Dictate show notes, episode outlines, guest research briefs, and social media posts in seconds. Steno turns your voice into text inside any app on your Mac, so you can spend more time creating and less time typing.
Podcasting looks simple from the outside: record a conversation, upload it, and move on. The reality is that every episode generates hours of surrounding written content that most listeners never think about. Show notes, episode descriptions, social media posts, newsletter blurbs, guest outreach emails, sponsor updates, and SEO-optimized blog posts all need to be written for each episode. For a weekly show, that is a relentless cycle of writing that never stops.
Most podcasters are naturally verbal people. They chose an audio medium precisely because they communicate better by speaking than by writing. Yet the business side of podcasting demands constant written output. The irony is brutal: the people who are best at speaking are forced to spend hours typing. Voice dictation resolves this contradiction by letting podcasters produce written content the same way they produce their shows, by talking.
The time pressure is real. Independent podcasters who handle their own production often spend two to three hours on post-production content for every hour of recorded audio. That ratio makes it nearly impossible to scale a show without either hiring help or finding a faster way to produce written content. Steno provides that faster way.
After recording, open your show notes template, hold the Steno hotkey, and speak through the key topics, timestamps, and takeaways. Your notes appear directly in your CMS, Google Doc, or podcast hosting platform. A complete set of show notes that takes 30 minutes to type takes under 8 minutes to dictate.
Before recording, dictate your episode structure: talking points, questions for guests, research notes, and transitions. Speaking your outline feels natural and often reveals a better episode structure than staring at a blank document. The speed advantage of voice means you can outline an episode in the time it takes to type an introduction.
Dictate all your promotional posts for an episode in one sitting. Hold the hotkey, speak a Twitter post, release. Hold again, speak a LinkedIn post, release. In five minutes you have platform-specific promotional content for the entire episode. Steno works in Hootsuite, Buffer, or directly in each social platform's web interface.
Weekly newsletter updates and listener emails are essential for audience building but time-consuming to write. Dictate your newsletter summary, personal updates, and calls to action directly into Mailchimp, ConvertKit, or your email client. The conversational tone of dictated content often resonates better with podcast audiences than formal written copy.
Consider the written content required to publish a single podcast episode. Here is what the content creation process looks like with typing versus voice dictation.
| Task | Typing | Voice with Steno |
|---|---|---|
| Show notes | 30 minutes | 8 minutes |
| Episode description | 10 minutes | 3 minutes |
| Social media posts (4 platforms) | 20 minutes | 5 minutes |
| Newsletter blurb | 15 minutes | 4 minutes |
| Total per episode | ~75 minutes | ~20 minutes |
| Total for 4 episodes/month | 5 hours | 1.3 hours |
That is nearly four hours per month returned to recording, editing, guest research, or simply taking a break. Over a year, it adds up to almost 50 hours saved. The time savings calculator can help you estimate the exact numbers for your publishing schedule.
Podcasters need tools that are fast, simple, and work everywhere. Steno is a lightweight Mac menu bar app with no complex setup and no learning curve. Hold a key, speak, release, and your words appear wherever your cursor is. It works in every application on your Mac because it uses the macOS Accessibility API to insert text directly, not through the clipboard. The technical architecture is designed for instant response.
Because Steno does not interfere with your clipboard, you can dictate show notes and then immediately paste links or timestamps you copied from your audio editor. Nothing is overwritten. And because Steno sits in the menu bar, it is always available without taking up screen real estate or requiring you to switch to a separate dictation app.
The setup takes 30 seconds. Download, grant permissions, and start dictating. There is no account creation, no cloud dashboard, and no training period. If you can talk into a microphone, you already know how to use Steno.
Yes. After recording an episode, hold the hotkey and speak a summary of the key topics, guest quotes, timestamps, and links mentioned. Your show notes appear instantly in your CMS, Google Doc, or any text field. A set of show notes that takes 20 minutes to type can be dictated in under 5 minutes.
Steno is designed for real-time dictation, not for transcribing pre-recorded audio files. It is ideal for creating show notes, outlines, social posts, and email newsletters by speaking them. For full episode transcription from audio files, you would use a dedicated transcription service alongside Steno for your written content.
Most people type between 30 and 50 words per minute. Speaking naturally produces 130 to 160 words per minute. Steno transcribes in under a second after you stop speaking. Show notes, social media posts, and newsletter content that take 20 to 30 minutes to type can be dictated in 5 to 8 minutes.
Steno works in any application on your Mac where you can type text. It inserts text directly at your cursor using the macOS Accessibility API. This means it works with Buzzsprout, Transistor, Libsyn, Anchor, Podbean, WordPress, and any web-based or desktop application you use for podcast management.
Join thousands of professionals who have reclaimed hours from documentation. Steno is free to download for Mac.
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