How to Listen to Substack Newsletters as Podcasts
Turn your overflowing Substack inbox into a personal podcast feed. Paste any Substack URL into Heark and listen to newsletters while you commute, exercise, or cook.
You subscribe to twelve Substack newsletters. You open maybe three. The rest pile up in your inbox, each one a small promise you made to yourself and broke before breakfast.
It's not that the content isn't worth your time. It's that reading demands a block of focused screen time you don't have. Between work emails, Slack, and the dozen tabs already open, sitting down to read a 2,000-word newsletter feels like a luxury.
But what if you could listen to Substack newsletters instead of reading them? What if your morning commute doubled as your morning briefing?
The Substack Inbox Problem
Substack has become the default home for independent writers, journalists, and thinkers. The platform hosts over 35 million active subscriptions, and the average engaged reader subscribes to five or more newsletters.
That's a lot of reading. And the math doesn't work.
A typical Substack post runs 1,000 to 2,500 words. At an average reading speed of 250 words per minute, each newsletter takes 4 to 10 minutes of dedicated screen time. Multiply that by five or more newsletters a day, and you're looking at 30 to 50 minutes just to keep up — assuming zero distractions.
Most people don't have that kind of time. So the newsletters go unread, the guilt builds, and eventually you start unsubscribing from writers you actually like. Not because the content is bad, but because the format doesn't fit your life.
Why Listening Works Better for Newsletters
Newsletters are, by nature, conversational. Most Substack writers use a personal, spoken tone — the kind of writing that sounds like someone talking to you over coffee. That makes newsletters a natural fit for audio.
Here's why switching from reading to listening changes the equation:
- You reclaim dead time. Commuting, walking, cooking, cleaning — these are all moments where your ears are free but your eyes aren't. Listening to newsletters turns those gaps into learning time.
- You actually finish them. A newsletter you listen to during your commute gets consumed in full. A newsletter sitting in your inbox gets skimmed at best.
- You reduce screen fatigue. The average adult spends over seven hours a day on screens. Shifting newsletters to audio is one less reason to stare at your phone.
- Retention stays strong. Research from the University of Waterloo found that comprehension for conversational content is comparable between reading and listening. The key factor is engagement, not medium — and you're far more engaged when you actually consume the content.
How to Listen to Any Substack Newsletter with Heark
Heark converts any Substack post into a natural-sounding podcast episode. Not robotic text-to-speech — an actual podcast-style narration that restructures the content for audio. The whole process takes about 30 seconds.
Step 1: Copy the Substack URL
Open any Substack newsletter in your inbox or browser. Copy the post URL from the address bar. It'll look something like newsletter.substack.com/p/post-title.
Any public Substack post works. Free posts, paid posts you have access to, archives — if you can see it in your browser, Heark can convert it.
Step 2: Paste It into Heark
Head to hearkapp.com and sign in (or create a free account in 10 seconds). Navigate to the Convert page and make sure Paste URL is selected.
Drop in your Substack link and click Extract Content. Heark pulls the clean article text — stripping out headers, footers, comment sections, and subscription prompts — and shows you the title and word count.
Step 3: Pick a Voice and Duration
Choose from 12 AI voices. For newsletters with a casual, conversational tone, voices like Sarah or David work well. For more analytical or news-style content, try James or Michael.
Then select your duration:
- 2 min — Quick summary of the key points
- 5 min — Solid overview that covers the main argument
- 10 min — Full narration with all the context and detail
Hit Convert to Podcast, and your episode is ready in seconds.
Tip: For most Substack posts in the 1,000-2,000 word range, the 5-minute option hits the sweet spot between completeness and brevity.
Building a Morning Newsletter Listening Routine
The real power of audio newsletters isn't a single conversion — it's the habit. Here's a simple routine that works:
The night before: Spend two minutes scanning your Substack inbox. Convert the three or four newsletters you want to consume tomorrow. They'll be waiting in your Heark library.
The morning of: Start your commute, walk, or workout. Open Heark and play through your converted newsletters back to back. A 20-minute commute covers three to four newsletters at 5 minutes each.
The result: By the time you arrive at work or finish your coffee, you've consumed every newsletter that matters — without opening your inbox once.
This approach works because it separates curation from consumption. You spend two minutes deciding what to listen to, and the rest happens passively while you go about your morning.
After a week, you'll notice something: your Substack inbox no longer feels like a to-do list. It feels like a podcast feed.
Convert Your First Substack Newsletter
You already know which newsletter is sitting unread in your inbox right now. The one from that writer you keep meaning to catch up on.
Go get that URL. Paste it into Heark. Pick a voice. Hit convert.
Thirty seconds from now, you'll be listening to it — and wondering why you ever tried to read newsletters on a screen.
Heark's free plan gives you 3 conversions per day with 6 natural-sounding voices. That's enough to build the habit, clear the backlog, and actually enjoy the newsletters you subscribe to.