Claude and I did a session in WT Builder focused on the generated audio for Weekly Thing issues. This was one of the goals i had with the new authoring app.

  • Audio pauses will now fall in natural breaks in the flow. Each functional block of text is generated on its own.
  • Better section announcements and handoffs.
  • Blockquotes “quote” and “end quote” again.
  • Lists are spoken better.
  • I’m now embedding images from the issue into the metadata. If your podcast player supports that you will see them as the podcast plays.
  • Better pronunciation.
  • The descriptions now contain the links, so for the first time ever you can actually get to the articles from the podcast version.

With these changes the podcast version really can be a viable way to engage with the Weekly Thing.