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Comment by k__ | Hacker News Reader

Somehow I found most pod-casts boring to listen too. Never understood the value.

What is your motivation to listen to them?

Sturgeon's Law: 95% of everything is crap. Probably especially when the barrier to entry is as low as it is for podcasts.

There is a tendency for podcasts in general to go on for too long IMO. But there are plenty of good ones out there. I mix up my listening a fair bit but there's no shortage of interesting content on all sorts of topics.

Entertaining and educational. What kinds of things do you like? There's probably a podcast for it. I listen to podcasts on subjects I dind't even know I liked and now am much more interested in them (medical history: SawBones; economics: Freakonomics, The Indicator, Planet Money)

But when to listen to them?

If you're at all interested in a new industry, there is usually a podcast focused on that vertical where notable luminaries get interviewed. Listening to a few hours of shows, while doing chores or commuting, can get you up the learning curve fairly quickly.

And the tendency to prattle can be fairly helpful. It helps illuminate the thought process of the subject in ways you wouldn't get in more formal settings, or in the few sentences of quotations that appear in a press account.

Thats exactly the aspect of why I listen to podcasts. If you need to clean your apartment, go for a longer walk or anything else were you cant read or look at a video instead.

Thats also why I dont think that podcasts will actually vanish. As a medium they fill a corner

...or when doing yard work or other chores around the house. I'll also listen when getting ready in the morning or when cooking dinner.

I listen while working out or while at work if I'm working on something that is not that intense.

when i'm in the car, walking, or riding my bicycle.

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