Podfasting, Amazon Music gets podcasts onboard and podcasts demystifying tech manipulation
We take a look at the speed-listening culture of podcasts and what research has to say about it. Mission ISRO kicks it out of the park - highly recommended Indian podcast
I was recently discussing with a friend about Netflix’s plans to add a speed dial to its interface, to ensure consumers could watch TV shows, movies or documentaries quicker. He was shocked at the mere idea of speed watching a TV show. YouTube already lets you do that and it’s a feature I use quite often to speed up watching the news or some documentaries. The podcast world equivalent has a term for that - Podfasting. And no, it does not mean taking a break or fasting from listening to podcasts.
Podfasting is a phenomenon when you listen to podcasts at 1.5x or 1.75x or 2x or even higher speeds so that you can listen to more podcasts in a day. Once I started listening to podcasts at 1.5x speeds and was able to comprehend them, it was fun to be able to pack in more podcast hours per day. I have been a big fan of podfasting for shows which involve interviews where it’s not too difficult to follow what is being spoken at even 2x speed. Of course, I don’t start off listening to podcasts at 2x immediately. I need to get used to the voice of the host for a couple of episodes at least to be able to crank up the speed. I don’t lose out on much, except maybe dramatic pauses, but when it gives me more time in a day to squeeze in another podcast, I am not complaining. This comes in handy when listening to podcasts which are over an hour long.
With scripted fictional podcasts or well-produced non-fiction ones, such as This American Life or Radiolab or BBC’s The Documentary, I will rarely go over 1.25x as there is just too much to lose if I speed-listen to these pods. Shows like these use sound and music as a protagonist and I think they are meant to be heard at 1x (that’s just my opinion) as the editing is music-dense. Just listen to this segment of This American Life (one of the best-produced podcast segments I’ve heard in a long time), and tell me if it would make sense even at 1.1x speed. There are too many finer aspects to appreciate which would get lost when listening at higher speeds. In such podcasts, if you just want to listen to the content and don’t care about the atmospheric or produced sounds, be my guest.
Some podcast apps such as Google Podcast or Overcast, even have an option called ‘Trim Silence’ which I find a bit over the top, despite being a podfasting fan. Just like peak TV, we are living in an era of peak podcasts - there are just too many great podcasts out there and too little time to listen to them. A side-effect of podfasting is that it translates into how I consume other online media as well. I wouldn’t speed up YouTube before I started podfasting - hence, I wasn’t too shocked at Netflix’s plans to add a speed dial.
According to this article, humans can process up to 400 words per minute whereas when it comes to speaking out loudly, that word count comes down to 150 words. This is one reason, I have never been able to keep my attention when listening to fictional audiobooks. Even when I speed up fiction audiobooks, I have a difficulty in comprehending. When it comes to nonfiction audiobooks, as long as I am doing some mechanical activity that doesn’t require much thinking, I am able to follow them. It’s almost like listening to book-length podcast episodes, so to speak.
The counter-argument would be, why bother listening to podcasts if I don’t have the patience to listen at 1x speed? I really don’t think shorter attention span is the reason - I love devouring long-form narrative articles, so podfasting because of a lower attention span isn’t an argument that can be used against me. I just want to listen to as many podcasts as I find interesting. If podfasting is helping me do that, so be it.
Want to know more about this aspect of podcasting? How are certain people able to comprehend podcasts at 3x speed? There even exists a paid app which lets you scale up that speed to 10x?! A couple of years ago, I had read this fascinating piece which really explained this cultural phenomenon, where a lot of podcast fans apart from being obsessive listeners, were also hell-bent on completely listening to a podcast’s entire catalogue of episodes. I haven’t reached that level of obsession…yet.
So, do you podfast? And if yes, what’s your go-to speed? Please do let me know your experiences.
Important developments globally
Kara Swisher is one of the most feared names in Silicon Valley (and one of my favourite podcast personalities). Her interview-based podcast, Recode Decode, ran for a good five years where she grilled the newsmakers in technology and related fields. Over the years, as the intersection between technology and other fields started increasing, so did the backgrounds of her guest list. Suffice to say, if Swisher is doing an interview, you are bound to come away learning a few things you didn’t know. Swisher calls a spade a space and I have rarely heard an interview, where she doesn’t challenge her interviewees when they are trying to ignore questions. As a New York Times Opinion columnist, Swisher’s podcast ‘Sway’ will be looking at power and influence. Given her track record of asking the tough questions, this should be a great podcast to follow.
Amazon Music has now begun cataloguing podcasts and this feature is available only in the US, the UK, Germany and Japan for now. Amazon has added around 70,000 podcasts to its Music app and it is different from the original audio programs you get on Audible Suno or Audible catalogue. Amazon has also hired some talent to produce original podcasts. These podcasts are available on Amazon Music app on Android and iOS as well as on the web platform in the supported countries. And yes, all podcasts can be played on Echo speaker devices as well, by just their name.
If you use Google Home products or Google Assistant, you will be familiar with the ‘Ok Google, what’s the news update’ command. Google has now activated the ‘Your News Update’ feature on Google Podcasts. Unlike a similar feature in Amazon’s Alexa ecosystem called ‘Alexa Flash Update’ where you have to enlist the news sources, Google’s feature will tell you news based on your news consumption pattern. Generally, Google gets personalised news fine, but on most occasions, you do tend to miss out on some breaking news stories which may not be of interest to you, but good to know. Google claims that the feature will get better, the more you use it. The feature will start off in the US followed by other markets. You will have to subscribe to ‘Your News Update’ in Google Podcasts.
A major part of ‘Design’ is about appealing to our sense of sight. I never thought it could be expressed so wonderfully via just audio. When I listened to my first episode of 99% Invisible, I was gobsmacked. It was such a brilliant way to get a deep dive into hidden designs that one takes for granted and the historical and anthropological context behind it. This podcast hosted by Roman Mars turned 10 on September 3. This interview with Mars chronicles the journey of the podcast and why he is not too keen for the podcast to be adapted to the big screen.
Indian Podcasts in focus
Mission ISRO with Harsha Bhogle
The Indian Space Research Organisation is an Indian scientific institute that has always been in the background and just like its humble scientists, hasn’t blatantly sought publicity. Over the last couple of years with space missions such as Mangalyaan, Chandrayaan and the upcoming Gaganyaan - ISRO has seared itself in the conscience of every Indian. But how did ISRO come about? Sure, we have seen those images of rockets being transported on bicycles back in the 60s, but the story of India’s space ambitions began around the same time as the US and USSR’s space race. It’s just that India’s ambitions were far different from those of the super-powers back then.
This podcast, not only tells the story of ISRO but also puts things in the right context. Why was India so keen on innovating on the space front at a time when we were still getting used to the idea of a united nation? What were the roadblocks in the way? How did a humble fisherman’s son become a leading space scientist and eventually the President of India? How did early scientists convince the government officials to invest in these long-term initiatives which would only see fruition may decades down the line? The scripting of this podcast is excellent, the use of archival audio footage, Bhogle’s immersive narration make this a great podcast to listen to with your entire family. I really hope Spotify India invests in more podcasts like these which not just tell the history, but tell it within the lived contexts of that era.
The Real Food Podcast
In the last newsletter, I had shared some international food podcasts and a few readers asked for an Indian equivalent. I will be upfront that I am still discovering good Indian food-related podcasts. But one podcast that I have heard and would highly recommend is The Real Food Podcast. Hosted by food columnist Vikram Doctor, each episode delves deep into a specific food or cuisine and gives the contextual history, tradition, cultural importance of it within the Indian food kingdom. Some episodes go all-in on certain regions and the specific food found there, some episodes take one food item and explore its various interpretations across the country. I’ve been reading Doctor’s food writing column in The Economic Times and the podcast takes off from that writing style where it places food in the larger cultural context.
Some interesting episodes I’ve heard on The Real Food Podcast:
Undhiyu: The Indian Taste Of Winter
Is India falling out of love with Old Monk?
The beloved Bombay Duck - a fish that no one loves
International Podcasts for the fortnight
Last week, a new documentary was released on Netflix, called The Social Dilemma. It shines a light on how social media apps and services are tuned in a way to ensure you are always hooked on to these platforms. The documentary has insights from several Silicon Valley veteran engineers who worked on these very products and how they have now come to regret it. Be it the founder of infinite scrolling or a former Google Ethicist or the growth directors at Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and so on, everyone pulls the curtain to tell you what goes on behind the scenes. Keeping in that vein, I think it makes sense to recommend some podcasts which show how social media isn't as altruist as some of its founders make it out to be and take you deeper down this rabbit hole of tech manipulation that’s as subtle as it can get.
This podcast is hosted by Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin - both of them feature in The Social Dilemma. They are also founders of the Centre for Humane Technology and are proponents of mindful use of technology. In Your Undivided Attention, Harris and Raskin, interview experts who demystify how technology is being weaponised to maximise our attention. The inaugural episode with an author of a book on casino interior design draws analogies with how social media products are designed in the same manner. Every episode is full of insights and you get a ringside view from the experts on topics as vast as YouTube algorithms recommending dangerous content to Russian involvement in US elections to our drastically reduced attention spans to how Facebook news was weaponised to how Cambridge Analytica unfolded and much more. Raskin and Harris also give some tips on how one can use technology mindfully and overcome those persuasive technologies inherent in social media products. The idea is not to wean you off social media completely but to make you use it in a way that you have more control than the invisible engineers working behind the scenes on an app or service.
The internet in 2020 is vastly different from just a decade ago. When social media websites had started in the late noughts, no one thought they would manipulate democratic functioning and lead to law and order problems. This podcast by The New York Times is an interesting look at how the internet has changed and how it is changing us as people. The podcast looks at this through the lens of one of the most influential video streaming sites around - YouTube. Not only does it demonstrate how a regular person can go down the YouTube algorithm rabbit hole, but also has interviews with YouTube boss Susan Wojcicki on what she’s doing to clean up the platform; interaction with PewDiePie - the second most subscribed-to YouTuber. The last two episodes focus on the evolution of QAnon from being on the fringes a few years ago, to now gaining mainstream acceptance in the US and many other countries. This podcast can get a bit too nerdy if you are not into following technology news and its intersection with pop-culture. So apologies if this isn’t for everyone.
How did Amazon and Netflix get so big? How are their products so addictive? What was competition up to when these two came on to the scene and how did they overcome it? This podcast does a brilliant investigative deep dive into two companies that have redefined how we do certain things, namely shop online and stream movies. The podcast isn't in the same thread as Your Undivided Attention and The Rabbit Hole, but gives insights into two companies that have influenced the zeitgeist, so to speak. Think of this podcast as though you're reading an investigative journalism book on Amazon and Netflix. Highly recommended.
This is a podcast that is now in its fifth season and does a great job of demystifying internet phenomena. The episodes are structured in a way that you don’t have to be a digital geek to understand what is being discussed. There are plenty of real-life examples to explain things such as online trolling, data privacy, surveillance capitalism, the perils of online dating, attention economy, online bullying, internet’s carbon footprint, decentralising internet and much more.
That’s all for this week’s newsletter. As always, it would be great to hear your feedback and what you would like to know more about in future editions of Indian Podcasting. Creator in focus segment of the newsletter will return in the next issue.
Till then, have a great week ahead and happy listening.