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Comment by bunderbunder | Hacker News Reader

I, too, dislike the "eavesdropping on other people's tipsy pub conversation" genre of podcasts. I generally don't love the professionalized "least common denominator of an NPR listening audience's tastes, delivered in carefully rehearsed NPR voice" podcasts, either.

My solution is to not bother with those podcasts. There are so many others that I find to be more worthy of my time. Admittedly, it's probably a small fraction of all podcasts, but it still amounts to more than I could possibly find the time to listen to.

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When do people take in their podcasts? I’m thinking it’s during he work commute or at work?

That’s what I’m thinking. I lightly listened to podcasts before becoming a remote worker, but now that I’m remote I never remember to start one up.

I'm sure people vary but driving/plane/etc. for me. I mostly don't listen at home unless I'm doing something fairly mindless that requires me to be using my hands.

ADDED: When I commuted regularly, I would often listen to audiobooks but they're less amenable to dipping in and out of than podcasts are.

During the morning routine, during commute, at work, after work, with a friend on road trips. Any time really.

I usually start something in the morning and lose focus as I'm working (which is kinda the goal).

For my part, I wonder something similar about how most other people seem to entertain themselves.

Podcasts and audiobooks are easy to consume alongside activities that occupy my hands or my hands and eyes. TV isn't compatible with other activities that need to occupy my eyes, and video games aren't compatible with anything that needs my eyes or my hands.

I did a bit of a study of this as I was involved with a podcasting related startup at one point.

It's really varied:

- Most podcast consumption is via smartphone

- A big chunk of that is on iOS (because default Podcast app placement is inconsistent across Android flavors)

- Heaviest consumption during commutes

- Significant consumption during the workday: white collar people listening in the background - often from their desktop/web while or blue collar in place of radio and music

- You also have people doing things like playing video games and listening to podcasts regularly.

I guess I've never really understood the background sound thing. It's not like I need silence; I have no trouble working in a coffeeshop for example. But I mostly don't even turn on music as background much less something like a podcast. And, when traveling with people, one thing that always drove me crazy was the person whose initial reflex on walking into a room was to turn on the TV as background.

> I guess I've never really understood the background sound thing.

I sometimes find complete or near complete silence off-puttingly artificial. It puts me in mind of an exam room. Any sound that does happen (including my typing) seems oddly exaggerated and therefore a little distracting.

If I'm properly concentrating I don't notice, so often I'll put on something short for background noise as I start a period of trying to get something done and don't replace it when it finishes as the need has passed.

I can't stand silence, I need the distraction from my own thoughts.

I listen while cleaning, while exercising (mostly running), and while doing yard work.

I listen to podcasts while cycling. Somehow makes me feel faster but my GPS disagrees.

If I'm out for a slow run (music or silence work better for a fast run, silence for a trail run as part of the point of that is enjoying the sounds as well as the sights of nature as I trundle around), pottering around the flat doing chores, sometimes on the train when I'm travelling.

Though some of what I listen to isn't really podcasts - it is panel shows and other radio output that gets mixed in with the podcast output of the BBC and other sources.

Usually I listen on the way to/from work (I have a short commute so it often takes a few days to finish longer material) or while working on my house/cooking/some other activity where I like having a story to occupy my mind.

Commute, plane rides, going for a walk, cleaning the house... pretty much any time I otherwise would listen to music or nothing, but instead I want to be entertained and learn a little something.

I listen while:

* cooking or cleaning (usually politics or culture stuff)

* working if the work isn't too intense (usually lighter stuff)

* on the treadmill (30 minutes of tech stuff)

* doing random stuff and just want a voice in the background, like some people keep a TV on.

I don't listen while commuting because my walking-and-public-transit commute requires that I stay alert and doesn't give me any sit-down time. Nor do I usually see anybody with headphones on during the tram ride. For longer stretches that would make sense, or maybe in a car.

[Edit: list format]

I only take public transit rarely but I've never been able to adapt to wearing earphones while walking about--especially in a city. I just don't feel comfortable being isolated from my environment in that way. Probably a pretty minority opinion these days.

I remember when I started listening to stuff while walking around in public (classical music, at the time). It was like giving the world a soundtrack -- strange at first, but you get used to it.

Car and gym. I need music, often sans lyrics, when working.

I listen to them while I run or do house work. I don't have a commute and if I listen to podcasts while I do knowledge work I either don't retain anything or my work suffers.

I dislike the "hour of unedited rambling" ones, enjoy some of NPR, and find the over-produced stuff like Radiolab insufferable. I also enjoy a lot of recorded music. But the great thing about podcasts is that, like blogs, there are way more of them than you can ever consume, and they're just RSS feeds, not locked into some platform (yet). To each his own.

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