When do you listen to podcasts?
I started listening to podcasts in June of 2017 after having heard about them being great for years but never getting around to listening to them. I preferred music at the time and would put on a playlist or an album if I had a long drive, walk, etc. Once I started listening to podcasts I was hooked. The amount of time I spent listening to music plummetted and since I started I've spent 4% of my time listening to podcasts, I've used the same app since I started which makes keeping track of that easy.
I mainly listen to mine whenever I have some tedious or when I don't need too hard about what I'm doing. Walking the dog, driving, all of the housework, and some video games when I have time to play one and just want to zone out a bit and do something. Its made me enjoy cleaning more which my wife has appreciated a lot.
I was curious when other people listen to podcasts, how you fit them into your schedule, and if you're keen on sharing what your favorites are. I have way too many podcasts bookmarked in my app to listen to but its fun to add more to the ever growing list.
Driving and chores. It incentivizes me to do the chores cause I get to listen while I work
The same thing happened to me, but with doing exercise. I really hate exercising, but wanting to continue listening motivates me a lot. That's why I only listen then.
I listen all day and night, pretty much. I don't know how many thousand of podcasts I've listened to since around 2010, but I have listened to so many, it's like it was my job.
I don't sleep well, so I have certain commercial free ones I replay to fall back asleep throughout the night. I listen as soon as I wake up and make coffee etc - I only listen to easy to follow comedic ones during this time. Shower can be anything that won't subject me to commercials I can't skip. Getting ready for work I'll pop on whatever I'm binging on the hardest. Driving I only listen to light things I don't necessarily need my brain for, and when I arrive to work I continue on with whatever serial fiction story I'm enjoying at the moment. I regularly have fifty some podcasts going, and I don't find it hard to keep them straight as I dip and out thought the day/week. I have multiple apps, because everything isn't available everywhere, and I regularly download old forgotten radio series' from Internet archive. I intersperse all of these with audiobooks.
I don't have small children anymore, and I am mostly alone at work, and my husband died young, so I have almost unlimited hours in a day for podcasts. That makes me an outlier, but it's my TV - I ditched cable in 2012, and never looked back.
I feel that if I were in your shoes I would be the same way. Having small kids and working means I don't have time for TV anyway. My wife and I haven't had one in our house since we got married 5 years ago and don't think we'll get one anytime soon. One day it'd be nice to watch home movies and stuff but we have other more important uses for our money.
If you don't mind me asking what do you do for work that allows you to listen to podcasts? With my IT work I can only listen to lighthearted ones when I end up doing some repetitive stuff I'm not able to automate away for wahtever reason.
No I don't mind at all. I own a small cleaning company, but I still have customers of my own, so I really don't need my brain for work all day, because the routine, once established, runs on its own, ha😀
I listen mainly on the commute and when exercising, doing chores or out for a walk. Basically any time I can sort of zone out and listen with half an ear when the topic engages me. This generally makes up about 8-10 hours a week.
Some of my favourites:
I listen to them while driving. I like listening to actual journalism instead of just random people talking, so my commute allows me to listen to everything I want to listen to.
Treadmill or running on the seawall, or anywhere else I don't have to worry about getting hit by a car.
I thought my podcast and audiobook time would go down when I had a baby but it actually went up.
I will, with some shame, admit that I throw an earbud in when the childcare gets too tedious. I talk with him, we sing and play, and I love every second of it... but eventually it gets a bit repetitive.
My 5-month-old needs a lot of stimulation. He gets bored and starts fussing very easily. So after about an hour or two of making faces and talking to him, I'll give myself a break and listen to a book while engaging with him or giving him a bottle.
I also listen in the shower, while doing chores, while getting dressed, while driving, etc.
My kid also talks to the books when I put them on in the car. And he stops if I pause it and try to talk with him myself!!!
He just coos and makes baby noises back to the books and podcasts. Alright kid, do your thing I guess.
I know where you're coming from! I had 2 under 2 for awhile here (now my oldest is above 2 so I can't say that anymore) and there were plenty of nights when I needed something to keep me awake while I rocked them to sleep after they woke up for the 3rd time but didn't want to watch something and have something stimulate my eyes and wake me all the way up so a nice and chill podcast would do.
I don't think there's any shame in needing to do what you gotta do to take care of the kids. My wife and I were big on "no screens" for awhile but have accepted there are times when we need the boys to sit in one spot so we can get some things done.
I've used noise cancelling AirPods to reduce the stress levels when the crying became a little too intense. I could focus on the task and stay calm which ultimately helped us both. Those late night rocking sessions are far more palatable with a podcast when it's the third time around.
Taking care of yourself is also part of parenting so don't beat yourself up over it.
I no longer need it as much for that purpose and just do the chore-casts now.
If you’re into tech stuff I’m a big fan of Security Now, Hacked, the Accidental Tech Podcast (Apple-focused), and the 404 Media podcast. For general interest listening I recommend 99% Invisible, The Last Archive, and Unexplainable from Vox. For deep-dive news/politics/science/philosophy, check out The Ezra Klein Show, Mindscape, and Today Explained and Unexplainable from Vox. For more oddball stuff I really like QAA (formerly QAnon Anonymous). Merriam-Webster has a bite-size Word of the Day podcast I keep in my rotation too.
I'm a fan of Security Now as well, but I find that they talk pretty slow and usually speed it up to 2.5x speed. I work in IT and use podcasts to keep up with news and industry trends and usually end up speeding up the podcasts I listen to for that.
Which IT podcasts would you recommend to stay up to date?
I'll list out the ones I listen to with a short summary. That being said I'm sure there are plenty more out there if anyone else wants to add some in please do!
I listen to all of these between 2x-2.5x which helps me get through them all in a week without feeling like they take all my podcast time.
For me it's only when walking the dog and making long trips! What I don't understand is where people find time to listen to audiobooks haha. Podcasts are so much less buy in, so it's easier for me to just put one on and zone out, but if I miss something in an audiobook I have to rewind and relisten.
I listened to audiobooks for a little bit and agree with you on needing to pay more attention to them and finding it hard to put in that time. I also found that the more podcasts I started keeping up with the less I wanted to lock myself into a potential 20-30 hour book that I'd want to get finished before picking up my podcasts again.
Its odd that I don't mind hopping around reading books as my mood strikes me or even jumping around tons of different podcasts, but once I start an audio book its the only thing I want to listen to until its done.
Whenever I start to feel that way it's because I don't love the book I'm listening to. It's a sign that I need to swallow my pride and shelve the book.
Not saying that applies to you, just something I've noticed in myself. When I am listening to a truly captivating book, I will sneak in an earbud to listen for as little as two or three minutes at a time on a busy day.
A bit like sneaking a flashlight into my room to finish the latest Harry Potter book as a kid.
I'm usually that way when I'm reading a good book or even a good podcast episode if it's long, I'm not sure why I feel that need to finish audiobooks and have that be the only thing I listen to. I may try them again in a few years and see if my tastes/need to finish them immediately have changed.
literally same haha. it's a shame because I have a few books that i want to listen through, but not while walking my dog. I feel like if I put in on for long drives too though I'm just gonna fall asleep so that's probably not a great idea either.
I often put it on with a timer when I lay down for bed.
I'm not a big podcast person but every time I make the 5hr drive to/from my parents' place, I listen to The Dive Down (a Magic: the Gathering podcast).
Whilst I also listen to podcasts while cleaning, I do the bulk of my podcasting whilst playing sit-back-and-relax type of video games! I go through a tonne of podcasts that way, I can't find my stats now but I believe I was in the top 0.1% of Spotify podcast listeners according to my Spotify wrapped last year.
There's very little that gets me as zen as listening to True Crime podcasts whilst playing Powerwash Simulator, Viscera Cleanup Detail, House Flipper, Unboxing etc. Are those the kinds of games you play whilst listening as well OP?
You're the first person I've seen in the wild who plays power wash simulator. What other games like this do you like? Ever play Euro truck simulator?
Hah, so I think I never got into eurotruck and those sorts of games because I actually didn't get my driving license until last year (just turned 30) - so I never saw the appeal of driving cars :p
I usually prefer mining or other cleaning games (e.g. I loved Hardspace Shipbreaker as well), more narrative driven games like Elden Ring, No Mans Sky and Fallout, or really creative games like the Sims, minecraft, Rimworld (which I count because I spend my time building bases in Phoebe-Chillax rather than playing Human Leather Hat Maker).
Powerwash is one of my alltime favs though - sitting as my third most played game at 418 hours (and counting, working through the last level of the new DLC atm)
I've been eyeing Powerwash Simulator for ages. It's on my wishlist and a "one-day" game, your playing it so much helps bump it up my list since it seems right up my alley when I need to switch my brain off.
I'm glad Steam exists since so many games that look cool that have come out recently I haven't been able to play but I look forward to going back in the future to play them.
Stronghold just got a new rerelease and it made me excited since I still occasionally play the HD version and feel old everytime I see it came out in 2001.
No kidding - 400 hours! Please tell me you've played it in VR.
I haven't yet!! It's definitely on the list to buy, but I use VR more lately for workout-type of sessions so haven't been in de mood yet hah!
My main "podcast games" are the Logistical series of games. I'm not entirely sure how to describe them actually. They're a bit of a puzzle with supply chain and transportation mixed in. They're well worth the money as one module/puzzle can take many hours to complete. There are a few free ones (ABC Island is free for the original game). The different numbered games in the series represent the dev adding new mechanics and increasing his skills as he developed the games. Logistial 3: Earth being the biggest and can easily run several thousand hours from what I've heard.
I do have Visceral Cleanup Detail but never got really into it. I did enjoy playing Minecraft and strip mining listening to a podcast or the last time I played WoW I'd listen to some while I grinded.
Nowadays I don't get to play many games with my small kids and job hunting so maybe one day I'll be able to kick back and play and listen at the same time.
I love that repetitive grinding whilst listening as well! I found Viscera to be super methodical once you got a bit of a system going, making it easy for me to spend hours and hours zen and happy hah.
Ah I get the logistical game love - my husband loves that genre. I presume you've played Factorio then? Or was that too much freeform planning? I'm currently waiting on Satisfactory to finallllyyy get out of EA so I can give that a shot - Factorio was fun until the first real efficiency issues starting cropping up, I'm just not a min-maxer kinda person so I think that automatically excludes me from fully enjoying Factorio :p I have heard that Satisfactory is a bit more forgiving in that sense, so hoping it suits me better!
I love Factorio and I felt bad as my friend got me Dyson Sphere Project which is very similar but I just couldn't dive into it since Factorio had spoiled me!
If you're willing to give it another go I'd recommend some mods like factory planner or helsmod that help take away some of the more "tedious" aspect.
I've ~150 hours and I'm still terrible with trains and not super efficient, but I have fun and have to set a timer to make sure I don't play too long. I wouldn't focus on the minmax aspect and instead build whats fun to you. Switch off biters or mod things how you like I've found it's amazing with friends since we can divide up the tasks into things we enjoy doing. If I had the time to play I'd probably have 500-1k hours already.
I'm one of the small number of people who loves keeping up on Canadian and global politics and that means regular listening to a select group of podcasts each week.
As a new dad, I find that an hour of news and analysis is a great way to make it through midnight and 5am bottle feeds and changes. To any new parent, I'd recommend a quality pair of Bluetooth headphones.
I wish you all the best with your little one! It's an amazing time when they're small and, while it's cliche it's very true, before you know it they'll be bit and you'll miss the days when you were their whole world.
I second Bluetooth headphones! So handy and let me rock him and carry him in circles during meetings or those early morning feeds. My youngest is an incredibly light sleeper and I was waking up a ton to rock him. Lots of podcast time though
These definitely feel like the kind of days that I'll look back on fondly, but in the moment, I'm dying haha.
We're 6 weeks in and this is basically the hardest job ever. That said, I am loving it :)
I hope you were able to take time off to spend with your family, I was able to take 5 weeks off when my eldest was born and then I did shorter 4-day weeks with the family leave.
My friend summed up fatherhood when we were chatting: "It's like a job that never ends. When I get off my shift I can come home, crack open a beer, and relax. If the job is terrible I can look for a new one or quit and spend time finding something else to do. There is no quitting time for being a Dad and you are on call 24/7/365 for the rest of your life."
Try and get some rest when you can!
You put it well, and it's for that reason that we're probably sticking to one instead of two. Thankfully, work gave me the six months that I asked for (Canada), though it's in the midst of my partners final semester of grad studies so we're hardly living the mommy influencer life.
I'll touch daytime grass again one day, but until then, there's Tildes. 😜
As others have mentioned, I like to listen to podcasts while doing household chores (washing dishes, folding laundry, cooking dinner). But I'm careful to give my ears a break sometimes, e.g. when I go for a walk or take a shower or fall asleep. I find I have my best thoughts and ideas in these settings, and my mind can't wander and pay attention to a podcast at the same time.
I agree with you on having that downtime, you can't really get "shower thoughts" if you're listening to someone while you're taking a shower! I can't fall asleep to podcasts, I feel like I'll miss something and wouldn't be able to sleep since I'd want to listen.
I'm looking at text on screens way too many hours a day, so now getting back into audiobooks, partly inspired by this post—thanks! At the end of the day, eyes tired, I'd previously find myself playing music while doing mindless scrolling or casual gaming. Now I'm trying to substitute audiobooks, still clicking mindlessly on things to keep my hands occupied.
It feels great like I'm not wasting my brain cycles; my eyes might be tired but mind awake.
I had put down the second book of The Three Body Problem, but now getting back into it via audiobook. The narrator does a fantastic job. Does all the accents and everything. It's more enjoyable this way than the book version IMO.
Glad this post could inspire you! I really enjoy the aspect of doing something with my hands while listening. It makes me feel like I'm being productive while also doing something enjoyable.