The sound of silence (is one I never hear)
Is it bad to listen to podcasts pretty much constantly?
My Spotify Wrapped round-up last year was sobering. Three of my five top artists were, respectively, the voice actors playing Elsa, Anna and Kristoff in Frozen. The app had deemed me such a super-fan that I was played a short thank-you video from the actress who plays Elsa, excitedly thanking me for my support. My top musical genre of the year was “showtunes”. This wasn’t entirely surprising - it was, after all, the year that my 2-year-old daughter discovered Disney, and the year that I discovered how distracting Disney soundtracks are on car journeys. But quite how easily my toddler’s music preferences had defeated my own in the eyes of the algorithm also made me realise that I am listening to a lot less music than I used to.
Until a few years ago, I listened to music while commuting, at the gym, pottering around the house. Now, instead, I spend every spare second listening to podcasts. I am obsessed. I listen to them while I’m cooking and eating lunch, making dinner, popping to the shops, getting ready in the morning, sitting on the tube, having a bath. In short, any moment that might have previously been spent listening to music or - imagine! - in silence, I am now jamming information into my ears. Podcasts are not all the same. I personally can’t stand the genre that can be summed up as “two guys have a chat”. I prefer the six- or eight-part narrative series, which are essentially well-told, deeply reported non-fiction stories (when they’re good). I sometimes branch out into news-based podcasts, especially those that tell one story in each episode, like Tortoise’s Slow Newscast or (a classic) The Daily from the New York Times.
I wonder if something about listening to podcasts feels a bit more intellectually edifying to me than watching YouTube or TV. Or maybe it’s the fact that I can ostensibly do other things at the same time as listening. Either way, I don’t feel guilty about hours of the day going on listening to podcast episodes in the way that I do about wasting time staring at my phone, even though, let’s be honest, it’s probably not much better. Sometimes I listen to podcast series so quickly that I can’t recall a single detail about it a few weeks later.
One of my closest friends shares this podcast habit and we’re in a constant back and forth about recommendations, often with the slightly frenzied tone that befits our addiction. (“Enjoying this one, but don’t trust me, my standards are so low,” she texted me the other day). Recently, we were both been struggling to find a good new series to listen to. Wondering whether I should sign up to a subscription service to listen to something, I messaged her: "would I actually PAY to not be alone with my thoughts?”
It was a joke (mostly). but I do sometimes wonder whether it’s good for my brain to have such a constant input of words and story. I spend most of my life reading, writing and talking, and I suspect we all probably need some moments without words - for instance, listening to music and letting your mind wander - to synthesise information, process emotion and event, reflect, mull things over, have ideas. At the moment, I am probably in silence only when I am working, showering, or sleeping. All other possible moments of downtime are filled with murder investigations, miscarriages of justice, scams, political intrigue and profound/whimsical [delete as appropriate] human stories.
Back in 2016, as the podcast boom was just getting underway, the podcast (sorry, this is getting meta) Freakonomics did an episode on this exact question. In it, Jack Gallant, a computational and cognitive neuroscientist in California, explains a study in which subjects were put in an MRI and played episodes of The Moth Radio Hour. The scientists found that when listening to audio content, the brain is working much harder than had previously been thought. Gallant explains the most likely reason for this is that podcasts are stories, which are inherently engaging: “You get lost in stories.” It’s not clear if this harder work is a good thing for our brains or not. On the episode, Gallant said of podcasts: “They make your brain hum. Whether that humming is mysterious and delightful kind of depends on whether you wanted your brain to hum or not.”
I think, sometimes, I don’t want my brain to hum. Recently I had a very busy patch of work and although I still habitually put a podcast on while having lunch or walking to collect my daughter from nursery, I started to notice that I couldn’t fully absorb what I was listening to. My mind was wandering and I either had to rewind or just switch it off altogether. I have no intention of giving up the habit, but perhaps occasionally, it isn’t so bad to be alone with my own thoughts.
Reading/listening
This Guardian Long Read story about County Lines convictions is so, so good. It tells the story of a man who was caught up in drug-dealing as a vulnerable young person and ended up prosecuted for human trafficking. It explores, among other things, the blurred lines between victim and perpetrator.
I enjoyed this New Yorker piece about one of the original trad-wives, a woman from Cheltenham questioning her legacy. Who knew this movement originated at least partly in the UK!
This Vittles essay about a Romanian programme to give all school children bread and milk - and how it failed - is a fascinating look at how food culture adapts when political and economic systems change.
Given the theme of this newsletter, it would be remiss if I didn’t recommend a podcast. This week I have been burning through To Die For, which is the story of a woman who claims to have been a “sex spy” for the Russian secret service. It’s a gripping, sometimes grim, look into a hidden world.
You might notice that I’ve recently switched on the paid option for this newsletter. I’m not planning to paywall anything for now, but if you do choose to pay, you’ll be supporting my work and helping me produce more of it in a media-environment that is almost hilariously hostile to freelance writers. You’ll also have my eternal gratitude! As always, you can also support in other ways - sharing this newsletter with anyone who might like it, or posting on social media, etc etc. Thanks so much, and I’ll be back in a few weeks.
I recognise this almost too well - to the point that, er, I have been known to have podcasts on even while showering. Can I suggest you go 'in for a penny' and start one yourself? ;)