Discovering Podcasts

Dubby integrates with external podcast directories to help you find new shows without leaving the app.

Search

From the Discover tab, search by podcast name, topic, or keyword. Dubby queries two sources:

1. Podcast Index (primary) — An open, free podcast directory with over 4 million feeds
2. iTunes (fallback) — Apple’s podcast catalog, used when Podcast Index doesn’t return enough results

Results from both sources are deduplicated by feed URL, so you won’t see the same podcast twice.

Trending

The Discover tab shows trending podcasts — shows gaining popularity across the podcast ecosystem. This data comes from Podcast Index’s trending API and updates regularly.

Categories

Browse podcasts by category to explore genres like Technology, True Crime, Comedy, News, Science, and more. Categories are sourced from Podcast Index and reflect the standard podcast taxonomy.

Person search

Search for podcasts by a specific person’s name — useful for finding every show a particular host or guest appears on. This uses Podcast Index’s person search, which indexes <podcast:person> tags from Podcasting 2.0 feeds.

Note

Person search only returns results from podcasts that include Podcasting 2.0 person tags in their feeds. Not all podcasts include this metadata yet.

Feed preview

Before subscribing, you can preview a podcast to see:

• Show title, author, and description
• Artwork
• Episode count
• Recent episodes with titles and descriptions
• Whether the feed is episodic or serial

This lets you evaluate a podcast before committing to a subscription.

Podcast Index setup

Podcast search, trending, and categories all rely on the Podcast Index API. The API is free and open — you just need to register for credentials.

Getting API credentials

1. Go to podcastindex.org/register and create a free account
2. You’ll receive an API Key and API Secret

Configuring Dubby

Add the credentials in your Dubby instance under the integrations configuration:

• Podcast Index API Key
• Podcast Index API Secret

Tip

Without Podcast Index credentials, Dubby falls back to iTunes-only search, which has a lower rate limit (~20 requests/minute) and doesn’t support trending, categories, or person search.