(upbeat music) All right, let's see here, 52. Let's do a couple of questions on a deep life before we call it a day here. My first one here comes from Brian. Brian asked, "Are podcasts good for you?" So he has a bunch of different points about this, but let me point out two in particular.

The first is, he asked, "What would Marshall McLuhan "or Neil Postman say about a medium "that feels like 100 times the old talk radio format?" So Brian is concerned about the sort of, what does it do to your mind, this relationship where you have someone in your ears for multiple hours each day?

And he looks to McLuhan and Postman, who of course have this, the medium is the message type analysis of media. McLuhan and his protege Postman would argue that the form in which you're consuming media actually changes the message and the impact of the message. And I think this definitely is at play for podcasting.

However, and this is very self-serving because I'm telling you this on a podcast right now, I think generally the impact of this medium on the message is positive, right? So what do you get, for example, when the medium is tweets? So we're looking at Twitter. Well, now it's a very short, there's a trying to grab attention and there is a really tight feedback loop of likes and dislikes and retweets and catching the algorithm's attention so that a tweet immediately gives you these clear indicators of it's taking off or not taking off.

Now that's an example of a medium that really changes the message. So the type of communication you would get on a platform like Twitter, just to use that as an example of McLuhan and Postman's thinking is one that is way more simplified and emotionally charged. It is a place where people are trying to dunk on each other.

It's very tribal and very anxiety inducing. So that's an example where the medium changes the form of the message. Podcasting, I would say, has an opposite effect. It's long form and you can hear the human voice. So you get all of the nuances and subtleties that is embedded in pacing and tonality in the human voice and it's long form.

So someone can take their time and explain how they're thinking about something, change their mind on how they're thinking about something, think out loud in real time. It's much more human, much more humanizing than some of the other big digital communication technologies that have taken off in the last 10 to 20 years.

And so I actually think what it does is it gives you a more moderating style message. And so it is, I believe, if we're looking at digital, if we're looking at digital tools or modern media tools, I actually think that the podcasting does a pretty good job. If we're gonna rank these things, I think it does a pretty good job.

I mean, Twitter creates a dumpster fire. TikTok just turns people into essentially algorithmically enhanced cyborgs. That algorithm just drives people into really weird places. Jacob Orr talks about this in "The Loop," that book I talked about earlier in the show. And he talks about how TikTok, there's some interesting, talented people on there, but the people who really take off, it's really weird.

They're sort of playing with these particular forms where you do like lip syncing, they're not very good at it, and it's just working with the algorithm. And so TikTok, that medium makes the message, turns people into cyborgs. Twitter turns people into like dumpster fire, lighting zombie hordes. If you go back and look at Postman's analysis of the old school TV, when there used to be three channels, his big thing is it simplified everything down to these sort of sound bites.

Podcasting ranks pretty well. I think it ranks pretty well. You get this long form, nuanced relationship with a real human being. And so, yes, as with anything, if that human being is intent on a particular point of view, then yeah, it can really bring you into that world. And talk radio, right-wing talk radio certainly did this at the time.

It could really bring people into a own-to-libs type mindset over time, and it could, what have you. But I still think it is a medium that creates a good type of message. It just seems very humanizing. It's really hard to listen to a long-form podcast with a lot of people and come off and be like, really like, I hate that person, or I hate other people.

So who knows, maybe I'm being optimistic. Obviously it has its flaws, but I'll take it over a lot of the other platforms any day. He also asked, Brian also asked if they're more shallow and distracting than say reading books. I mean, I think, yes, Brian, don't give up a book reading habit for podcasting.

It is different, it is shallower than a book because a book will typically represent someone who has spent multiple years trying to hone and craft and structure their thoughts on a topic. So it's just a, from an intellectual consumption experience different than let's say me riffing on the mic.

But I think podcasting is great for otherwise wasted downtime. I'm doing a chore, I'm driving to work. Why not? I think that's a good time to do it. Now, if you do books on tape, you maybe want to alternate between these two, you should read real books as well.

So yeah, it shouldn't be the only thing you listen to, but this is not gonna surprise anyone by Impro, a Impro podcast. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)