# /npr/programs/episodes

`POST /api/npr/programs/episodes`

Price: 20 credits

List the broadcasts of one NPR program, newest first: air date, episode page, broadcast artwork with its caption and credit, and the full rundown of each show — every segment with its title, section, duration, direct mp3 link, thumbnail and the npr.org story it belongs to. The archive reaches back to the early 1990s.

## How to use it

List the broadcasts of one NPR program. Pass the slug that npr/articles returns in program_slug (morning-edition, all-things-considered, fresh-air, ...) plus count, and optionally published_before as a unix timestamp to start from an older date. Each broadcast carries id (the same value npr/articles returns as program_episode_id), published_date as YYYY-MM-DD, web_url, image with image_caption and image_credit, and segments — each segment has segment_title, section, duration in seconds, a direct audio_url, its own image and story_id, which npr/articles and npr/articles/transcripts accept. Artwork depends on the programme: entertainment shows illustrate every broadcast, news magazines illustrate individual rundown items instead.

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `program` (string, required) — NPR program slug or the full npr.org program URL (examples: "morning-edition", "https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/"; minLength: 1)
- `count` (integer, required) — Max number of broadcasts to return (min: 1)
- `published_before` (integer, nullable) — Start from the broadcast aired on or before this unix timestamp instead of the newest one

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "NprProgramEpisode")
- `id` (string, required)
- `episode_title` (string, nullable)
- `published_date` (string, nullable)
- `web_url` (string, nullable)
- `program` (string, nullable)
- `image` (string, nullable)
- `image_caption` (string, nullable)
- `image_credit` (string, nullable)
- `segments` (array) (default: [])
  - `@type` (string) (default: "NprProgramSegment")
  - `id` (string, required)
  - `segment_title` (string, nullable)
  - `story_id` (string, nullable)
  - `story_url` (string, nullable)
  - `duration` (integer, nullable)
  - `audio_url` (string, nullable)
  - `section` (string, nullable)
  - `audio_type` (string, nullable)
  - `is_available` (boolean) (default: false)
  - `image` (string, nullable)
  - `image_caption` (string, nullable)
  - `image_credit` (string, nullable)

## Errors

### 422 — Validation Error

The request body did not validate

What to do: Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.

- `detail` (array)
  - `loc` (array, required)
  - `msg` (string, required)
  - `type` (string, required)
  - `input` (any)
  - `ctx` (object)

### 408

The request ran past its time limit

What to do: Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.

### 412

No NPR program archive for this slug or date — the slug is unknown or the date is out of range

What to do: Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.

### 429

Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted

What to do: When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.

### 500

Something broke on our side

What to do: Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.

### 529

Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded

What to do: Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

## Response envelope

Success: Array of objects (may be empty if no results)

Error: Error may coexist with partial results if it occurs mid-execution. Check X-Error header and status code.

Every response carries these headers:

- `X-Error` — Error message text (present only on error)
- `X-Request-ID` — Unique request identifier
- `X-Execution-Time` — Execution time in seconds
- `X-Result-Count` — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
- `X-Total-Available-Results` — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
- `X-Warning` — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
- `X-Retry-After` — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.