Thanks for this episode. I had never thought to speed up podcasts before. I have the opposite problem when listening. I am always missing things, or wanting to pause to take a note. I will try speeding up some of my podcasts using Change Tempo. I think it will make me more focused on listening.

I use an RSS reader to deal with my podcasts, I had considered Gpodder in the past. I think I will give it a try again after your description of the workflow.

I also use Audacity to mod podcasts. I am doing it for slightly different reasons. I like to cut out commercials, and segments I don't like. I am not sure if Limiter is a standard Audacity effect or a Ladspa or Nyquist plugin, but it is a great substitute for Amplify/Normalize. When set to "Soft Limiter" it acts like a fast riding volume control. It increases the "power" massively without clipping like Amplify does.

A typical starting point for settings for Limiter would be something like:

Type: Soft Limit
Input Gain (mono/Left): 3.00dB
Limit to: -0.1
Hold (ms): 1.0

I separate my automated steps, and do Limiting manually for good results (I like to get MAXIMUM VOLUME because I listen to a lot of podcasts in the car with the windows open). But even while using in a Macro, I think you could find generic settings that are preferable to Amplify/Normalize.