcast and save them to a note, as a task, or both! Sometimes podcast hosts will reference things in the show notes — links, images, etc. — and this shortcut will help you not to lose them when the episode is over so you can peruse those notes at your leisure.

It includes support for saving them as notes in Drafts or Apple Notes, and as tasks in Things or Apple Reminders. When you add it to Shortcuts, the setup assistant will guide you through choosing how you want to save the show notes, and which apps you want to use to do so.

It’s particularly handy to run from Siri. Just say “Hey Siri, save podcast show notes” for them to be saved in the background to review later.

The origin and methodology of this shortcut are documented in this blog post.

Download the shortcut ↓

See It in Action

Show notes in Overcast, the shortcut being run from the Now Playing screen, and the show notes saved to Things and Drafts.
It’s read-later but for show notes! Here the notes are saved to Things and Drafts. ⌘
Show notes saved to as a task in Reminders and a note in Notes.
And here’s saving them to Reminders and Notes. ⌘

Required Apps

Run This Shortcut

You can run this shortcut from its URL (such as from within a note, calendar event, or to-do item):

shortcuts://run-shortcut?name=Save%20Podcast%20Show%20Notes

Latest Release Notes

Version 2.0 - Jul 17, 2023 at 2:10 PM

  • Nearly a complete rewrite of the shortcut!
  • Changed the shortcut’s name to the more descriptive ‘Save Podcast Show Notes’.
  • Added the option to save notes as a task, a note, or both.
  • Added support for optionally saving notes to Drafts or Apple Notes.
  • Added support for optionally saving tasks to Things or Apple Reminders.
  • Created a new setup flow to choose how you want to save the show notes.
  • Updated the comments to bring them in line with my library’s style guide.
  • Confirmed compatibility with the latest OSes and switched to the newer Things actions
  • Download version 2.0
Version History

Version 1.2 - April 19, 2022, 7:47 PM

  • Removed the ‘If’ action that routed to separate Things actions depending on the platform, since now the same actions work across platforms.
  • Added additional explanation comments in preparation for submission to MacStories’ #AutomationApril contest.
  • Download version 1.2

Version 1.1

  • Added the RoutineHub link so users can find where to get the latest version of this shortcut
  • Download version 1.1

Version 1.0

Thanks for checking out this shortcut! It’s part of the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library. If you’re sharing my shortcuts or modifying them (or see a bug or have a feature request), I’d love to hear from you — please give me a shout! And maybe consider a donation if you find this shortcut fun or useful. Thank you. ✌️