A desktop-grade web player for the Art Bell radio archive — late-night talk radio about UFOs, the paranormal, and the unexplained, broadcasting from the high desert of Pahrump, Nevada.
Live at highdesert.space
- Windows 98 dark UI — raised/inset bevels, title bars, context menus, and a system tray
- Glassmorphism on mobile — frosted surfaces over an animated starfield
- Archive.org streaming — browse and play thousands of episodes directly
- AI categorization — Claude-powered topic extraction, series detection, and guest identification
- Oscilloscope visualizer — real-time Web Audio waveform in the player
- Keyboard navigation — Space, arrows, N/P, M, / for search, ? for shortcut help
- Ratings & tags — 5-star ratings with tag-based filtering
- Full-text search — instant search across titles, guests, and descriptions
- Offline-first — IndexedDB via Dexie with OPFS audio caching
- Deep links — share episodes via
?episode=ID
- Next.js 16 (App Router) + React 19
- Tailwind CSS 4 with custom Win98 design tokens
- Dexie (IndexedDB) for client-side storage
- Zustand for player/UI state
- Web Audio API for the oscilloscope
- Anthropic Claude for AI features
git clone https://github.com/jacksongoode/High-Desert.git
cd High-Desert
npm install
cp .env.example .env.local # add your API keys
npm run devOpen http://localhost:3000.
| Variable | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY |
For AI features | Anthropic Claude — episode categorization and analysis |
ADMIN_API_TOKEN |
For AI features | Shared secret authorizing /api/categorize requests |
NEXT_PUBLIC_ADMIN_TOKEN |
For AI features | Client-side token (must match ADMIN_API_TOKEN) |
All keys are optional. The app works fully without them — AI categorization just won't be available.
npm run dev # Start dev server
npm run build # Production build
npm run start # Start production server
npm run lint # ESLint