Podcasts that can put you to sleep and deep-dive interview podcasts that keep you awake
We take a look at what makes sleep-inducing podcasts work, how Anchor is enabling pirating podcasts and some in-depth interview podcasts that must be on your list
In the post-COVID world that we are living in, our physical movements have been severely limited. Apart from the daily chores that one does at home or the regular grocery run, a major part of the workday is spent in front of your computer at home. Yes, yes, I know there are a lot of self-motivated individuals out there who make it a point to exercise daily in spite of the lockdown, hats off to you. My complete respect also goes out to every one managing a busy workday with toddlers to take care of. Personally, in the early days of the lockdown, I noticed that it wasn’t easy for me to fall asleep at night. If your body is used to Mumbai’s daily travel rigmarole, it’s almost a shock when you aren’t scrambling to catch that train or rush to work for months at end. Somewhere that exhaustion which would help me fall asleep was gone. It’s not like I would never face issues with sleeping on time but in the earlier months of the lockdown that was happening more than usual.
On some nights, when I would try to catch up with my podcast listening for the day, I noticed I would fall asleep midway while listening to a podcast. Till then, I had heard of meditation apps which also help with insomnia with methods such as guided meditation. Since I have never tried them, I can’t comment on them. But listening to podcasts was something I did regularly, but not as much while trying to go to bed. In the lockdown, I tried doing that often. I noticed that if the podcast was engaging, my mind could stay active for longer periods. I once did a mistake of plugging in two back to back interview podcasts with interesting guests - I was awake from 12 am to 4.45 am. But on the other hand, if the podcast didn’t manage to keep my interest, I realised that in no time, I was falling asleep without realising it.
On one such night, I searched for sleep podcasts and bingo! I was presented with a whole bunch of podcasts which are designed to make you fall asleep. Yes, just like ‘there’s an app for that’, if you are looking for something ‘there’s a podcast for that’. Some podcasts focus on guided meditation, but the podcasts I want to shine a light on are those that are meant to bore you to an extent that you fall asleep. The more I researched about these podcasts, I came to learn that a lot of them are actually hosted by people who themselves suffer from insomnia; the storytelling is done at a particular pace and in a monotonous voice, which makes you lose interest and eventually fall asleep; some podcasts play around with ASMR to tingle you to sleep while others are actually designed by audio engineers and sleep-science experts. The idea behind some of these pods is to calm down your monkey mind when you are getting ready to sleep. I once heard an episode where the host was literally reading out the instruction manual of a washing machine from 1967 - with as much sincerity as an Audible audiobook original reader. If not the drone-y nature of the voice, the content will surely make you fall asleep.
Podcasts you may want to try for yourself to see if it works: Sleep Whispers, Sleep With Me, Boring Books for Bedtime, Nothing Much Happens and many more. These podcasts definitely succeeded in making me drowsy and fall asleep. Do not forget to keep a timer when listening to these podcasts though.
Disclaimer: I do not claim that listening to ‘sleep podcasts’ will cure you of insomnia. It’s best to seek medical help if insomnia is a severe issue with you.
Important developments in India
Audio streaming platform JioSaavn claims that it has seen a 200x rise in the number of podcast listeners. There are over 200+ hours of JioSaavn Original content on the platform to choose from. According to JioSaavn, the top streamed genres include history, society, art, culture and news. As of September 2020, over 60% users between the 18-35 age bracket reported listening to at least one podcast. More details over at Podcasthub.
Important developments globally
Hillary Rodham Clinton has turned into a podcast host for her 24-episode original podcast on iHeartRadio network which began on 29 September. Called ‘You and me both with Hillary Clinton’, the podcast, according to the press release describes itself thus: “Powered by honest, in-depth conversations, the new podcast will cover everything from the pressing political issues of our time to the challenges of cooking in quarantine. With help from her guests, Hillary will tackle the subjects on so many people’s minds, including topics like faith, resilience, and grief.” It would be interesting to see how this compares with the podcast from another former First Lady.
After trying out video podcasts, podcast playlists and podcast rankings, Spotify is now trying out a new feature to increase engagement on podcasts. Called Polls, the feature lets listeners participate in polls that show up during some select few podcasts. Spotify claims that participation is voluntary and all responses would be anonymous (yeah, right!). “...listeners can share feedback and opinions as requested by the show’s hosts, who can use that information to better connect with their fans in future episodes,” says the release.
A couple of days ago, Spotify also announced Promo Cards which are meant to create more eye-catching shareable content for podcasters.
Spotify-owned Anchor is an app which helps you create and publish your podcasts. Thanks to Anchor being free, there have been many cases of popular podcasts being pirated on the platform without the original creators even knowing about it. James Cridland of Podnews demonstrated how easy it was to pirate a podcast on Anchor as a cautionary tale. Goes without saying, please don’t try to do that yourself.
Indian podcasts in focus
22 Yarns with Gaurav Kapur
I used to follow cricket religiously when I was in school. Now though, apart from ICC World Cup calendar, I don't really keep a track of what's happening in the cricketing world. But I think I am an exception in this regard. With the Indian Premier League taking place in UAE this year, the cricket fever is back on. This interview-based podcast hosted by Gaurav Kapur is just the right dose of cricketing nostalgia for someone like me. Kapur's interviewing techniques and access to cricketing who's who makes this a fun podcast to listen to. I like that it doesn't focus too much on the current cricket happenings which makes the podcast evergreen. Read the description or read the title and start listening - there's no order you need to follow. You get great insights from not just cricketing greats such as Sunil Gavaskar, but also from someone such as journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, the son of legendary cricketer Dilip Sardesai, on what it was like to grow up with a cricketing great. Kapur keeps the conversations light, engaging with his sense of humour and contextualises them for someone who may not be a hardcore cricket nerd.
Some episodes of 22 Yarns with Gaurav Kapur that I liked:
- Cricket democracy with Rajdeep Sardesai
- Fastest 50 first with Ajit Agarkar
- Ajay Jadeja on India's cricketing Royals
The Seen and the Unseen with Amit Varma
Mumbai-based Amit Varma is a former journalist, now a writer and a podcaster. He has been the host of The Seen and the Unseen since 2017. This is an in-depth interview podcast that you should only listen to if you can spare a couple of hours, as the interviews go many layers deep. Every episode features an expert in their fields, although Varma does repeat some experts to weigh in on certain topics. The way Varma frames his questions and counter-questions, tells you that he has done a lot of research before calling the interviewee on the show. It's this deep exchange between the host and the guest that keep the podcast interesting, irrespective of the length. The overall objective of each episode is to shine a light on the unseen effects of the main topics under discussion. Varma's podcast has had discussions on topics as varied as demonetisation, artificial intelligence, the Emergency, Uber surge pricing, genetic engineering, special economic zones and so on. There isn't a fixed formula and this mix keeps the podcast interesting. What impresses me most about the podcast is that it has continued its weekly streak since inception and given the range of topics discussed, it's amazing to think about how much research work must be going behind every episode. This podcast will soon complete 200 episodes. Great work, Amit.
Some episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Amit Varma that I liked:
- The Art of Narrative Nonfiction
- What happened to our Journalism?
International Podcasts for the fortnight
Continuing with the interview-based podcast formats, here are some international interview podcasts that I regularly listen to.
I have spoken about Joe Rogan in earlier newsletters and how his move to Spotify continues to create controversies. There is just no escaping Joe Rogan if you are discussing podcasts. And yes, you may also not agree with him on many topics. But controversies aside, Rogan has interviewed some influential names such as Elon Musk, Bernie Sanders, Edward Snowden, Amy Schumer, Gary Vaynerchuck, Richard Dawkins, the late Anthony Bourdain and many more. And here's the thing: the interviews on JRE aren't short. The first interview with Elon Musk, yes THAT interview where Musk smoked a blunt and saw Tesla's share prices fall, went on for over 2.5 hours. The inaugural episode for Spotify on 1 September ran over 5 hours! That's pretty much the standard fare on JRE. It's great to listen to domain experts speaking without time limitations, something you rarely get to see otherwise. Of course, I don't listen to every episode, but select at random.
Kara Swisher is an influential name in the tech world. There is barely anyone influential in Silicon Valley who has escaped Swisher's incisive grilling. With her latest podcast in a partnership with The New York Times, Swisher has cast a wider net and will be interviewing people in power across various fields. So far, she has interviewed six guests including Elon Musk and Nancy Pelosi and two episodes drop each week. That was pretty much the standard pace of her earlier podcast Recode Decode which has a five-year catalogue of her interviews with the who's who of not just the tech world but also people at the intersection of technology and society. Swisher holds back no punches and has little patience if the guest is bullshitting around the question asked. In the run-up to the US elections, I am pretty sure she will have a line-up of interesting guests and many more after it.
Tim Ferriss is the guy behind 'The Four Hour Work Week', 'The Four Hour Chef' and 'Tools of Titans'. Just like JRE, Ferriss' interviews also run longer than an hour on average. While Ferriss also interviews a range of personalities, the focus of this podcast is clear - to make the listener more productive in their day to day life. Ferriss has interviewed many influential personalities and his accompanying blog which is packed with productivity resources gives you a feeling of having learnt some new hack. One segment in each interview that I like is when Tim asks his guests to give one sentence they would like to see on a billboard against their name as life advice. Questions along these lines give an insight into distilled thought processes. It's great to listen to people at the peak of their careers talk about what they learned from their failures; athletes talking about mindset before a big game; how to negotiate your way out of sticky situations; the benefits of micro-dosing and much more. Here's a list of Top 25 episodes of 2019, compiled by Tim himself, to get you started if you are confused as to where to begin.
That’s all for this week’s newsletter. As always, it would be great to hear your feedback. Till then, have a great week ahead and happy listening. If you liked this issue, do consider sharing. If you didn’t like it, please feel free to let me know.
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