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Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

(www.bbc.co.uk)
290 points aways | 2 comments | 04 Sep 25 06:18 UTC | HN request time: 0.44s | source
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avian ◴[04 Sep 25 06:59 UTC] No.45124373[source]▶
In Our Time has been my favorite podcast to listen. It made me appreciate how well moderated a discussion among experts can be and how poorly most moderators on other radio programs or conference panels do their jobs.

My complaint with In Our Time is that BBC started inserting the "this program is supported by ads outside of the U.K." ads in the middle of the discussions. The ads start and end with an extremely annoying loud chime that just blows out the speakers if I have the volume turned up to understand a guest that's speaking in a more soft voice.

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walthamstow ◴[04 Sep 25 07:13 UTC] No.45124471[source]▶
VPN to the UK and pull the back catalogue from the BBC using get_iplayer, don't get it from the podcast feed
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haunter ◴[04 Sep 25 07:21 UTC] No.45124532[source]▶
You don't even need VPN, you can just straight download the mp3 file of each episode https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl/episodes/downloads

Only the streaming options (iPlayer and Sounds) are geolocked

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walthamstow ◴[04 Sep 25 09:22 UTC] No.45125279[source]▶
Very nice! I'd also want to run a script to remove the BBC Sounds ident at the start

The audio is so much better when it begins with "<Melvyn inhales> Hello, 400 years ago in the Sahel region of Africa..."

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1. hebocon ◴[04 Sep 25 11:53 UTC] No.45126248[source]▶
Those introductions are iconic! There is no delay and no doubt about what is about to happen. I have the full back catalogue downloaded but never considered that I'd need to start trimming.

Audacity? Are there automations possible?

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2. opan ◴[04 Sep 25 22:10 UTC] No.45132801[source]▶
If the timing is consistent, maybe ffmpeg can trim the first n seconds off all the files.