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Alien Tavern News by RSS: Feed Addresses and Readers for Every Device

Every headline the broadcast is built from is published as an RSS feed, and the podcast is one too. Any news reader on any device can follow them, with nothing to sign up for. Here are the addresses, a reader for every operating system, and how to add a feed.

The feeds

iPhone and iPad (iOS, iPadOS)

The best free reader on any platform is an iPhone and Mac app, and the paid ones are polished.

  • NetNewsWire: free and open source, syncs with iCloud or any of the hosted services. + → New Feed, paste the address.
  • Reeder and Unread: polished paid readers; both take a feed address directly.
  • Inoreader or Feedly: hosted accounts with apps and web access, so the same subscriptions follow you to a desktop.

Android

Two open-source readers cover it; the hosted services have apps too.

  • Feeder: open source, offline-first, on Google Play and F-Droid.
  • Read You: open source with a reader-mode view of each story.
  • Inoreader or Feedly: hosted accounts with sync to every other device.

Mac (macOS)

The Mac has the best free RSS reader on any platform.

  • NetNewsWire: free, open source, native, fast. The recommendation.
  • Vienna: open source, older, still maintained.
  • Reeder: the polished paid option, shared with iOS.
  • Thunderbird: its Feeds account type reads RSS and lists each podcast episode’s audio file as an attachment.

Windows

One open-source desktop reader, the mail client you may already have, and the browser.

  • Fluent Reader: open source, native-feeling, free.
  • Thunderbird: the Feeds account type, alongside your mail.
  • Vivaldi: the browser has a feed reader built in; open the feed address and it offers to subscribe.
  • Inoreader, Feedly or NewsBlur in the browser.

Linux

Every desktop has a native reader, and self-hosting is a real option here.

  • NewsFlash (GNOME), Akregator (KDE) and Liferea: native readers, all in the repositories.
  • Fluent Reader: open source, as a Flatpak or AppImage.
  • Thunderbird: the Feeds account type.
  • Miniflux, FreshRSS or Tiny Tiny RSS if you would rather host your own reader and sync every device to it.

Chromebook (ChromeOS)

Android readers from Google Play, or a hosted reader in the browser.

  • Feeder or Read You from Google Play.
  • Inoreader, Feedly, NewsBlur or The Old Reader in the browser.

In a browser, on anything

  • Feedly, Inoreader, NewsBlur, Feedbin and The Old Reader are hosted readers; each adds a feed by address and most also play podcast enclosures.
  • Vivaldi has a reader built into the browser; open a feed address and it offers to subscribe.

Adding a feed by address, step by step

The steps are the same in every reader; only the name of the button changes.

  1. Copy the feed address:
  2. In the reader, find the control for adding a feed by hand. It is called New Feed (NetNewsWire), Add feed or Add subscription (Feeder, Fluent Reader, Inoreader), Subscribe to feed (Thunderbird’s Feeds account), or simply the search box (Feedly, Inoreader: paste the address there).
  3. Paste, confirm, done. New stories arrive on their own from then on. Most readers also find the feed if you paste the site address instead: it is announced in every page’s head.

What you get

  • The headlines the broadcast is built from, gathered once a day from Google News, Hacker News, Reddit and the outlets’ own feeds, each with its summary, outlet and a link to the original reporting. Stories stay in the feed for 90 days.
  • A standard RSS 2.0 feed with no tracking pixels. Unsubscribing is deleting the feed from your reader.

Prefer listening? The podcast page has one-tap subscribe buttons and a podcast app for every device, and the broadcast can also arrive by email.