Voices in My Ear: Podcasts, Productivity, and Creativity

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Podcasts are now considered a mainstream medium, and it is definitely the way many young people consume media. I’ve been a fan of podcasts (and audiobooks) since I had babies and piles of laundry to be folded. A lot has happened since then (one of the babies is on the cusp of a driver’s license, to my utter horror), but I still listen to podcasts.

There’s something to be said about how listening to podcasts reflects the West’s pursuit of productivity. All podcast apps have a speed choice, meaning you can listen at double speed while exercising or doing the dishes. It’s a way to maximise our efficiency. We can debate the impact this has on our ability to then listen when our family members talk to us at regular speed (although I listen at x1.5, and I don’t expect people around me to talk that way). We can debate the impact this has on our attention, our ability to focus on a single thing, and how listening is (or can be) passive rather than active—as opposed to, say, reading, where you have to process the words.

We can also debate how anyone with a microphone can have a podcast, just like anyone with a phone camera can have a YouTube channel, and how that can be a good or bad thing. There are obviously podcasts that provide verified news and fact-check their episodes, and then there’s the Joe Rogans and Andrew Tates. With 88% of people who listen to podcasts looking to learn new things, as a society, we need to have a conversation about how this industry is regulated. That said, just like with YouTube and with self-publishing, the podcast industry lowers the threshold for new, more fringe voices that we wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to (I’m thinking of the smaller podcasts on my personal list; see below). And while we need to have a conversation, I fully accept that the voices I prefer always come with those I disagree with. That's the point of "democratising" something.

I listen to podcasts for several reasons. I listen to some news podcasts because I feel it’s part of my responsibility to know what is happening in the world. I can’t follow the news, though, as living in the 24-hour news cycle isn’t good for my mental health. Podcasts that, for me, fall into that category are This American Life (stories about life in America), The Ezra Klein Show (politics and current events in the US), and the Tortoise Media podcasts (UK-based news; I listen to the News Meeting and the Slow News Cast).

I love the different voices that a podcast provides. Many of the small podcasters also write their own scripts (or even have an unscripted conversation), which has the added bonus of having a voice in my head for the writer. In this category, the podcasts I’m thinking of are: Unapologetic: The Third Narrative (a podcast by two Israeli-Palestinians recorded as a response to the recent war), and Techish (a fun little podcast at the intersection of tech and culture).

Another reason I listen (probably the main reason) is that I like learning new things. Most of the podcasts I listen to make me think or teach me things. In this category are: Hidden Brain (a podcast about why we behave the way we do), Scene on Radio (deconstructing every system we live in), and Re:Thinking (from TED radio, a podcast about challenging the way we think).

So many of my story ideas came while listening to podcasts. Which brings me to the final reason I listen to podcasts: inspiration. I’ll admit that sometimes, the podcasts are just a voice in my ear as I think of other things. But these are usually the times when my story ideas pop into my head. There’s something about listening to someone talk but then also being able to tune them out while they’re still giving you a background “vibe” that makes for fertile ground for ideas. And if I feel like I missed something crucial, I can always go back and listen again.

This brings me back to the active vs passive listening. As a psychologist, I’m trained to prefer active reading or listening because it enhances learning. But as an artist, I’ve come to appreciate passive listening, listening just to have something in the background to keep me company. Not everything needs to be maximally efficient, and not every podcast episode needs to be annotated.

While writing this post, I realised that my listening very much skews US. I’m unsure whether it is because the “big” podcasts out there are mainly American (at least in English). The US is the dominant culture, for sure, so that has something to do with it. But if anyone has recommendations for good UK-based podcasts, please let me know.

Podcasts have become a mainstream medium for consuming news and stories, and we need to treat them as such. That means having conversations about the advantages and disadvantages and defining our relationship with this technology for ourselves.