Script to download This American Life episodes.

download-tal.sh

#!/bin/sh

#
# This script downloads episodes of This American Life. It is useful
# because it downloads from the server normally use for streaming
# episodes in the flash player, so you can downoad episodes that are
# newer or older than the one currently available for podcast
# listening.
#

if [[ $# -ne 1 ]]; then
    echo "Please provide exactly one argument." >&2
    exit 1
fi

case $1 in
    [0-9] | [0-9][0-9] | [0-9][0-9][0-9])
        i=$1
        ;;
    *)
        echo "Argument must be numeric." >&2
        exit 1
        ;;
esac

set -ex
exec curl -OvL http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/jomamashouse/ismymamashouse/${i}.mp3

I am not the first to discover this, of course.