I increasingly use podcasts much as I use any other informational resource: selectively, and with search as a key modality.
Some podcast apps (Podcast Republic, in my experience) feature a comprehensive search over all known podcast episodes, by both title and description (of the channel and individual episodes). Searching for an obscure reference to turn up related episodes is quite useful.
That's not actually my principle app (I prefer the FS/OSS AntennaPod), but it is useful functionality.
Otherwise, there are podcasts I subscribe to and listen to most episodes, others that I'll pick and choose at, some that I just check out a few episodes on. What I typically do is go through and curate a set of episodes that look like they'll be interesting, putting them on my listen queue and/or downloading those to play later.
As with anything, there's much that's low-quality and/or not of interest. That doesn't mean that the good stuff isn't really good, though.
(Listening to David Runciman right now, who's had a numbere of serial podcasts, one of which I'd discovered through a comment here on HN a month or so back. His discussions of political philosophy and its history are excellent. Relevant, without being painfully topical.)
(And I think TFA's premise is ... ridiculous on its face. Podcasts are appropriate in some cases, completely not in others.)
Instead, sometimes you come across short articles or snippets of videos or snippets of audio, where a podcast is mentioned. Or someone might link you to a specific timestamp in an episode.
And that’s how you discover one or two podcasts that you really really like, and you decide to listen to more episodes from those podcasts.
I'm definitely curating as I scan my library. The first thing I look for is the potential for insight due to a host-guest paring that I may not have seen before - or that I have and it was pretty good last time.
If it's a news-driven podcast, I'll look for topical content I've been interested in lately.
After that, it's just what every topic I'm interested in at the moment.
I would also recommend very liberal use of the pause button. If the conversation is bubbling specific thoughts up in your head and those thoughts seem more interesting than the conversation - PAUSE IT. Nothing will be more relevant than your own insight on the topic. Once you've synthesized the thought, unpause and see how your thoughts compare to the podcasters. This is probably my favorite thing about the medium.
Generally I layer podcasts on top of work that doesn't involve auditory processing, such as driving, grocery shopping, working out, laundry, etc. If you target those moments in your life when your hands and 'physical brain' are occupied, but your 'language brain' isn't, even busy folks can find time for this. It also helps to listen at a speed higher than 1.0.
Some people can do this during nearly all of their working time due to the nature of their work - welders, truck drivers, landscapers, etc. IE, not thought laborers. I think it's something of an untapped market for audio content to focus on these folks.
Agreed, I run regularly and it's great thinking time, I find it so much more valuable to just have rote exercise to keep me physically distracted and let my mind wander. I'd consider it counterproductive to listen to anything.
I do understand your point but that rings as sort of a tautological question to me? Either don't claim this time 100% for audio content or just think at some other time. Lately I prefer to intentionally meditate in the early morning, that is where my most productive thoughts come from. That and the shower.
I mean, I freely admit that sometimes when I'm lazy it's like 15%, but that's higher than zero! If I focus on active listening and cognition and try to write down or discuss key points afterwards (driving with a partner is great for this) I can get a lot more information retention.
Back when I was commuting I would start my working day by summarizing the podcast that I had just listened to in a text document - good way to sort of boot up my brain in the morning, without coffee.
I actually find my favourite podcasts are the ones that take the fact I’m not retaining 100% of the content into account!
Adam Regusea’s podcast [0] I think is a great example. He’ll leave pauses in and (because of the listener-questions format) will reiterate context pretty often. (“So, [name], you asked if it’s good to [verb]… while when I [verb]…”)
Agreed, Adam Ragusea's podcast is great. I think it comes from his background in public radio production. To that end I like NPR podcasts a lot. They're good about using music, audio cues, different performers etc to separate information into digestible chunks.
On the other end of that scale are very information-dense podcasts that have transcripts. I like those a lot because I find I can read the transcript after listening (or vice versa) and I get more information retention than either just listening or just reading.
My example for this is Alie Ward's 'Ologies' wherein she interviews doctors and scientists about their work, there are many excellent transcripts available [0], including this one: [1]
