October 30, 2025
Peer review? Meet ear review
Show HN: ekoAcademic – Convert ArXiv papers to interactive podcasts
Your commute just got smarter: fans want a ‘daily mix’ and Scirate picks
TLDR: ekoAcademic turns new arXiv research into short, interactive podcasts you can question in your own language. Commenters love the idea but want smart ranking (a “daily mix”), integration with Scirate for trending papers, and accessibility wins, debating whether commute time should be for learning or relaxing.
ArXiv papers, but make them podcasts you can talk to. That’s the pitch behind ekoAcademic, a tool that turns new research on arXiv into short, interactive audio clips—with multilingual Q&A so you can ask questions and get answers in your own language. The devs say it’s cheap, fast, and commuter-friendly, but the crowd immediately grabbed the mic. The top vibe: “Cool idea, now give us a daily mix.” One user begged for automatic prioritization so they hear the must‑reads first, basically asking for a Spotify‑for‑science queue. Another demanded integration with Scirate, the upvote hub for papers, to surface what’s trending.
Accessibility stans showed up strong. One commenter said listening helps them focus and even shared a DIY pipeline using Google text‑to‑speech, flexing that they queue papers “before bed.” Meanwhile, the subtle drama: does upvoting replace citations? A cheeky nod claimed Scirate is where academics endorse papers without citing them—cue side‑eye. Between hard asks, the community wants smarter curation, tighter integrations, and translation everywhere. The big question lingering: are commutes for learning or unwinding? ekoAcademic’s bet is learning—complete with a pause‑and‑ask button. If it nails relevance, this could be the earbuds in, papers out moment science nerds didn’t know they needed.
Key Points
- •ekoAcademic generates short audio summaries of newly released academic papers, primarily from arXiv.
- •The tool supports interactive verbal Q&A, allowing multilingual questions and responses via GPT‑realtime.
- •It mirrors arXiv categories, processes papers, and creates an audio clip for each.
- •Non-interactive podcasts are stored for reuse, reducing costs and enabling real-time generation.
- •The creators currently focus on arXiv but are open to adding other databases and request community feedback.