Listening to podcasts takes time
September 8, 2009
There are a lot of great podcasts out there. I don’t listen to them.
It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s that I don’t have that sort of time. If a podcast is a half an hour (and most are over that), it’s still longer than my commute to work, which was the biggest open space in my already busy day. And when I drive, I like listening to music, anyway.
Today I tried something, and it worked pretty well. I used my iPhone’s built-in speaker to play Mind of Root this morning while I showered and shaved. It worked well, but I’ve got concerns for the moisture exposure that the phone was subjected to. I really don’t know when else to listen.
So I ask. When do you listen to podcasts? Or do you? And if you know of any good micro-podcasts that are 5-15 minutes, I’d love to know about them. Sort of a “twitter”-cast.
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September 8th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
I use a plastic sandwich bag for my ipod touch, it allows me to take it into the shower so that I can actually hear the music. Other than that I have not listened to pod casts in ages, the time investment is just monstrous.
September 8th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
The subject matter depends on where and when I listen to it (and thus, the amount of concentration required). If a podcast contains technical information I listen to it in the car during my daily commute; while I love driving with music playing I need a break sometimes so I don’t get sick of the same old playlists. If a podcast doesn’t contain a whole lot of technical information (news of some form) I tend to listen to it wherever I happen to be – in the car, while exercising, or something like that.
I also tend to hoard episodes to listen to one after the other, so I don’t just listen to one or two but three or four in a row. This also helps fill odd gaps in time – my morning commute (right now) isn’t an hour so I can finish one episode in a day, but if an episode is short I can sometimes get two in either way.
I’m not a stickler for contiguousness – if I have to finish an episode on the way home, that’s fine.
September 8th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Maybe you should move further away from work, LOL.
I listen to selected Podcasts (some work related, most not) on my 40 minute commute to and from work. I found that the small FM transmitters that you can plug your favorite media device into is most convenient; I can listen to them at home and in the vehicle.
I WISH there were some 15 minute ‘casts that were concise… most I have found are not, or were advertisements for someones product.
September 8th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
My podcast system is a little complicated, but I rely heavily on the fact that the iPhone automatically remembers the paused position (and syncs it back to the computer as well). That one feature of the iTunes+iPod ecosystem is the main reason I’m not using Linux more at home.
As far as short podcasts go, I lithe weekly Sunday Puzzle podcast from NPR, as well as 60-second Science and 60-second Psych from Scientific American. I have a smart playlist set up so I listen to new episodes of those shows first before I jump in to my main podcasts. The main podcasts are in a smart playlist as well, so I can a) listen to episodes in “Date Added” order and not spend time deciding which show to listen to next, and b) set a criterion so that they get dropped out of the playlist after I’ve listened to them (play count = 0).
My commute is about a half-hour, and that’s my main podcast time, but I don’t care if I get a whole episode from start to finish in one drive. My favorite podcasts are:
Security Now! (Steve Gibson, on TWiT)
FLOSS Weekly (Randal Schwartz, on TWiT)
This Week in Google (Gina Trapani & Jeff Jarvis, on TWiT)
The Bugle (comedy, from timesonline.co.uk)
Friday Night Comedy (BBC Radio 4)
I also have a “podcast” I’ve set up locally on my Mac mini with Automator & bash scripts that generates RSS from MP3 files I drop into it. This is mostly for BBC radio shows I record to mp3 from RealAudio streams with mplayer. (I’m not British, I just like their sense of humor.)
TWiG is pretty new; I’m still kind of on the fence about that one. In any case, given that I spend 5+ hours on the road every week commuting, that pretty much covers the time.
September 8th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
My monday podcast is “wait, Wait…” from NPR. It gives me a laugh, and puts me in a positive mood for work.
September 8th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
My iPod is my iPhone, and I listen to talk-radio podcasts on 2x playback mode when I get time to listen. Usually this is while doing yardwork, or on my morning walks (~15-20 minutes).
September 8th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
@John M:
“Wait, Wait…” is good, but the BBC News Quiz is WAY funnier (it’s part of the Friday Night Comedy podcast, which also rotates between two other topical comedy shows). Of course, there’s a lot of British news in there, but they cover a lot of world and American news as well.
September 9th, 2009 at 8:17 am
I listen to pods on my 40 min bicycle ride to work. Save the world from global warming, exercise and learn new things at the same time.
September 10th, 2009 at 9:01 am
i have downlaoded so many podcasts, left them on my mp3 player, but when they come up i skip them. i often want to hear them when i downlaod but i never listen to them at the time. i guess it’s like bookmarks – i have thousands that _might_ come in handy one day. but essentailly podcasts don’t fit my life. nice blog post.
September 10th, 2009 at 10:30 am
I really wish there were a good sys-admin podcast. Ben Rockwood had one going for a bit but its just not regular enough. Not to disparage him, I know it takes time to do stuff like that.
Maybe we can convince Matt to do one
.
September 10th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
The Linux Action Show was the closest I found to a good sysadmin show… with dev stuff and new products thrown in, of course. However, once they went video (and began referring to lots of visual stuff in the conversation), the audio-only version in my car made less and less sense until I eventually unsubscribed.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:34 am
I listen to a lot of podcasts. And I mean a lot. One thing you could try is to listen to them at higher-than-normal speed (1.2x for example). There are many programs out there which can change the speed of the audio without changing the pitch. This will save you some time. I also find that lately I skip parts of the podcasts quite often.
Best regards.