Learn how to organize your podcasts in the new Podcasts app introduced in macOS Catalina.
In this lesson for What’s New in macOS Catalina, I look at the new Podcasts app. Podcast were located in the iTunes app in previous versions of macOS, but now Apple has separated out podcast and placed them in their own app. I look at how you can find new podcasts, add them to your library, play episodes. work with the interface of the app, and create podcast stations in this lesson.
Video Transcript (video also has closed captions):
In this video, we’re going to look at the new Podcasts app with macOS Catalina. Apple separated podcasts from iTunes and put it into its separate app with macOS Catalina. Let’s see how we listen to podcasts with macOS Catalina. Let’s go to my Mac. As I mentioned in the introduction, Apple separated podcasts outside of iTunes. You used to listen to a podcast through iTunes.
Well, now you do it through the Podcasts app. Let’s go and open up my applications folder. I’m going to go here, and we’re going to go over to Applications. You’re going to see I have an app here called Podcasts. By default, it is also installed in your doc. I’m going to click on it to open it up. Well first, I’m going to close this window here. Now let’s go and click on Podcasts. This is how we now listen to podcasts.
What am I looking at here? Well, just like with the Music app, what we have is we have a sidebar on the left side with our different categories. We can see my podcasts are right down here. Anything that I want to listen to now, I just click on Listen Now, and we can see what is up next. I want to browse any podcasts. I click on Browse, and I can go and find some new podcasts.
These are not necessarily on my computer. I have not subscribed to them yet. It’s almost like you’re browsing a store. Once I find something that I want to listen to, I like listening to the Pessimists Archive. Let’s go and search for that. I just type in here pessimists. We have the Pessimists Archive podcast. I like that. We can see over on the right side; we have all podcasts and your library. I’m looking at all podcasts.
If I click on library, we’ll not show anything because I haven’t subscribed to this yet. I want to subscribe to this. All I have to do is just go over to the icon here, and then if I just want to play it, I click on the Play button, and it will play the latest episode. What I want to do is I want to subscribe to it. All I have to do is just click on the three dots here. Just like with the Music app, this means more. I click on it, and I have more options.
From here, what I can do is I can subscribe to it. When I do that, it’s going to add it to my library. Now before we go and take a look at my library, you’re going to see when I’m browsing, I also have different episodes. From here, I can play a specific episode. I want to listen to the story on The Walkman. All I have to do is just click on the Play button, and it will start playing. If I want to read more information about it, I click on it and now I can read more information about it.
If you want to see the top charts and top podcasts, then what you do is go over to top charts, and then you can see all of the top podcasts. I like listening to Joe Rogan, but I want to see what episodes are. I don’t want to subscribe to it. I just want to find a specific episode. All I have to do is just click on Joe Rogan Experience, and then I can see all of the different episodes here. I’m going to click on See All Episodes, and I find the episode I want to listen to.
Let’s go ahead and scroll up here. I want to listen to Malcolm Gladwell. All I have to do is just click on the Play button, or what I can do is I can go and click on the plus, and it’ll add it to my library. It will only add this episode to my library. It will now subscribe to The Joe Rogan Experience. Let’s go ahead and click on the plus, and now it added it to my library. It did not download it.
What I’d like to do is I would like to download this. Maybe I’m not going to be on the internet when I listen to it. All I have to do is click on the cloud icon here, and now it’s downloading it. You’re going to see I have the More button here. I click on the More button, and I have more options. I can delete it from my library, save this episode, mark it as played, report a concern, play it next, copy the link, and even share it. Then if I want to go back to the show, I click on Go To Show, and it takes me back to the show. From here, what I can do is I can subscribe to it. Then I can also see different guests that he had and then click on them to see if there are any podcasts with those guests. We also have ratings and reviews. That’s how we browse our different podcasts or look for different podcasts.
Let’s go over to my library here. Here are my recently played. Click on it, and I can see which ones I’ve recently played. I want to see different shows. These are all the shows that are in my library. Not the episodes but the show. I want to see the individual episodes, then what I do is click on Episodes, and now I can see all the episodes. We can see we have something from NPR. I like listening to Johnny Carson. I can click and play an episode from the Johnny Carson show. Just click on the Play button. Then I also have my Pessimists Archive.
Then we also have downloaded. Remember how I downloaded a few of my episodes? When I’m at the coffee shop, and I’m not connected to the internet, all I have to do is click on Downloaded here and any of these episodes here, I’ll be able to play because they were downloaded to my Mac. We have a Play button here. Next to the Play button, we have a couple of other buttons.
If we want to go back 15 seconds, all you have to do is click on the 15 here, and it’ll go back 15 seconds. Keep clicking it, and it’ll keep going back. You want to go forward 30 seconds; maybe there’s an ad playing you want to skip over, click on the 30, and it’ll skip over 30 seconds. We can see what is playing. Then we also have the More button. As I’m listening to it, if I want to find out more about this episode or the show, I click on it, and I can go and find out more about the show.
I can go and mark this as played or save the episode. We have our volume. I can select which speakers just like with the Music app. I have the I which will give us information about this episode. I click on the I, and I can see episode notes. This is about the episode that I’m listening to. Then I also have up next. This is my playlist. I click on it, and now I can see what’s playing next.
I can also set the playback speed. I go up to Controls, and then from here, what you can do is you can set the playback speed. Then if you want to create your own station, which is almost like a playlist for podcasts, all you do is go up to File here, and you’re going to see New Station. When I select it, I name it. Let’s just call this favorites. I click on Save. I can set what I want to include. I’m going to swipe up here. I’m going to choose my podcasts, which are my favorites. We’re going to go with the Pessimists Archive, and let’s go with Johnny Carson. I click on Done, and now I have my favorites.
When I click on this, we can see my two podcasts that I’ve added. If I want to edit this favorites, I go up to the right; you’re going to see we have a More button here. I click on it, and from here, I can delete the station, and then I can go and change the settings. Maybe I want to add more podcasts to it. That’s a look at the new Podcasts app on the Mac with macOS Catalina. It’s a separate app where we can subscribe to different podcasts.
We can discover new podcasts. Once we discover them and if we like it, we can subscribe to it. We can also just play individual episodes from a podcast. You’re going to see all of the different podcasts and your library on the left side. You’re going to see what podcasts you’re currently listening to up at the top of the window. You can go back 15 seconds or skip ahead 30 seconds while you’re listening to a podcast. If you want to view information about that podcast episode, you click on the i. Then you can also create a station of your favorite podcasts. Think of it as a playlist for your podcasts.
That’s a look at the new Podcasts app with macOS Catalina.