Dec 21st show, no download link

To All: I listen to the podcasts the old fashioned way. Just download the MP3 file and use an old Galaxy S3 as a MP3 player.

The show last Sat does not have the download icon to get the file. What’s up admins?

Saturday’s episode is available on Spotify

Pyro, thanks for the quick reply. I don’t use apps for podcasts. I simply want to download the MP3 file and play it. I get it directly from the Car Talk site: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510208/car-talk

You will notice the download icon on Sat the 14th. The icon is missing on the 21st show.

I went to the Spotify website and they immediately wanted me to install their app. I did a search for “Car Talk” and they returned gibberish. To me Apps are just middlemen that I don’t need.

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I preferred mp3 for a long time too, when my old iPod was still working the new episode would automatically upload and I’d play it off that. Now, though, with one of our streaming services, I have a family Spotify Premium account for free, so I just play it through the App on my Galaxy S9+. They do have a Spotify program for the computer that is about as easy to use as iTunes (they may call it an app now for PC, it’s like a traditional program).

Good morning. When I clicked on your link, there is a button to listen to the podcast. Are you still unable to listen?

To All: I listen to the podcasts the old fashioned way. Just download the MP3 file and use an old Galaxy S3 as a MP3 player.

That sentence made me laugh, to me, the old fashioned way would be listening to a vinyl record or earlier still, a wax cylinder.

If I ever get an MP3 player (doubtful) it would have to be sometime in my future. I am so the opposite of an early adopter, that some things were over with before I got to them. Never had an eight track, blue ray, laser disc, have never used MP#, blue tooth etc. I did have a cell phone for 6 years but gave it away wgen I retired in 1995. It had no screen and was big enough to use as a weapon.

I was investigating hearing aids the other day and found out the brand I was considering requires an Iphone to adjust. Well they are out if the running.

Yes, I could listen on the web site if I wanted to. I even right clicked the play button to see if I could get a download link. No go.

I believe OP wants to download the Dec 21 mp3 file to their computer, and then they’ll transfer it to their portable mp3 player for later listening. I listen to the podcasts the same way. Take a look at the NPR link the OP provides above. All the shows posted before the Dec 21 date provide a little downward pointed arrow. That’s the download button. The Dec 21 show doesn’t have that arrow for some reason, so there’s no way to download the mp3 file. I expect this is a problem that occurred over at NPR rather than at Car Talk.

Note: It used to be possible to download the most two recent shows from the Car Talk podcast page (rather than NPR’s), but I just looked there, and that option appears to have gone away.

Thanks George, you described it correctly. I sent a message (contact us) on the web site describing my problem. I’m waiting for a response.

Yes, I understood the problem. I know yesterday the person I typically send these questions to was traveling for the holiday. I will let people know when I hear something.

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Good morning. I heard back from Connie. She clarified that the link you’ve shared is from NPR. NPR handles our podcasts for us, so unfortunately we are not able to resolve this problem. They’ll be happy to help though, so please contact them directly. We will also pass along that our fans are experiencing issues, but in our experience, these requests are always more powerful when they come directly from listeners.

Here’s the contact link:

https://help.npr.org/contact/s/contact?request=Podcasts

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thanks for the quick reply

Yes, that’s the link I sent my question to. When/if they fix that download icon I’ll update here.

NPR is probably going to take a while to fix this problem due to the holidays. Best of Car Talk is still played on the air weekly at a few radio stations around the country, and some of them post the podcast on their own website. For example episode 51 can be downloaded here

George, that’s exactly what I needed! Now I have the 21st show. Thank you for that link.