Podcast host turns four per-episode chores into Claude Code skills

What they did

Every episode needed the same four steps: cut the front and back and even out audio levels (once done in Premiere Pro), write show notes with links, publish on Transistor, and open a pull request for the episode page on their blog. They wrote a skill for each step, where a skill is a folder with a markdown instruction file and sometimes a script. They drop the raw recording into a watched folder and the skills produce the edited MP3, an SRT and text transcript, and show notes copied to the clipboard. Their rule: "if you explain it twice, make it a skill."

How it went

The skills prepared the full episode in one run. On a conference episode the agent noticed it probably didn't need to cut the usual two minutes of pre-show music, something they hadn't told it.

Worth knowing

• They kept the Transistor upload manual until the rest is reliable, even though Transistor has an API. They suggest reviewing what permissions someone else's skills ask for before installing them.
• Price check: Claude: free plan; Pro: US$20/month, or US$17/month on a yearly plan (US$200/year) (checked Nov 1, 2026); Transistor: no free plan; Starter: US$19/month, or US$15.83/month on a yearly plan (US$190/year) (checked Oct 26, 2026).

Paying for Claude? See cheaper Claude alternatives.

Try it yourself

Paste this into a chatbot, then add your own details underneath.

Here is the transcript of my podcast episode [paste]. Write show notes in this format: a two-sentence description, a bulleted list of topics with rough timestamps, and every tool, book, or link mentioned with a placeholder where I need to add the URL. Flag anything you're unsure was said.

Original post

See Dan Vega's original post on YouTube → (Sep 17, 2026)