Off topic, but that podcast is amazing. Stories, guests, production quality, narration, music, everything. It's one of the only worth listening to at 1x speed. I highly recommend it.
I like the episodes I've listened to though (so far only 5-10 of them)
I only ever met one person who basically always sped up any media they consumed, but I wonder if it's more common and if so what you think about your habit. Seems useful only in rare occasions where it's an information based media and the person is exceptionally slow.
However, i'm not a 2x'er - i'll do 1.2-1.5 depending on who's talking - some others (in my weaker languages) i'll do at 0.8x
Personally not a fan of music between sections or artificial reflective moments ("did you get that?! wow...") or trying to make things grandiose. Though i guess i wouldn't like a monotonous drone either.
I mean, yeah, these are narratives - sometimes i like that and sometimes i just want the juice. If i can't keep up with it i obviously slow it down. If i find my mind has wandered i'll pause/rewind - if that keeps happening i'll stop and come back to it another time cos i'm obviously not giving it enough attention.
I'm not pretending to be a genius but English is native to me and I have tangential knowledge of what they're talking about already often enough so it's rare I have to hang on every word and ponder every implication.
I tend to adjust speed depending on 1) what i'm doing and 2) how noisy it is around me/how well i can focus/hear what they're saying. If i'm not keeping up or it's way too much effort, i slow down. That said, I'm never past 1.5x cos i just don't enjoy straining.