Summary

The website provides a method for transcribing YouTube podcasts or videos to create Obsidian notes using Glasp and AI summarization.

Abstract

The article outlines a practical approach to transcribing and summarizing content from YouTube podcasts or videos to facilitate note-taking in Obsidian. The author, an avid podcast listener, describes the challenge of remembering valuable insights from audio content while on the move and introduces Glasp as a tool that offers a solution by providing transcripts and AI-generated summaries. Users are guided through setting up a Glasp account, installing the browser extension, and using the service in conjunction with YouTube to highlight and export text. The process is enhanced by integrating Glasp with Readwise and leveraging AI models like ChatGPT to create concise summaries that can be easily incorporated into Obsidian notes.

Opinions

The author values the ability to take notes from podcasts and finds current methods (like pen and paper) inadequate for retaining information.
Glasp is praised as an effective tool for transcribing YouTube content and integrating with other services like Readwise.
The author appreciates the AI summarization feature, considering it a valuable asset for capturing key points from lengthy videos, such as those from the Huberman Lab podcast.
The ease of highlighting and exporting text from transcripts is highlighted as a significant benefit of using Glasp.
The author is enthusiastic about the practicality of using Glasp with Obsidian for personal knowledge management and recommends ZAI.chat as a cost-effective AI alternative to ChatGPT Plus.

How to Transcribe YouTube Podcasts or Videos for Obsidian Notes

Forget the pen and notebook. This method is much easier!

Introduction

One of the most favourite parts of my day is my walk in the bush every morning. I am very lucky to have a walking track in my small town that has native plants, lots of birds and even the occasional kangaroo. This is the time of day I listen to my podcasts. They can be on a range of interests, but predominant amongst them is AI, Leadership, Community and Nueroscience.

The problem I find is that when listening to them, I don’t get the opportunity to take notes. So when a pearl of wisdom is shared, I have to remember it when I get home. This is not as easy as it may sound!

The Solution

The solution is really quite simple and it is a transcript of the podcast. Some podcasts offer these and attach them to the show notes which is wonderful, but for the ones that do not, an alternative solution needs to be found.

First we will look at an easy one which is podcasts that are broadcast on Youtube as well as the podcast platforms. This will form Part 1 of a series of two articles. I will cover YouTube in this one and normal podcasts in the next.

YouTube

Transcripts are easy to obtain from YouTube. For this I use Glasp, a social web highlighter and transcript provider for YouTube. First thing is to sign up to Glasp which is free. The link is an “Invite Code” by the way, not an affiliate code.

When you have your account setup, click on your avatar in the top right-hand corner and in the dropdown, select “Browser Extension” per the image below. Install the browser extension and we are ready for YouTube, and other uses as well that I will leave you to explore. And by the way, Glasp has an integration to Readwise too if you use that platform.

Now, if you go to YouTube and select a video to watch, you will find the Transcript and Summary will come up on the right-hand side of the video. Note the Glasp icon at top left. This is what the extension is doing in your browser.

In the image below, you can see one of Obsidian’s greatest advocates, Nick Milo, presenting a video. On the right, you can see the transcript and summary, including the timestamps. I will include a link to the videos for Obsidian in the references below.

Nick Milo delivering an introductory session on Obsidian

It doesn’t stop there, though. You can select the text from the transcript and even highlight areas for subsequent export.

Selecting and highlighting text in Transcript

So what other magical properties does this browser extension from Glasp provide? How about an AI summary of the video? Let’s see how it goes.

In the short video, I am highlighting some text, but you don’t have to do this. I then click on the Open AI icon at the top and Glasp opens ChatGPT and runs the transcript through the model which results in the output you will see on the screen. You could copy this and paste it into your Obsidian notes and then curate it to reflect your own summary.

If the explanations here are confusing, then here is a video to walk you through the steps.

Conclusion

I find this to be an extremely useful tool. One of my favourite podcasts is the Huberman Lab and his episodes can run for up to four hours. Now, I must admit, I don’t walk for that long in one go, but generally listen to his podcasts over a week. I find a lot of the information absolutely riveting and need to record it as a note in my Obsidian vault. Glasp really comes into its own here providing the service that it does.

In the follow up article, I will show you how to extract a podcast from a website and create a transcript for use in note making.

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References

Obsidian for Beginners: Start HERE — How to Use the Obsidian App for Notes
YouTube Nick Milo’s Obsidian Videos
Andrew Huberman — YouTube
Obsidian

More content at PlainEnglish.io.

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