Quarantine has got us all trying to find all the home-hobbies possible. I’ve dabbled in painting, drawing, baking, cycling, running, reality TV and spending hours watching every youtube clip of Dance Moms there is. However, the one I thought would be easiest to commit to is the one I’ve been most unloyal to: podcasts.
Whereas most podcasts leave me feeling knowledgeable and interested, after a while I feel drowned. The same feeling you get after being on the news for hours. Swamped with so much information, it leaves you feeling helpless.
Modern day society, especially for the youth, is filled with the need to be as productive and knowledgeable as possible. It feels that if we haven’t started a youtube channel or engineered a new product or taken part in anything with more noticeable contributions to society by the age of 25, we are behind. That’s why we are known as the NowGeneration. We want to achieve more and more at a younger age. That at the growing pressure within schools often leads met o feeling guilty if I don’t maximise my time by doing anything productive. This is when podcasts came in.
Trivia, news, languages, adulting, baking, TedTalks, history and self-help podcasts is what dominates the charts. Just look at the top podcasts: New York times Daily (news), Sh**ged Married Annoyed (parenting self-help), That Peter Crouch Podcast (sport self-help) and TedTalks (we all know what TedTalks are). Yes these are usually mixed with celebrity interviews and comedies, and yes these aren’t the only podcasts there are, but there are a lot of podcasts out there with the purpose to help us better ourselves and our knowledge.
So what’s the matter about this? It’s an information overload. We start listening to podcasts feeling great because ‘wow I’m listening to a podcast’ and I do feel like I’m putting effort into learning more for fun and doing more grown up things’. But after that initial euphoria leaves, we’re left with only the core content of the podcasts. And that core context screams ‘look how much you don’t know’. Maybe it’s just me and my limited brain cells struggling, but I feel ashamed and overwhelmed at how much there is to know and how little of it I do know. So I just, stopped. Because it’s easier to give up without ever really trying. It’s easier to quit when you haven’t really committed to it. Here was the foundation of my on and off relationships with podcasts.
Why do I keep coming back then? And why am I now going to try and overcome this problem and try to stick in happy-long-term-healthy-marriage-with-five-kids relationship with podcasts?
Michael Grbaowski, a professor who specializes in neuroscience and the brain, (https://www.thecut.com/2017/10/what-is-listening-to-podcasts-all-day-doing-to-my-brain.html) explains how we need “time to absorb and synthesize that information, to critically examine it” and be able to “let the mind wander without consuming content in order to be able to absorb the data”. Although learning and podcasts have obvious benefits, we can’t let it overwhelm us. We can’t be swept away by the abundance of advice and conversations there is out there or we’ll never be able to process it and enjoy it. It’ll turn into what we already see amongst Gen Z: a battle against yourself to be the best, healthiest, smartest version of you by the time you have finished university. It doesn’t quite work like that.
For me then, to continue listening to podcasts, I need to set straight my intentions. I can’t listen to podcasts out of FOMO, out of pressure from society and myself to always be aiming for more. I need to do it for fun. I need to do it because I genuinely want to and I’m interested and not be bothered by this great intimidation of the unknown.
It’s an opportunity to bring back that learning for fun. Listening to a topic I’m interested in while doing mindless chores or trying to ignore annoying family members. It’s free entertainment that can have you thinking and laughing and on the edge of your seat. You can listen into a conversation and learn more about public figures or educate yourself on important world topics.
My final conclusion is go give podcasts a go, but don’t dive in with a list of 100 ‘to be listened to’ podcasts on every topic you can find. Find one or two and only listen to the ones that seem interesting or entertaining to you. Approach it with the same mindset as music or film, not lectures or lessons.
And obviously, some recommendations:
- Wonder woman by Carrie Hope Fletcher and Celinde Schoemaker
A fun chatty podcast where each episode discusses a new problem women face in society or an inspirational historical women figure.
- The happiness lab with Dr. Laurie Santos by Pushkin Industries
With guest speakers, discussions and social experiments, this psychology based podcast explores how we can be more happy, grateful and think in more beneficial ways. Realistic and not preachy.
- Adulting by Oenone Forbat
Big sis girl talk on grown up things we weren’t necessarily taught by school. Informative and reassuring my deep fear of the future.
- Pandemie by Le Monde
French podcast explaining the coronavirus crisis and other topics related to it.
- I weigh with Jameela Jamil
Featuring probably my favourite person ever, Jameela challenge’s society’s expectations of how to define worth with invited guest speakers such as influencers, performers and activists. I highly recommend the one with Demi Lovato.
- Teenage therapy by Gael
Five normal American teens sit down and talk about the struggles of school, societal expectations and a teenager life in general.
