Build a Faceless AI Video Channel · 25 min · Python · PRAW (Reddit API)

Topic Finder — What to Make Videos About

An automated channel that runs out of topics after week 1 isn't automated -- it's a demo with a very short runway.

Hiring signal: Automating trend discovery for a specific niche -- not just 'scrape Reddit' but filtered, deduplicated, and queued -- is the unglamorous first node that decides whether the whole pipeline has anything to say.

What you will learn

Scan Reddit for hot posts relevant to your niche using PRAW
Filter for topics with real video potential, not just any hot post
Deduplicate and queue topics in a persistent JSON file

What You're Building

The first real automation: a script that scans Reddit for your niche and returns genuinely usable video topics — not just "whatever's hot," filtered for what actually makes a good 60-90 second video.

Scanning with PRAW

import praw

reddit = praw.Reddit(
    client_id=os.environ["REDDIT_CLIENT_ID"],
    client_secret=os.environ["REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET"],
    user_agent="faceless-channel-topic-finder/1.0",
)

def scan_niche(subreddit_name: str, limit: int = 20) -> list[dict]:
    subreddit = reddit.subreddit(subreddit_name)
    posts = []
    for post in subreddit.hot(limit=limit):
        posts.append({"title": post.title, "score": post.score, "num_comments": post.num_comments, "url": post.url})
    return posts

hot() (not top() or new()) balances recency with engagement -- exactly the signal you want for "what's resonating with this community right now," which is a better proxy for video-worthy topics than pure recency (new) or all-time popularity (top, which might surface a post from 3 years ago).

Unlock the full lesson

You've read the first 2 sections. The rest of this lesson covers Not every hot post is a good video topic, Deduplication and the topic queue, What you're building today — plus a hands-on lab, quiz, and project artifact.

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