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We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

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Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#91

Post by crispyambulance »

Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #24

Personally, I'm not a fan of podcasts at all. I've tried, and listened to some interesting ones, but in the end I'd much rather consume the same content by reading instead of listening. It's faster, it's easier to skim and skip around, you can have hyperlinks to other references, etc. Overall, text just works better for the kinds of content I'm interested in. There's a podcast related to a product I work with that I'…

    > Personally, I'm not a fan of podcasts at all.
I think your concerns are more about your dislike of podcasts as a medium. Not everyone listens to podcasts strictly to mainline information straight into their brain.

There's something to be said for dialog and for the discovery and exploration of unexpected topics. Moreover, there's an aesthetic associated with the human voice and verbal communication that doesn't necessarily translate to text. Not everything has to have a fine-grained search index for a-la-carte consumption!

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#92

Post by blfr »

I remember listening to EconTalk back when you downloaded it to your mp3 player using a computer. And maybe I'm a hipster but the golden age seems to be over. It's all too mainstream now, too polished, too polite.

Nowadays, I scroll through the multiple new episodes of many shows I used to enjoy to rarely find something I genuinely want to hear. Sure, you can probably dig to something like Cum Town but even then it doesn't feel fresh any more.

It's the same with binge watching TV (mentioned in the OP). Much more fun when you pirated the show, when it wasn't intended than when you're just some engagement metric. I haven't binge watched a TV show in at least three years.

Also, Google already had a podcasting app once (Google Listen?). I remember using it in like 2012.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#93

Post by intrasight »

api wrote: post #67

Podcasting is probably the closest thing right now to the authenticity, diversity, and creativity of the early web. There's a massive diversity of podcasts out there on every subject and even many of the purely amateur ones are of very high quality.

My feelings exactly! So much great stuff covering every subject.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#94

Post by autokad »

Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #24

Personally, I'm not a fan of podcasts at all. I've tried, and listened to some interesting ones, but in the end I'd much rather consume the same content by reading instead of listening. It's faster, it's easier to skim and skip around, you can have hyperlinks to other references, etc. Overall, text just works better for the kinds of content I'm interested in. There's a podcast related to a product I work with that I'…

I walk to/from work (about 40 minutes), so its nice to learn / stay up to date on things. I usually listen to data science related podcasts

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#95

Post by meowface »

For anyone who isn't aware of it, the YC podcast is pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ-uHSnFig5PACZiyiDk1...

A few episodes I liked:

Leonard Susskind on Richard Feynman, the Holographic Principle, and Unanswered Questions in Physics - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQAcLW6qdQY&list=PLQ-uHSnFig...

Office Hours with Michael Seibel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ2BWOT4hfs&t=0s&list=PLQ-uH...

Peter Reinhardt on Finding Product Market Fit at Segment - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-vfn97QTr0&t=0s&list=PLQ-uH...

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#96

Post by chooseaname »

schnevets wrote: post #58

Creators may be entering a golden age, but the delivery methods and infrastructure have been stagnant for years now. We now have ongoing shows, evergreen episodic shows, "two amateurs in a basement" niche shows, 12-episode and it's done audiobooks, and various other designations of podcasts, and yet we still serve everything like it's a blog that needs to release content weekly. I also find it frustrating that we onl…

I don't know why anyone would subject themselves to the awfulness of Apple Podcasts. What were they thinking?! It's just bad.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#97

Post by hanklazard »

maxxxxx wrote: post #90
schnevets wrote: post #58

Creators may be entering a golden age, but the delivery methods and infrastructure have been stagnant for years now. We now have ongoing shows, evergreen episodic shows, "two amateurs in a basement" niche shows, 12-episode and it's done audiobooks, and various other designations of podcasts, and yet we still serve everything like it's a blog that needs to release content weekly. I also find it frustrating that we onl…

Apple Podcasts has gotten worse pretty much every year. I have switched to Overcast and I find it excellent. Lean and clean.

PodCruncher was definitely worth the $3 or whatever nominal fee I paid.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#98

Post by [deleted] »

icebraining wrote: post #68
Kye wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is it. I downloaded every episode of LeVar Burton Reads earlier this week. Over 2GB on top of the 400MB from the other handful I subscribe to. My last phone would complain about insufficient space long before now.

The Nokia E66 (released in 2008) supported microSD cards of up to 8GBs. Together with the Nokia Podcasting app downloading them over Wifi, it didn't feel very different than today.

[deleted]

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#99

Post by roywiggins »

scottlocklin wrote: post #3
dontbenebby wrote: post #2

If anything there's too many good podcasts - I usually set my device to keep the five most recent, and there are good shows I simply don't get to. (I never could "zone out" and program while a podcast is on like some people, I need ambient/classical/electronic music to do that)

I almost never listen to podcasts for this reason, and because it is vastly more efficient to read than it is to listen to a couple of people talking who may or may not be sticking to the topic. It's funny the market effect, if you're, say, John Dolan, it's vastly more time efficient to spend an hour and a half talking to your buddy and get paid for it than it is to spend many hours researching and writing a 1000 or…

You can certainly get a lot of semantic information crammed into a short piece of text, but an interview gives you the cadence of someone's voice, which may be important in its own way. Audio can be very dense, but in ways that aren't strictly linguistic. People also tend to express themselves differently in conversation than they do on the page, and listening to an interview with an interesting person may actually tell you more about them than their writing, or even a cleaned-up version rendered in text.

Like, which conveys the situation better, "Oh the humanity" or the audio as recorded (you can in this case ignore the video, which was recorded separately)? https://youtu.be/pUVDmXvXcbk?t=39

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#100

Post by iamjaredwalters »

chooseaname wrote: post #96
schnevets wrote: post #58

Creators may be entering a golden age, but the delivery methods and infrastructure have been stagnant for years now. We now have ongoing shows, evergreen episodic shows, "two amateurs in a basement" niche shows, 12-episode and it's done audiobooks, and various other designations of podcasts, and yet we still serve everything like it's a blog that needs to release content weekly. I also find it frustrating that we onl…

I don't know why anyone would subject themselves to the awfulness of Apple Podcasts. What were they thinking?! It's just bad.

Mind elaborating? I just search for a podcast and click play. Never seemed to need much more functionality than that. What am I missing?
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