Are Podcasts Good For You?

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00:00:02.580 | All right, let's see here, 52.

00:00:07.840 | Let's do a couple of questions on a deep life

00:00:09.380 | before we call it a day here.

00:00:11.120 | My first one here comes from Brian.

00:00:14.260 | Brian asked, "Are podcasts good for you?"

00:00:18.780 | So he has a bunch of different points about this,

00:00:21.720 | but let me point out two in particular.

00:00:23.460 | The first is, he asked, "What would Marshall McLuhan

00:00:26.880 | "or Neil Postman say about a medium

00:00:30.280 | "that feels like 100 times the old talk radio format?"

00:00:33.880 | So Brian is concerned about the sort of,

00:00:36.000 | what does it do to your mind, this relationship

00:00:38.560 | where you have someone in your ears

00:00:40.560 | for multiple hours each day?

00:00:42.440 | And he looks to McLuhan and Postman,

00:00:45.240 | who of course have this,

00:00:46.440 | the medium is the message type analysis of media.

00:00:50.400 | McLuhan and his protege Postman would argue

00:00:53.200 | that the form in which you're consuming media

00:00:55.440 | actually changes the message

00:00:56.840 | and the impact of the message.

00:00:58.100 | And I think this definitely is at play for podcasting.

00:01:00.520 | However, and this is very self-serving

00:01:03.200 | because I'm telling you this on a podcast right now,

00:01:06.100 | I think generally the impact of this medium

00:01:09.200 | on the message is positive, right?

00:01:13.380 | So what do you get, for example, when the medium is tweets?

00:01:17.160 | So we're looking at Twitter.

00:01:19.200 | Well, now it's a very short,

00:01:21.600 | there's a trying to grab attention

00:01:24.800 | and there is a really tight feedback loop

00:01:27.320 | of likes and dislikes and retweets

00:01:29.600 | and catching the algorithm's attention

00:01:31.840 | so that a tweet immediately gives you these clear indicators

00:01:35.520 | of it's taking off or not taking off.

00:01:37.920 | Now that's an example of a medium

00:01:40.340 | that really changes the message.

00:01:42.480 | So the type of communication you would get

00:01:44.040 | on a platform like Twitter,

00:01:45.480 | just to use that as an example of McLuhan

00:01:47.720 | and Postman's thinking is one that is way more simplified

00:01:51.280 | and emotionally charged.

00:01:52.520 | It is a place where people are trying to dunk on each other.

00:01:54.600 | It's very tribal and very anxiety inducing.

00:01:57.400 | So that's an example where the medium changes

00:01:59.920 | the form of the message.

00:02:01.840 | Podcasting, I would say, has an opposite effect.

00:02:04.660 | It's long form and you can hear the human voice.

00:02:09.200 | So you get all of the nuances and subtleties

00:02:12.940 | that is embedded in pacing and tonality

00:02:15.660 | in the human voice and it's long form.

00:02:19.120 | So someone can take their time

00:02:20.680 | and explain how they're thinking about something,

00:02:22.440 | change their mind on how they're thinking

00:02:24.100 | about something, think out loud in real time.

00:02:26.720 | It's much more human, much more humanizing

00:02:31.400 | than some of the other big digital communication

00:02:34.320 | technologies that have taken off

00:02:35.640 | in the last 10 to 20 years.

00:02:37.560 | And so I actually think what it does

00:02:38.920 | is it gives you a more moderating style message.

00:02:43.160 | And so it is, I believe, if we're looking at digital,

00:02:47.440 | if we're looking at digital tools or modern media tools,

00:02:50.200 | I actually think that the podcasting

00:02:52.860 | does a pretty good job.

00:02:54.460 | If we're gonna rank these things,

00:02:55.460 | I think it does a pretty good job.

00:02:56.620 | I mean, Twitter creates a dumpster fire.

00:02:59.180 | TikTok just turns people into essentially

00:03:01.860 | algorithmically enhanced cyborgs.

00:03:03.700 | That algorithm just drives people

00:03:05.980 | into really weird places.

00:03:07.620 | Jacob Orr talks about this in "The Loop,"

00:03:09.860 | that book I talked about earlier in the show.

00:03:11.580 | And he talks about how TikTok,

00:03:12.660 | there's some interesting, talented people on there,

00:03:14.860 | but the people who really take off, it's really weird.

00:03:17.940 | They're sort of playing with these particular forms

00:03:22.440 | where you do like lip syncing,

00:03:23.960 | they're not very good at it,

00:03:25.160 | and it's just working with the algorithm.

00:03:27.000 | And so TikTok, that medium makes the message,

00:03:30.560 | turns people into cyborgs.

00:03:32.180 | Twitter turns people into like dumpster fire,

00:03:35.000 | lighting zombie hordes.

00:03:37.060 | If you go back and look at Postman's analysis

00:03:40.260 | of the old school TV,

00:03:41.320 | when there used to be three channels,

00:03:43.200 | his big thing is it simplified everything down

00:03:45.400 | to these sort of sound bites.

00:03:47.080 | Podcasting ranks pretty well.

00:03:48.760 | I think it ranks pretty well.

00:03:52.200 | You get this long form, nuanced relationship

00:03:54.540 | with a real human being.

00:03:56.820 | And so, yes, as with anything,

00:03:58.840 | if that human being is intent on a particular point of view,

00:04:03.820 | then yeah, it can really bring you into that world.

00:04:06.440 | And talk radio, right-wing talk radio

00:04:08.840 | certainly did this at the time.

00:04:10.320 | It could really bring people into a own-to-libs type

00:04:13.640 | mindset over time, and it could, what have you.

00:04:16.360 | But I still think it is a medium

00:04:20.980 | that creates a good type of message.

00:04:22.760 | It just seems very humanizing.

00:04:24.080 | It's really hard to listen to a long-form podcast

00:04:26.520 | with a lot of people and come off and be like,

00:04:29.200 | really like, I hate that person, or I hate other people.

00:04:32.000 | So who knows, maybe I'm being optimistic.

00:04:34.380 | Obviously it has its flaws,

00:04:36.340 | but I'll take it over a lot of the other platforms any day.

00:04:39.720 | He also asked, Brian also asked if they're more shallow

00:04:42.180 | and distracting than say reading books.

00:04:43.840 | I mean, I think, yes, Brian,

00:04:45.080 | don't give up a book reading habit for podcasting.

00:04:49.800 | It is different, it is shallower than a book

00:04:53.480 | because a book will typically represent someone

00:04:55.520 | who has spent multiple years trying to hone and craft

00:04:58.520 | and structure their thoughts on a topic.

00:05:00.040 | So it's just a, from an intellectual consumption experience

00:05:03.040 | different than let's say me riffing on the mic.

00:05:06.560 | But I think podcasting is great

00:05:07.940 | for otherwise wasted downtime.

00:05:11.680 | I'm doing a chore, I'm driving to work.

00:05:15.440 | Why not?

00:05:16.280 | I think that's a good time to do it.

00:05:18.040 | Now, if you do books on tape,

00:05:19.080 | you maybe want to alternate between these two,

00:05:20.520 | you should read real books as well.

00:05:21.840 | So yeah, it shouldn't be the only thing you listen to,

00:05:23.460 | but this is not gonna surprise anyone by Impro,

00:05:26.960 | a Impro podcast.

00:05:28.960 | (upbeat music)

00:05:31.540 | (upbeat music)

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Are Podcasts Good For You?

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