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Twelve hour flight next week, what are some of your go to playlists or podcasts during long flights?
Looking for suggestions of music playlists or podcasts for a long flight next week.
Looking for suggestions of music playlists or podcasts for a long flight next week.
Word of advice: if you're doing a 12 hour flight you're doing yourself a disservice by staying up. Dont listen to/watch anything too interesting because you will try to stay awake or pay attention. The best material is stuff that doesn't bore you but doesn't require full consciousness. I'd advise you to bring something you like but are already familiar with. For me, that's futurama/30 rock/QI repeats or an ambient Playlist.
Personally I'm really bad at sleeping on long flights but I've done quite a few. Nyquil, melotonin work great but find out what works for you. Most Asian flights have pretty loose liquor requirements but for some odd reason on a plane it always keeps me awake but other people swear by red wine (didn't work for me).
Also, take everyone else's advice to heart as a backup because you might be stuck awake for the full 12 hours.
On 12hr+ flights you should be awake/sleep or vice-versa depending on when you land. If you arrive at night, then you should try to sleep on the earlier half of the flight. If it's the morning, then sleep in the later half. That helps mitigate jetlag for me. But I also generally don't have trouble sleeping on flights.
What helps or hurts your sleep definitely varies from person to person. For me watching a movie is engaging enough to keep me awake. But afterwards I may be sleepy enough to grab some Z's.
This is very ymmv but this is the more surefire way to get me to sleep. I pass out most often watching youtube videos or listening to podcasts and trying to stay awake (to the detriment of my ability to actually listen to podcasts lol).
The Dollop
Fall of Civilizations
Behind the Bastards
In Our Time
Pax Britannica
Putin
The MLK Tapes
The History of Spain
The History of England
The Audit
Knowledge Fight
Hardcore History
The Audio Long Read
Throughline
Get a library card and install libby to get free audio books.
Play, Watch, Listen is in my opinion a great podcast that hits the perfect middle between informative and entertaining. The concept is that 4 game industry professionals (writer, composer, actor, developer) talk about, usually industry stuff, but because they're all friends, very often just go into different topics because someone brings stuff up. They wanted to make an episode about Arcane but someone brought something up in the first 10 minutes and they ended up talking about that the entire hour. They had to make the next episode about Arcane, but this time, for real.
I like movie and tv scores/OSTs for long themed music. John Williams, Hans Zimmer, LOTR, Kevin Penkin. Works well for combining with reading a book too.
The "Complete Recordings" Editions of the LOTR soundtracks are 3+ hours apiece and all fantastic.
I spent a very monotonous, no-attention-required time at work by binging through No Such Thing As A Fish - the "elves" (aka researchers) behind the Quite Interesting TV show find/research random facts and then they talk about the facts. There's a comedic bent to it, but they do try to get the facts as accurate as possible. There's a ton of episodes
TIL what QI stands for
I love this podcast! I've picked up a lot of interesting tidbits... which I've immediately forgotten 😂 I just find the hosts so entertaining. It's a nice, light, easy listen.
It's the perfect not-much-attention required podcast, yeah!
Darknet Diaries
CBC podcasts that are usually 6-7 episodes long
13 minutes to the moon
If you have already, I’d recommend checking out the Smartless podcast. It’s very relaxed but also funny, and they have some fantastic guests (all the way up to POTUS). Episodes are approximately 45 mins to an hour so they don’t drag on, and are perfect for passing time.
For podcasts, I would enthusiastically recommend Behind the Bastards, The Dollop, Dungeons and Daddies, The Film Reroll and Winds of Change.
Swindled is a podcast I love about white collar crimes that is criminally under rated.
Hardcore History
Fall of Civilizations
The Rest is History
The Age of Napoleon
I think you might see a pattern there...
Ok, maybe I'm an old fart who can't Google well...how does one listen to the Hardcore History podcasts? Do I buy them off his website? I'm super into history and have always heard Carlin's stuff recommended but I've never figured out how to go about it.
If you have a Spotify account, all of the episodes are available there - https://open.spotify.com/show/72qiPaoDRf8HkGKEChvG5q?si=eAwUrHcASTWiybSuSYpoWw
On the website there is a lot of free content up too -
https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/
I believe you can also listen to them if you have the Apple Music / Audible (app + subscription I believe)
I think spotify only has the free ones. His website has all episodes, but it looks like you have to purchase most of them.
They take old episodes offline to sell them. They're up for free for quite a while though. The Supernova in the East series is up in full at the moment but their best, Blueprint for Armageddon, is paid only from their own website.
As a side note, you can also buy old episodes of Common Sense. It’s quite a time capsule; in one, he talks about how he wants Bill Cosby to be president!
One of my favourite playlists. It only says 2hrs on the link, but if you open it in the app, it's actually closer to 7!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4NRoHFT1wu1X2pc2UIUXZ4?si=vt9X-TRlQzSCan_Xca0MLQ
If you are into true crime and/or paranormal stuff I would give "Morbid" a listen. It's hosted by 2 female presenters who provide excellent information on true crime cases and include a little bit of side banter to make things a little more interesting.
It feels like you are listening to 2 friends talking instead of just reading off dry info.
Here is a real chill playlist to pass the time in mellow fashion.
Insight Podcast catalogues a lot of electronic music that may or may not be your thing. 11/2010, 12/2010, 6/2011 (both), and 7/2011 are some early favorites of mine.
Also, if you can get your hands on Mary Anne Hobbes Radio 1 shows from the dubstep era with Burial, Flying Lotus, and others coming up… oh man what a ride.
Whatever your taste in music, Enjoy your flight!
History Of Japan
https://isaacmeyer.net/2013/06/episode-13-take-me-out-to-the-shiai/ - this one's a particularly fun episode, even if I'm not generally interested in sports/baseball!
The Grift
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/genuine-fake/id1221448604?i=1000384239556
I really enjoyed this episode about Ken Perenyi, a prolific art forger whose escapades include rescuing a child from slavery.
You Are Not So Smart
https://youarenotsosmart.com/2021/05/05/yanss-205-what-we-can-learn-about-dialogue-persuasion-and-change-from-those-who-have-turned-away-from-extremism/amp/
Probably my fave episode from this podcast. It's an interview with Megan Phelps-Roper, about her life growing up in the Westboro Baptist Church (the one that does rallies with really offensive picket signs against LGBTQ+ people) and how she eventually changed her beliefs and left the church.
Imaginary Worlds
https://www.imaginaryworldspodcast.org/episodes/the-art-of-piracy
I love this show (Our Flag Means Death) and love that this podcast covered it in this episode!
If you're at all interested in science the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) podcast pretty solid.
Audiobook called "A Brief History of Nearly Everything" (unabridged).
Very factoid full book that goes through many topics in an engaging way but if you fall asleep, that's okay too. Partner and I enjoyed this greatly while on a long road trip.
You can spin mine if you like new music in old styles. Just follow the covers. These aren't very well suited for background listening, though. It's more of an active listening experience, so they won't help you sleep. In fact some of them might get you kicked off the flight for jamming too hard. :P There are some other interesting collections of music in the comments too.