We’re always looking for innovative ways to connect audiences with rich, valuable content. That’s why we’re excited to introduce our new chatbot for the popular podcast "Welcome to the AA" hosted by Alex Agnew and Andries Beckers. This unique tool allows fans and newcomers alike to dive into the entire archive of conversations and humor at the heart of the show.

Automated Content Extraction & Transcription

Our chatbot is powered by an automated pipeline that continuously scrapes the official "Welcome to the AA" YouTube channel for new episodes. Once an episode is detected, our custom-built Flemish transcription model—tailored specifically for this language—transforms the audio into accurate, searchable text. This specialized approach ensures that users can easily find the nuanced and region-specific references made throughout the show.

Want to read more about the transcription model? Click here.

Automatic Chaptering for Seamless Browsing

Podcast episodes often span multiple topics, stories, and guests. To help users navigate effortlessly, our system automatically generates chapters for each episode. Instead of manually scrolling or skipping around, you can jump directly to the segment you’re interested in—making it simpler than ever to revisit a hilarious anecdote or replay a guest’s insightful remark.

What Questions Can You Ask? The chatbot excels at answering questions based on what was actually said in the episodes. For example, you might ask:

• “What did Philippe Geubels say about free-diving?”

  This works perfectly because the podcast hosts or their guest spoke these words, and the answer can be found directly in the transcribed text.

On the other hand, questions like:

• “How many times did they say the word saxophone?”

  won’t yield useful results. The chatbot isn’t designed to count specific words or provide analytics of that nature. It focuses on delivering meaningful, content-rich answers drawn from the spoken dialogue itself.

Zooming In on a Single Episode

Sometimes, you’ll want to concentrate on a specific episode—perhaps because the guest was someone you admire or the topic was uniquely interesting. Our chatbot allows you to focus on just one episode, providing highly targeted answers that consider the entire transcript of that installment. For example, after selecting a particular episode featuring a well-known comedian, you might ask:

• "What did the guest say about their first stand-up experience in this episode?"

In this case, the chatbot will sift through the entire conversation of that specific episode, ensuring you get a contextually rich and pinpointed response.

Keyword Search for Enhanced Discovery

In addition to asking questions, you can also search for specific keywords—such as “haarimplantaat”—across all episodes. This feature instantly surfaces any mentions of your chosen term, making it simple to locate and revisit particular topics or discussions that pique your interest. It’s another layer of convenience, ensuring you never miss a moment of the content that matters most to you.

Timestamps & Embedded YouTube Clips for Instant Playback

Because our system relies on precise, episode-specific transcripts, we can easily match the text with its corresponding moments in the original YouTube videos. This means that when you find a quote or story through our chatbot, you can instantly jump to that exact segment in the episode. Embedded YouTube clips will load at the right timestamp, allowing you to watch the conversation unfold right where you left off in the transcript. It’s a seamless way to go from a text-based reference to a fully immersive video experience.

What’s Next?

We’ll soon be publishing a follow-up blog post delving deeper into the technical architecture, shedding light on the advanced techniques behind our chaptering, search capabilities and indexing.

In the meantime, we invite you to explore the chatbot at chat.wttaa.be and experience a new era of podcast interaction—one where you command the conversation.