Your first custom series
A custom series is a pod that generates its own episodes from sources you choose. You pick the sources, the cadence, and the length; The Daily FM reads everything, writes a script, and narrates it.
Create the pod
Go to My Pods and create a new pod, or open any public pod in the Library and choose Customize this pod to start from its setup. Give it a title and, optionally, a description.
Add sources
Sources are one per line. Each line is one of:
| Source | What it does |
|---|---|
https://… |
Any web page. Its contents are extracted and summarized. |
@handle |
Recent posts from an X (Twitter) account. |
hn or hn(top:N) |
The top N Hacker News front-page stories plus their comment threads (bare hn means top 5, max 10). |
gov:CA |
Weekly state-legislature bill activity for a state (CA, MA, MI, NC, NJ, OH, PA so far). |
pod:https://… |
Follow a real-world podcast by its RSS feed URL — each new episode is transcribed and recapped. |
git:https://… |
A git repository by its URL (public GitHub repos so far) — each episode covers what landed since the last one: merged pull requests, closed issues, and commits. |
A few notes on pod: sources: any public podcast RSS feed works. The show is validated and tracked automatically when you save. Use one pod: source per pod, with the On demand cadence: instead of running on a schedule, a recap generates whenever the show posts a new episode. The first recap fires on its own once the show's transcript is processed, typically a few minutes after saving.
And on git: sources: a scheduled pod fed only by repositories publishes nothing when nothing happened — a quiet day (or week) is skipped rather than narrated, and the schedule just checks again next cycle.
Pick a cadence and length
- Daily / Weekly / Monthly — episodes generate on schedule from whatever your sources published since last time.
- On demand — episodes only generate when you fire one manually, or when a tracked show posts (for
pod:sources).
Set a target episode length in minutes. Plans cap the maximum length and how many episodes you can generate per day and per month.
Shape the show with a custom prompt
You can steer the tone, focus, and format. For example:
Write the script and tone like you are talking to a 10-year-old. As simple, clean, and easy to understand as possible.
Choose a voice
Pick a narrator from the studio voices. Each has a sample you can play. Some voices support playback-speed tuning.
Generate your first episode
Save the pod and generate an episode. It processes in the background; the episode appears with its status on the pod page, and audio arrives when narration finishes. From then on, your cadence takes over.