Podcasts are my new Wikipedia

So I skip a lot of the podcasts that would provide a aoothing background noise and only listen those where I feel joy when I see a new episode is out.

It's where I got my best thinking done, simply because I had nothing else to do. I'd often reach my hotel and get right on my laptop to Google things or write code. I built my best projects on the road.

I think this is why people walk, meditate or take long showers. Idle time is important, but we do everything to avoid it.

While I'm certain grocery shopping isn't the most mentally stimulating form of activity, it's still "quiet time" (relatively, anyway) that my brain craves.

I remember growing up before smartphones were ubiquitous. I never had an iPod or mp3 player, so I'd just be alone with my thoughts for 40 minute bus/subway rides. It sounds like torture today, but I actually look back on that with some bittersweet jealously... simpler times.

I reviewed the situations that I listen to a podcast (there are quite few):

1. In the car, because it beats listening to radio commercials 2. Washing up at night, because I hate washing dishes but putting something on distracts me enough to power through.

> I'm driving or walking or cooking or cleaning.

> It's noise that minimally engages

What's a better alternative? Listen to the vacuum cleaner? to the other's cars engines? To the top 10 reggaeton mix?

I use every single "non thinking" activity I do (like driving, cleaning, walking outside, etc) to listen to things that really interest me, from news about the tech industry, to web dev subjects I'm interested on, to astrophysics and general science divulgation, etc.

The amount of stuff I've learnt and the entertainment provided is invaluable to me, and just using time otherwise I'd be just hating my life for being stuck in a traffic jam.

When I’m able to think deeply with silence or music, I do. Podcasts just fill the gap between those times.

This is a very powerful coping mechanism for me. For someone who is neurotypical, I can easily see how one can form some bad habits.

Seen this a lot, and I'm in the same boat. I dislike this commodified view of life and free time, where every thing you do must result in a sort of real-life stat increase, like you would see in a video game (Persona 5 anyone?).

I think ultimately this way of thinking is extremely naive. It implies there is no underlying themes or philosophy in music or fiction whereas listening to a podcast will cause you to learn something new. The subtle messaging a good album possesses can be far more profound than listening to a guy talk about data science for an hour each day. Listening to a good album or reading fiction can give you new ways to frame problems or reconsider old approaches in your work.

We need more polymaths.

Some truths are only mass-publishable as fiction.

I do enjoy ones more in the style of radio programmes, or for that matter actual radio programmes.. In Our Time is excellent for short deep dives into all manner of subject.

A focused topic and fact or idea based discussions or stories in each episode keep me listening.

If I were first to place some plans in front of your eyes, what would your hands build then?

If there were no plans, what might your hands do before they started building a machine?

What organ/s might help your hands to do this?

If that organ/s was busy listening to a podcast, how might that affect the output of your hands?

I can listen to a single episode on some subject, then days later basically retell the entire thing to my dad. And by the time I've finished retelling what I learned, it's burned in forever.

I imagine what's happening is that you're assuming that because you experience existence a certain way, _everyone_ must experience it that way too.

Audio-only is not as bad as video, in my experience. Probably still less-than in comparison to reading, but certainly an acceptable compromise particularly for people who struggle to read due to some disability.

I can't listen to podcasts while programming, but I can certainly learn a lot from listening to podcasts while cleaning the car, or working in the garage, or mowing the lawn.

Learning: the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being taught.

Podcasts are great for learning. They're not great for learning skills, but they're great for acquiring knowledge.

The only thing I think I could "learn" through that kind of passive listening would be narrative stuff like history, or interesting global trivia. Maybe philosophy or policy at a stretch.

Already mentioned Dan Carlin's Hardcore History is amazing source of viewpoints and perspectives that completely upended my understanding of history.

> Couldn't imagine doing two things at once and calling one of them 'work' and the other 'learning'.

I doubt anyone here programs and listens to anything but essentially noise, be it music or podcast.

You cannot focus on two serious things at once. But that's not what we are talking about here. We are talking about doing a menial task like preping veg for cooking or cleaning doesn't require much attention. You can almost do those at autopilot and thats why people find it boring - because their minds wonder and seek stimulation. Since you dont need much attention for those tasks you can absolutely listen to audiobook or interesting podcast and learn something.

Anyway, I have no reason to believe podcasts are any worse than other typical places people would try to learn things. And surely the takeaway shouldn't be "don't try to learn"...

It's either stuff I can't understand (growly metal music) or fully instrumental.