About.

Why this exists

I listen to a lot of film podcasts. And I really enjoy listening to episodes covering the movie or series I just watched. But finding those episodes was always clunky, and I had a bit of free time recently and... *tada.wav*... openthepod.net helps you do just that.

Type a title, see every episode that covers it, press play. That's it.

Open the Pod is a passion side project, built for the love of films and the people who talk about them for hours. It moves slowly, on purpose, one small improvement at a time, and I want the site to stay small, fast, and focused. And if you have any suggestions on podcasts I should include in the index, features you'd like me to add, or bugs I should fix, I'd love for you to let me know. I read it all.

How indexed podcasts are chosen

I'm not trying to index every film podcast. Open the Pod is a small, hand-picked set of the really good ones, and a way to see which of them have covered a given film or series. I'm going for quality over quantity to keep the results sharp and delightful.

The baseline is simple: the podcasts I listen to. That's the anchor. New additions come from requests, weighed against these criteria:

  • Primarily about films or series, not a general-interest show that occasionally mentions one
  • A recurring pattern of covering specific titles, not just occasional one-offs
  • Film or series title present in the episode title (otherwise I can't match it)
  • Substantive discussion, longer than quick takes or news roundups
  • Established enough to be findable in Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Even when a podcast meets the criteria, there's a layer of my own judgment on top. If most episodes aren't actually reviews, if the hosting is not great, if the filter patterns become a maintenance hurdle, I may still pass. The goal is a reasonably small, excellent library, not a comprehensive one.

If a podcast you love isn't here, do let me know. I read (and listen to) every suggestion, and most get added if they fit the criteria above.

frequently asked

Why isn't [podcast] on here?
Either it didn't fit the criteria above, or I haven't gotten to it yet (life may be in the way sometimes). Suggest it and I promise I'll take a listen.
How often are new episodes added?
Every feed is checked once a day, and new episodes show up on their own within a day of the podcast publishing them.
Why doesn't my search for [film] find anything?
Matching runs on episode titles. If a podcast covered a film but didn't put the name in the episode title, the indexing won't see it. Try a shorter piece of the title, or browse the podcast's own page — every episode is listed there.
Why aren't all episodes from a podcast listed?
My indexing tries to filter out episodes that aren't focused on discussing a film or series. If a podcast episode is, say, a top ten list of locations used in horror films, it will not show up in the index.
Do you store any personal data?
No accounts, no ad tech. I keep aggregate stats like what's searched and what's clicked under a hash that rotates daily. I can see that fifty people searched for the same film yesterday; I can't see who anyone is, and by the next day the trail is gone.
Who made this?
I'm Tore. I work in product by day, and by night I (apparently) build film-podcast search engines. The suggestion form doubles as a nice way to reach me.
Is there an API?
Yes. Everything under /api is public — no key, no auth. Start at /llms.txt for a short map: search, per-podcast JSON, and a CSV export per show. If you build something on it, tell me, I'd love to see it.

Data sources

Episode data comes straight from each podcast's public RSS feed — the same feed your podcast app reads. Nothing is scraped.

Film and series metadata comes from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.