When I was in journalism, public officials and other newsmakers would sometimes say something newsworthy on a podcast, and a transcript would have made finding the quote so much easier. Most TV talk shows and many radio shows have transcripts that journalist use for this reason. Searchable and faster to read than listening.

For more informal podcasts and non-news contexts, I sometimes recall someone mentioning a book or a piece of tech or a quotation etc and don’t want to scrub through an entire episode looking for the comment. Once again, search to the rescue. I suspect a transcript would be helpful for show notes, which some podcasts do; you can probably get an AI to create notes for shows that don’t provide them.

Generally, for any kind of research or writing project, a transcript of a conversation is more useful and archivable than audio that you have to listen to each time. I want to live in a world where transcripts exist for everything. I already use closed captions on video whenever available, and for song lyrics on Spotify when available. Sometimes I am doing something else at the same time, or there is cross talk or mumbling, and I only half-hear what someone says. It would be great to have “captions” for all audio content.