# Podcast Guest & Sponsor Finder - Who Appears on Which Shows (`seemuapps/podcast-guest-sponsor-finder`) Actor

Extract every guest and sponsor from a podcast's recent episodes - names, roles, companies, promo codes and offers - from an RSS feed, Apple link or show name.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/seemuapps/podcast-guest-sponsor-finder.md
- **Developed by:** [Andrew](https://apify.com/seemuapps) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $6.00 / 1,000 guests

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Podcast Guest & Sponsor Finder - Who Appears on Which Shows

Find out who has been a guest on any podcast and which brands sponsor it - straight from the show notes. Paste an RSS feed, an Apple Podcasts link or just the show name, and get one clean row per guest (name, role, company, social handles) and per sponsor (brand, promo code, landing URL, offer) for the most recent episodes, ready to export to CSV, Excel, JSON or Google Sheets.

Built for PR and booking agencies, podcast ad buyers and researchers who need to know which shows book which people and which brands already pay for reads - without listening to hundreds of hours of audio.

### What you get

One row per guest or sponsor, per episode:

- **type** - `guest` or `sponsor`
- **podcastName**, **podcastFeedUrl**, **podcastWebsite**
- **episodeTitle**, **episodeUrl**, **episodePublishedAt**, **episodeDurationSec**
- **name** - the guest's full name or the sponsor brand
- **role**, **company**, **socialHandles** - for guests (job title, organisation, book or project, any @handles or profile links in the notes)
- **promoCode**, **offer**, **url** - for sponsors (discount code, the deal, the vanity landing URL such as `brand.com/show`)
- **confidence** - 0 to 1; anonymous callers or people named only by first name score lower
- **evidence** - the verbatim sentence from the show notes that supports the row, so every result can be checked in seconds

Every name and brand is verified against the episode's own show notes before it is saved; anything the notes do not actually contain is dropped. A `SUMMARY` record in the key-value store lists episodes analysed, guests and sponsors found and any feeds that could not be resolved.

### Use cases

- **Podcast guest booking and PR outreach** - see which shows in your niche interview founders, authors or experts like your client, and who they booked last month
- **Sponsor prospecting** - build a list of brands already buying podcast ads (with their promo codes and landing pages) to pitch your own show or network
- **Competitor sponsorship tracking** - monitor which podcasts a competitor sponsors, what offer they run and when it changes
- **Influencer and expert research** - find the people who appear across many shows in a category and the companies they represent
- **Ad-market intelligence** - map which categories (sleep, supplements, fintech, SaaS) dominate ad reads on the shows you care about

### How to use

1. Enter one or more **Podcasts** - an RSS feed URL, an Apple Podcasts show URL, or simply the show name (for example `The Tim Ferriss Show`). Names and Apple links are resolved to the show's feed automatically.
2. Set **Max episodes per podcast** (default 20 most recent episodes).
3. Pick **What to extract** - guests, sponsors or both.
4. Optionally set **Published after** (e.g. `2026-01-01`) to look at a date window only, and **Max results** to cap the run.
5. Run the actor - rows stream into the **Dataset** tab; open **Key-value store → SUMMARY** for per-podcast counts.

Tips: the same guest or sponsor appearing in several episodes gets a row for each episode, so you can count appearances or sort by `episodePublishedAt` to see the most recent booking. Filter `confidence >= 0.8` to keep only clearly introduced guests and drop first-name-only callers from advice or Q\&A episodes.

### Output format

A guest row:

```json
{
  "type": "guest",
  "podcastName": "The Tim Ferriss Show",
  "podcastFeedUrl": "https://rss.art19.com/tim-ferriss-show",
  "podcastWebsite": "https://tim.blog/podcast",
  "episodeTitle": "#883: How to Legalize Medical Psychedelics in Your Country — Tania de Jong on The Playbook Behind Australia's World-First Breakthrough",
  "episodeUrl": "https://rss.art19.com/episodes/8226a13e-77b3-4f59-98af-384d22ce645e.mp3",
  "episodePublishedAt": "2026-09-18T19:30:00.000Z",
  "episodeDurationSec": 7948,
  "name": "Tania de Jong",
  "role": "co-founder",
  "company": "Mind Medicine Australia",
  "socialHandles": [],
  "promoCode": null,
  "offer": null,
  "url": null,
  "confidence": 1,
  "evidence": "My guest today is Tania de Jong , co-founder of Mind Medicine Australia ."
}
```

A sponsor row:

```json
{
  "type": "sponsor",
  "podcastName": "The Tim Ferriss Show",
  "podcastFeedUrl": "https://rss.art19.com/tim-ferriss-show",
  "podcastWebsite": "https://tim.blog/podcast",
  "episodeTitle": "#881: Tales of Overcoming The Odds, and How to Turn Losses Into Wins — Tim McGraw, Terry Crews, Dax Shepard, and More",
  "episodeUrl": "https://rss.art19.com/episodes/c599888a-c9bb-403c-96a9-b1bb87125ccc.mp3",
  "episodePublishedAt": "2026-09-04T10:00:00.000Z",
  "episodeDurationSec": 3923,
  "name": "Incogni",
  "role": null,
  "company": null,
  "socialHandles": [],
  "promoCode": "TIM",
  "offer": "60% off an annual plan",
  "url": "Incogni.com/Tim",
  "confidence": 1,
  "evidence": "Incogni, which removes your personal data from the web, helping shield you from fraud, scams, and identity theft: Incogni.com/Tim (use code TIM at checkout and get 60% off an annual plan)"
}
```

`episodeUrl` is the episode's web page when the feed provides one, otherwise the audio file URL.

### Pricing

Pay per episode and per result: a small `episode-processed` event for each episode analysed, plus a `guest-result` event for each guest row and a `sponsor-result` event for each sponsor row saved to the dataset. Episodes with no show notes are skipped and never charged; names that cannot be verified against the notes are dropped.

### Limitations

- Results come from the written show notes, not the audio. Shows that publish one-line descriptions with no guest or sponsor mention will return few or no rows - pick shows with proper episode notes (most interview shows and network-produced podcasts have them).
- Spotify links are not supported because Spotify does not expose show notes; use the RSS feed, Apple Podcasts link or the show name instead.
- Compilation and "best of" episodes list every featured guest, so a single episode can yield many guest rows.

### FAQ

**Can I get every guest a podcast has ever had?**
Yes - raise **Max episodes per podcast** (up to 500 per run) and set **Max results** to `0`. Older episodes are analysed newest-first.

**How do I find shows a specific person has been on?**
Run this actor across a list of candidate podcasts in their niche, export to a spreadsheet and filter the `name` column.

**Does it work for non-English podcasts?**
Yes, as long as the show notes name the guests and sponsors. Fields are returned as written in the notes.

# Actor input Schema

## `podcasts` (type: `array`):

One podcast per line. Accepts an RSS feed URL, an Apple Podcasts show URL (podcasts.apple.com/.../id123456) or just the show name (e.g. 'The Tim Ferriss Show'). Names and Apple links are resolved to the show's RSS feed automatically.

## `maxEpisodesPerPodcast` (type: `integer`):

How many of the most recent episodes to analyse for each podcast. Episodes with no show notes are skipped and do not count.

## `extract` (type: `string`):

Choose whether to pull out guests (people interviewed), sponsors (brands with ad reads, promo codes or offers) or both.

## `publishedAfter` (type: `string`):

Optional. Only analyse episodes published on or after this date, e.g. 2026-01-01. Leave empty for no date filter.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many guest + sponsor rows have been pushed to the dataset across all podcasts. 0 = unlimited.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "podcasts": [
    "The Tim Ferriss Show",
    "How I Built This"
  ],
  "maxEpisodesPerPodcast": 5,
  "extract": "both",
  "maxItems": 200
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One record per extracted entity: type (guest|sponsor), podcastName, podcastFeedUrl, podcastWebsite, episodeTitle, episodeUrl, episodePublishedAt, episodeDurationSec, name, role, company, socialHandles, promoCode, offer, url, confidence, evidence.

## `summary` (type: `string`):

SUMMARY record in the default key-value store: per-podcast counts of episodes parsed and analysed, guests and sponsors found, and rows skipped.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "podcasts": [
        "The Tim Ferriss Show",
        "How I Built This"
    ],
    "maxEpisodesPerPodcast": 5
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("seemuapps/podcast-guest-sponsor-finder").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "podcasts": [
        "The Tim Ferriss Show",
        "How I Built This",
    ],
    "maxEpisodesPerPodcast": 5,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("seemuapps/podcast-guest-sponsor-finder").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "podcasts": [
    "The Tim Ferriss Show",
    "How I Built This"
  ],
  "maxEpisodesPerPodcast": 5
}' |
apify call seemuapps/podcast-guest-sponsor-finder --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,seemuapps/podcast-guest-sponsor-finder"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/KtVECdl1iumlS1mbg/builds/2cexeQuwdvpoeZPsH/openapi.json