A script for downloading 'This American Life' episodes

README

tal.sh

A script for downloading 'This American Life' episodes

Requires:
rtmpdump
id3v2
curl

tal.sh

#!/bin/sh

usage() {
  echo "Usage: `basename ${0%%.sh}` <episode_number>" 1>&2
  exit 1
}

nexist() {
  echo "Episode $1 does not exist" 1>&2
  exit 2
}

echo Script starting...

[ $# -ne 1 ] && usage

ep=$1
info=http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/${ep} 
rtmp=rtmp://wbez.fcod.llnwd.net/a3989/o35/thislife/jomamashouse/ismymamashouse/${ep}.mp3

echo Getting episode information...

curl -sfX HEAD $info || nexist $ep

title="$(curl -sL $info |
        grep '<title>' |
        sed 's/<[^<]*>//g' |
        sed 's/ | /;/;s/^ *//' |
        awk -F';' '{print $1}')"

echo Downloading episode number $ep - $title

output="$(echo NPR_${title}.mp3 | sed 's/ /_/g')"

#echo $output

rtmpdump -r $rtmp -o $output 2>/dev/null && echo Download complete || echo Download failed

echo Setting tags

id3v2 -a 'Chicago Public Radio' -A 'This American Life' -t "$title" -T "$ep" $output

echo Done

Does this still work for you? The resulting mp3 seems garbled now (even though the content still seems to be in it). I wonder what changed.
./tal.sh 530
vlc:
[0x2b4294006968] mpgatofixed32 audio converter error: libmad error: bad main_data_begin pointer
[0x2b4294006968] mpgatofixed32 audio converter error: libmad error: bad main_data_begin pointer
[0x2b4294006968] mpgatofixed32 audio converter error: libmad error: bad main_data_begin pointer
[0x2b4294006968] mpgatofixed32 audio converter error: libmad error: Huffman data overrun
[0x2b4294006968] mpgatofixed32 audio converter error: libmad error: Huffman data overrun

rtmpdump -q -r "rtmp://wbez.fcod.llnwd.net/a3989/o35/thislife/jomamashouse/ismymamashouse/${ep}.mp3" -o "${ep}.flv"
ffmpeg -v 0 -i "${ep}.flv" -acodec copy "${ep}.mp3" && rm "${ep}.flv"

#!/bin/sh

usage() {
  echo "Usage: `basename ${0%%.sh}` <episode_number>" 1>&2
  exit 1
}

nexist() {
  echo "Episode $1 does not exist" 1>&2
  exit 2
}

echo Script starting...

[ $# -ne 1 ] && usage

ep=$1
info=http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/${ep}
hls=http://stream.thisamericanlife.org/${ep}/stream/${ep}_64k.m3u8
echo Getting episode information...

curl -sfX HEAD $info || nexist $ep

echo Downloading episode number $ep

ffmpeg -loglevel panic -i $hls -vn -acodec mp3 "${ep}.mp3" && echo Download complete || echo Download failed

echo Done

This should work after they moved to hls streaming, no ID3 though, just simple download.