🎙 Podcast Malaise
I've been a huge podcast listener for almost 15 years now, but my enthusiasm has kind of waned this fall. I think part of it is getting oversaturated on different topics. If I get interested in a new subject I'll often look for related podcasts and start binging. For instance, I started listening to a ton of Tottenham Hotspur podcasts a year and a half ago when Ange Postecoglou was hired as the new manager. In June of 2020 I started follow a ton of Magic The Gathering-related podcasts when Magic Arena first came to the Mac platform. Around that time I also cut out most of the Apple-related podcasts I'd been following for the previous decade.
For a long time I was podcast completionist where I made sure to listen to every single episode of every podcast I subscribed to. My approach has evolved a lot in the last few years however as I've subscribed to more podcasts than I can reasonably keep up with. And the sports-related podcasts that cover and react to recent games don't feel particularly evergreen- especially if they're reacting to the most recent game.
I've also been listening to music quite a bit in the last couple of months. I never listen to it on my commute, but I'm usually inclined to listen to music rather than a podcast if I'm performing a task that requires thought or I'm writing something. That said, I've also been more inclined to listen to music when washing the dishes lately, but I think that's partly because of my general podcast malaise. I'm just not overly enthusiastic about listening to most of what I'm subscribed to right now.
It's probably time to cut out some of the podcasts that I just haven't been motivated to listen to recently. It's not that hard and it's not like I can't resubscribe later, or manually download a given episode and turn on automatic downloads again. Still, I tend to put off that kind of thing.