Why is it so complicated to extract audio from a YouTube video? Or, more likely, why am I not smart enough to accomplish this simple task?

I have software that I am sure can do this (VLC Media Player, Wavepad Sound editor) but they seem to require that I have the actual video on my hard drive and I don't want to try going down that rabbit hole again.

Both VLC and Wavepad are exceptionally capable, which means they have an exceptionally complicated UI. I just don't want to get that deep into it.

I want to use the audio from this short (2:57) video to mark the beginning of my audiobook playlist on my iPod Shuffle:

https://youtu.be/NJdzGLK3gfc

tanstaafl.