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Comment by trabant00 | Hacker News Reader

The few podcasts I listen to, I do so in 0.2x speed or even less. Not by slowing the playback speed, obviously, but by pausing and rewinding very often to think about what has been said and even take notes if I find something that resonates with me.

Most podcasts though I listen to at infinite speed, meaning I don't listen to them at all. You can go through them 2-3x speed because there's really nothing there.

It's like code: if it's boilerplate you can just skim it but if it's really doing something you have to read it slowly multiple times. And just like the saying: nothing of value is easily gained.

If you find yourself speeding though things - in general, not just podcasts - I would ask myself if they're worth doing at all.

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> The few podcasts I listen to, I do so in 0.2x speed or even less. Not by slowing the playback speed, obviously, but by pausing and rewinding very often to think about what has been said and even take notes if I find something that resonates with me

Which podcasts have you found that contain thought provoking information? I've tried to get into podcasts but haven't found the ones to keep my interest yet.

Sean Carrol’s mindscape sometimes can be very good.

+1, i also like Sam Harris's Making Sense which is a little more pompous but still interesting

"The History of Rome" and "Philosophize This". I finished them both in a superficial way, while driving on my daily commute. Now I listen to them in my spare time and try to really dig deep, take notes and read the original material on topics that resonate to me. After I finish them again this way I will search for something of similar quality. "Revolutions" seems to be it.

I highly recommend "History of philosophy without any gaps".

Oh, the history of Rome. Don't know about this particular podcast, but the history is absolutely amazing and 1000% worth reading/listening about.

I've always hated history lessons at school. But the history of Rome was amazing! Good teacher too. I guess it was the audiobook of the time :D

I'm currently listening to the end of the Russian Revolutions part of the Revolutions podcast (the last one), and I'm quite happy with the quality and depth, i recommend it heartily. I had a decent understanding of the subject matter from generic history knowledge and The Great War series on YouTube ( which i also recommend!) and there was still a whole lot i learned. I do listen it on 1.1x however, the normal speed is a bit slow for me ( and slightly overflows the slot I've alloted for podcasts).

The History of Byzantium by Robin Pierson, which follows on where Duncan left off in The History of Rome is excellent too. In fact, I think Pierson is a better writer than Duncan was back when he did HoR, so I enjoy the HoB more. Duncan's got much better with Revolutions though.

I can recommend "the partially examined life" which features the person from "philosophize this" (stephen west I think?), along with a few others, where they discuss specific texts. Lots of rewindable moments.

Psychology in Seattle has some excellent well researched content. It has very concretely changed or modified my perspectives on relationships, parenthood and mental illness.

The "deep dives" are definitely the best.

Tides of History, In Our Time, Revolutions, Stronger by Science.

I like finding and listening to lectures on Apple podcasts too, like Zizek.

At 3x, sure. But I regularly listen to podcasts at about 1.3-1.4x, depending on how quickly the hosts talk. When you actually are paying attention, 1x can just be really slow sometimes. I think of it more like bringing it to a comfortable speed where I don't feel like I have to wait for them to get on with it, than trying to speed through it as quickly as possible. I, too, will sometimes pause to think (or talk) about what I've just heard though, so perhaps by your metric I'm at less than 1x on average too...

This is my issue also. I'm guilty of being a 2x'er, not because I believe I'll absorb more information faster, but because I find most narrators/podcast hosts tend to slow down their speech significantly when recording something for consumption. Be it because their reading speed is worse than their talking speed, or that they think they need to for effect like some 1940's Trans-Atlantic radio host, I find it painful to listen to most of the time.

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