Genuinely don’t understand why people like podcasts anyway. If I am filling my free time with MORE humans speaking at me, I am doing something wrong. Let it be music, the sonic escapism drug, not the boringly harsh reality of someone else’s shopping trip.
I don’t really know what kind of crap people making these memes listen to.
I come across a shit tons of podcast snippet while doomscrolling yt shorts, and a huge load of it is really just that stupid. Of course a dislike and “not interested” will shift the algorithm but from time to time they still pops up.
Darknet used to be good, but there’s been a shift in the content recently in which it feels like Rhysider doesn’t feel like he’s interviewing someone as much as he’s trying to be that annoying guy at the party who keeps butting in to try and tell your story for you.
I can’t quite tell what changed, or when, but I feel like he used to give his subjects a lot more room to breathe instead of imposing his own personality over everything.
His crypto monologue in out of the episodes killed it for me. I didn’t disagree on the ideals, if i remember right, but it was just disconnected from reality. It was a “if he is that willfully ignoring reality because he is passionate, maybe I shouldn’t listen to him when he is talking about something that he is passionate about.”
Podcasts are so SLOW though! I would rather read something for 5-15 minutes then to have it talked at me for an hour, at a pace almost entirely not of my choosing (though if I must listen I will usually increase it to ~2x rate), with no ability to search through it again later to jog my memory.
There is a reason that people consider podcasts as something for bored people to do while driving or being driven somewhere (e.g. riding in a train). Podcasts are done by people who enjoy hearing the sound of their own voices - they have a timeslot to fill (e.g. an hour) and they will fill that space to take exactly that time regardless of whether the content would have been better served by being presented in other means.
i.e. they are for entertainment, not primarily information delivery.
Music is also for entertainment, but unlike podcasts if the music would be better to last let’s say 3 minutes than 5, then it will be adjusted in that manner. By repetitive practice and continual edits, the music will get better and better, whereas a one-off podcast that is pooped out on the spot for the purpose of either capitalistic gain or at least fame for the podcaster can be enjoyable to some, but does not improve. Of course some podcasts are better than some music productions.
Podcasts have their niche, ofc. But a good podcast might succeed almost in spite of the podcast format, rather than because of it?
Saying you don’t like podcasts is like saying you don’t like music. There’s so many, made by so many people, in so many different ways, on so many subjects, that there’s bound to be at least a couple you think are amazing. I mean, if all podcasts were just a bunch of dude-bros having a verbal wank into a microphone once or twice a week, then yeah, miss me with that shit. But a lot of them put a lot of effort into producing a high quality professional sounding show. Some of my favorites are 99% Invisible, which is a very well made show about not so obvious features of architecture and design; One Song, where they break popular songs down into all the isolated tracks and talk about how it was all put together; This Podcast Will Kill You, where they do well researched histories of diseases and toxins, their discovery, treatment, social impacts, etc; and You Are Not So Smart, which is a podcast about psychology and sociology. Other people already mentioned Behind the Bastards and Darknet Diaries, which I also listen to regularly. Chances are that no matter what subjects or hobbies you have a deep interest in there’s at least one or two really well made podcasts about it.
Yeah, I’ve also listened to podcasts that were essentially radio plays like Alice Isn’t Dead. The format is spoken media, unfortunately yes like with radio the majority devolved into lowest common denominator shit with the “dude bro verbal wank” being the equivalent of the morning zoo radio show and the right wing political rants being the equivalent of Rush Limbaugh et al. But there’s people talking about things worth listening to
Hell, one of the coolest ones is Making Gay History where a man who interviewed a bunch of pioneers of gay history in the 80s for a book of the same name released the original audio. For anyone interested in the topic it’s absolutely worth a listen.
There’s plenty of good podcasts. I’m going through the massive backlog of Behind the Bastards. Learning about the worst people in history is important and entertaining.
I haven’t gotten into that series even though it’s so highly regarded. I think I’d actually be less mad overall than I anticipate, but I wish I’d see recommendations about podcasts of the same quality and in-depth research that were positive topics, too
Well you my friend are actually in luck, the same network(Cool Zone Media which was started by BtB host Robert Evans and his producer Sofie Lichterman) has a podcast exactly as you described called Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff hosted by Margaret Killjoy!
I prefer BtB because I’m the same kind of fucked up as Robert but it’s just as well researched and comes from the same sort of perspective on history. Most of the shows they put out are really good and entertaining
Company, sometimes. When I get depressed and there’s no one to talk to, I watch some of Conan O’Brien or Seth Meyers’ postcast. Kinda feels like being in the room with them
I mean, do you watch videos? I find, they fill the same role, but for when you can’t look at a screen.
I often walk to work now and just listen to a podcast on the way. Or if I’m cleaning or sewing or, well, I don’t paint so far, but I imagine, they’re excellent for that, too.
Lots of handiwork stopped being boring, since I’ve gotten into podcasts.
But yes, obviously also just pick better podcasts. One of the podcasts I listen to, is just interesting/fun science topics being presented and discussed. That’s not low-effort at all…
I listen to music. There’s an endless amount of bands I want to listen again, and another endless amount of bands I never heard that I’m trying to discover. And then there’s a streaming service dedicated to classical music. I don’t have enough hours during my work to listen to all of it, but I do my best. I probably average 6h per day listening to music.
If you’re wondering, I’m a software developer. And I also listen to music during meetings, I just lower the volume to hear the people.
If that works for you, then that’s great. I’m not saying folks have to get into podcasts, I’m just explaining how I find them useful now. I did not get them for a long time either, because I had wrong expectations for them.
And well, I also happen to work as a software dev, but my brain hates when I have to process words that I hear, while also processing words that are on my screen.
So, my own 6h of music per day is generally without vocals, or at least vocals that I’ve heard many times before or which are in a foreign language, so that my brain doesn’t have to process them.
And that probably makes my music collection comparatively unengaging. I guess, I also don’t grab new music often enough to make it engaging that way.
With all that combined, music is kind of largely relegated to the background thing for me, and podcasts are a foreground thing, when I can’t look at a screen.
Again, just explaining how they work for me. It does sound like music could take the foreground role for you.
Insight, and as edutainment. I listen to podcast that invited politician, people that talk about policies, people that did policies(but aren’t a politician), about running small businesses, all sort of thing, and the host run it with a structure so it doesn’t wander off topic. Then i also listen to GCN show, sciency stuff, history stuff, engineering stuff, all sort of long form stuff i can’t let it run when i’m in front of TV, and i mostly do it while i’m commuting. How else i gonna finish Joseph Anderson’s 4 hours long critics of Witcher 3 if its not listening to it like a podcast to fill the boring void of driving?
Avoid the random Joe’s podcast that invite mundane “influencer”(dry-heave)
Genuinely don’t understand why people like podcasts anyway. If I am filling my free time with MORE humans speaking at me, I am doing something wrong. Let it be music, the sonic escapism drug, not the boringly harsh reality of someone else’s shopping trip.
Just find better podcasts. I don’t really know what kind of crap people making these memes listen to.
You can check out Darknet Diaries as an example of podcast providing something useful/entertaining instead of just some guys talking about nothing.
Democratization of a medium always bring lots of crap into the space.
I love listening to podcasts, but I absolutely hate sifting through the garbage to find something decent.
I come across a shit tons of podcast snippet while doomscrolling yt shorts, and a huge load of it is really just that stupid. Of course a dislike and “not interested” will shift the algorithm but from time to time they still pops up.
Darknet Diaries + the Hackable podcast. When I was in-office and walked to work years ago, I cranked through so many episodes of each.
Darknet used to be good, but there’s been a shift in the content recently in which it feels like Rhysider doesn’t feel like he’s interviewing someone as much as he’s trying to be that annoying guy at the party who keeps butting in to try and tell your story for you.
I can’t quite tell what changed, or when, but I feel like he used to give his subjects a lot more room to breathe instead of imposing his own personality over everything.
His crypto monologue in out of the episodes killed it for me. I didn’t disagree on the ideals, if i remember right, but it was just disconnected from reality. It was a “if he is that willfully ignoring reality because he is passionate, maybe I shouldn’t listen to him when he is talking about something that he is passionate about.”
Podcasts are so SLOW though! I would rather read something for 5-15 minutes then to have it talked at me for an hour, at a pace almost entirely not of my choosing (though if I must listen I will usually increase it to ~2x rate), with no ability to search through it again later to jog my memory.
There is a reason that people consider podcasts as something for bored people to do while driving or being driven somewhere (e.g. riding in a train). Podcasts are done by people who enjoy hearing the sound of their own voices - they have a timeslot to fill (e.g. an hour) and they will fill that space to take exactly that time regardless of whether the content would have been better served by being presented in other means.
i.e. they are for entertainment, not primarily information delivery.
Music is also for entertainment, but unlike podcasts if the music would be better to last let’s say 3 minutes than 5, then it will be adjusted in that manner. By repetitive practice and continual edits, the music will get better and better, whereas a one-off podcast that is pooped out on the spot for the purpose of either capitalistic gain or at least fame for the podcaster can be enjoyable to some, but does not improve. Of course some podcasts are better than some music productions.
Podcasts have their niche, ofc. But a good podcast might succeed almost in spite of the podcast format, rather than because of it?
Saying you don’t like podcasts is like saying you don’t like music. There’s so many, made by so many people, in so many different ways, on so many subjects, that there’s bound to be at least a couple you think are amazing. I mean, if all podcasts were just a bunch of dude-bros having a verbal wank into a microphone once or twice a week, then yeah, miss me with that shit. But a lot of them put a lot of effort into producing a high quality professional sounding show. Some of my favorites are 99% Invisible, which is a very well made show about not so obvious features of architecture and design; One Song, where they break popular songs down into all the isolated tracks and talk about how it was all put together; This Podcast Will Kill You, where they do well researched histories of diseases and toxins, their discovery, treatment, social impacts, etc; and You Are Not So Smart, which is a podcast about psychology and sociology. Other people already mentioned Behind the Bastards and Darknet Diaries, which I also listen to regularly. Chances are that no matter what subjects or hobbies you have a deep interest in there’s at least one or two really well made podcasts about it.
Yeah, I’ve also listened to podcasts that were essentially radio plays like Alice Isn’t Dead. The format is spoken media, unfortunately yes like with radio the majority devolved into lowest common denominator shit with the “dude bro verbal wank” being the equivalent of the morning zoo radio show and the right wing political rants being the equivalent of Rush Limbaugh et al. But there’s people talking about things worth listening to
Hell, one of the coolest ones is Making Gay History where a man who interviewed a bunch of pioneers of gay history in the 80s for a book of the same name released the original audio. For anyone interested in the topic it’s absolutely worth a listen.
There’s plenty of good podcasts. I’m going through the massive backlog of Behind the Bastards. Learning about the worst people in history is important and entertaining.
I love Behind the Bastards and I feel for your poor poor psyche
I haven’t gotten into that series even though it’s so highly regarded. I think I’d actually be less mad overall than I anticipate, but I wish I’d see recommendations about podcasts of the same quality and in-depth research that were positive topics, too
Well you my friend are actually in luck, the same network(Cool Zone Media which was started by BtB host Robert Evans and his producer Sofie Lichterman) has a podcast exactly as you described called Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff hosted by Margaret Killjoy!
I prefer BtB because I’m the same kind of fucked up as Robert but it’s just as well researched and comes from the same sort of perspective on history. Most of the shows they put out are really good and entertaining
Hey thanks!!! I’ll absolutely look into that
Company, sometimes. When I get depressed and there’s no one to talk to, I watch some of Conan O’Brien or Seth Meyers’ postcast. Kinda feels like being in the room with them
I mean, do you watch videos? I find, they fill the same role, but for when you can’t look at a screen.
I often walk to work now and just listen to a podcast on the way. Or if I’m cleaning or sewing or, well, I don’t paint so far, but I imagine, they’re excellent for that, too.
Lots of handiwork stopped being boring, since I’ve gotten into podcasts.
But yes, obviously also just pick better podcasts. One of the podcasts I listen to, is just interesting/fun science topics being presented and discussed. That’s not low-effort at all…
I listen to music. There’s an endless amount of bands I want to listen again, and another endless amount of bands I never heard that I’m trying to discover. And then there’s a streaming service dedicated to classical music. I don’t have enough hours during my work to listen to all of it, but I do my best. I probably average 6h per day listening to music.
If you’re wondering, I’m a software developer. And I also listen to music during meetings, I just lower the volume to hear the people.
Ah don’t forget to say fu Spotify
If that works for you, then that’s great. I’m not saying folks have to get into podcasts, I’m just explaining how I find them useful now. I did not get them for a long time either, because I had wrong expectations for them.
And well, I also happen to work as a software dev, but my brain hates when I have to process words that I hear, while also processing words that are on my screen.
So, my own 6h of music per day is generally without vocals, or at least vocals that I’ve heard many times before or which are in a foreign language, so that my brain doesn’t have to process them.
And that probably makes my music collection comparatively unengaging. I guess, I also don’t grab new music often enough to make it engaging that way.
With all that combined, music is kind of largely relegated to the background thing for me, and podcasts are a foreground thing, when I can’t look at a screen.
Again, just explaining how they work for me. It does sound like music could take the foreground role for you.
Insight, and as edutainment. I listen to podcast that invited politician, people that talk about policies, people that did policies(but aren’t a politician), about running small businesses, all sort of thing, and the host run it with a structure so it doesn’t wander off topic. Then i also listen to GCN show, sciency stuff, history stuff, engineering stuff, all sort of long form stuff i can’t let it run when i’m in front of TV, and i mostly do it while i’m commuting. How else i gonna finish Joseph Anderson’s 4 hours long critics of Witcher 3 if its not listening to it like a podcast to fill the boring void of driving?
Avoid the random Joe’s podcast that invite mundane “influencer”(dry-heave)
I listen to D&D podcasts so it’s just as entertaining as music for me.
I usually listen to podcasts at work where it makes the tedium more bearable.
Of course I don’t listen to stories about banal shopping trips and personal gripes about them, dunno what podcasts those are at all…
Like everything else, podcasts were better back in the good old days before they were cool.