Whisper, whisper.cpp
u/Suitable-Ad-4299 · Aug 6, 2026
An hour-long episode transcribed in about a minute
TL;DR
What did u/Suitable-Ad-4299 use Whisper for?
A podcaster runs Whisper on their own computer to turn episodes into timestamped transcripts and caption files in one pass. One run gives them both searchable text and captions, and they can batch a backlog overnight.
What they did
They run Whisper locally (whisper.cpp) to turn each episode into timestamped text, then pick clip moments from the transcript. Whisper also writes SRT and VTT caption files, so they trim the existing captions to each clip instead of captioning by hand.
How it went
One run gives them both searchable text and captions, and they can batch a backlog overnight.
"an hour-long episode comes back in about a minute"
— u/Suitable-Ad-4299
Worth knowing
- Speed depends on the machine; they say even a plain CPU is "a few times faster than listening." It takes some setup to install and run.
Try it yourself
Paste this into a chatbot, then add your own details underneath.
Here is a timestamped transcript of my episode: [paste]. List five moments that would work as short clips, with start and end times, and a one-line hook for each.
More people who did this
- u/AlohaCatty (Reddit, Aug 9, 2026): Has Descript's Underlord add chapters (about 20+ for an hour-long recording) and uses them as segments for clips.
- u/AnnuallyMassive (Reddit, Aug 5, 2026): Uses Descript to transcribe episodes and search by keyword instead of scrubbing audio.
Original post
See u/Suitable-Ad-4299's original post on Reddit → (Aug 6, 2026)
Filed under Social Media hacks · Content Creators
Sources
- u/Suitable-Ad-4299 on Reddit, Aug 6, 2026 — the original post