waffle
Waffle
Books as podcasts
Shortform
In-depth book guides
A study guide to read, or a podcast to listen to?
Shortform is the summary app for people who found the others too thin. Its guides are long, add the writer's own analysis, and are meant to be read at a desk. If that is how you learn, it is a good product. Waffle is for the rest of the time: the commute, the walk, the kitchen. The book itself, as a podcast series.
Side by side
What you get with each.
Shortform
In-depth book guides
- Long-form written guides, often an hour or more of reading
- Adds commentary and comparisons to other books
- Text first, with audio narration of the guide
- Billed as a subscription, yearly or monthly
Waffle
Books as podcasts
- Whole books as podcast series, in episodes of about 10 minutes
- Hundreds of books, chosen for the people who wrote them
- A host and a guest in conversation about the book
- Every book is free to listen to in order
Why a podcast, not a summary
Less dense. Easier to follow. More of it stays with you.
A conversation is easier to follow than a list of key ideas
Each episode is a conversation about one part of the book. The host asks the question you would ask, the guest answers with the example from the book, and the point lands because you heard why it matters. The full transcript scrolls in sync with the audio, so you can read along or go back to the line you missed.
One idea per episode, not every idea in fifteen minutes
A summary has to fit the whole book into a quarter of an hour, so every sentence carries a key point and nothing gets room to breathe. Waffle splits a book into episodes of about ten minutes, each on one part of it. Atomic Habits becomes four episodes, one law each. You can stop after one and still have learned one thing properly.
Start from the person, not the catalogue
You already know whose ideas you want to hear. Waffle organises books around the people who wrote them, so you can pick James Clear or Michelle Obama and listen to their book the way you would listen to them on a podcast. Every book is free to listen to in order, so you can start one before deciding anything.
On Waffle
Hundreds of books, each one a series.
$100M Offers
Alex Hormozi
Zero to One
Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
The Creative Act
Rick Rubin
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
Sapiens
Yuval Noah Harari
$100M Leads
Alex Hormozi
Never Split the Difference
Chris Voss; Tahl Raz
Educated
Tara Westover
All About Love
bell hooks
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
At a glance
Wafflevs
Shortform
- Format
- Long written guide
- Podcast series, 4 to 8 episodes
- Best for
- Reading at a desk
- Listening on the move
- Who you hear
- A narrator reading the guide
- The author, in conversation with a host
- Text
- The guide itself
- Full transcript, synced to the audio
- Depth
- Chapter by chapter, with analysis
- One idea per episode, with the author's examples
- Try before you pay
- Subscription after a trial
- Every book, free, in order
When Shortform is the better pick
If you are studying a book rather than listening to it, Shortform's guides go chapter by chapter and add outside analysis that Waffle does not. It also has a much larger library. For a book you plan to take notes on, it is the stronger tool.
Questions
WaffleorShortform?
- Is Waffle a Shortform alternative?
- For listening, yes. Shortform is a written guide with audio narration. Waffle is audio first: a podcast series with a synced transcript. Both go deeper than a 15-minute summary, but one is made for a desk and the other for headphones.
- Is a podcast as thorough as a written guide?
- Not in the same way. A guide covers every chapter and adds commentary. A Waffle series covers the book's main ideas with the author's own reasoning and examples, one per episode. It is closer to hearing the author explain the book than to reading notes on it.
- Can I read along?
- Yes. Every episode has a full transcript that scrolls in sync with the audio, so you can follow the text, jump back, or read without sound.
- Does Waffle have a free trial?
- There is no trial to start or cancel. Every book is free to listen to from the first episode to the last, in order. Waffle Plus, an optional monthly subscription on iPhone, adds choosing episodes out of order, skipping, seeking and playback speed.