5 ms·

For me audiobooks are a way more relaxing alternative to podcasts in that they strip away the need to choose what to listen to for several times as long and, us

For me audiobooks are a way more relaxing alternative to podcasts in that they strip away the need to choose what to listen to for several times as long and, usually, once I'm in the mood to listen to one I can stay in that mood for a long time. Listening to Robert Caro's gigantic history books a couple of years ago war an extremely pleasant experience. Literally a month or two of no podcasts at all and just this pair of extremely deep well written biographies.

icebraining 7y ago
I just listen to podcasts in the order they get published. Alternatively, you can pick a podcast that started long ago, and just binge on the archive - Mike Duncan's work alone is enough to fill probably three or four months. That said, I listened to the Power Broker, and fully recommend it.
- JansjoFromIkea 7y ago
  but a podcast has a flow that makes you inherently aware of how much time is passing unless it has absurdly long and flexible runtimes (and I do listen to some 4+ hour podcasts weekly). Something like 99% Invisible is amazing but the condensed 15 minute episodes and you constantly listening to a loop of intros and closers can wear after a while. iirc the History of Rome was really good at keeping the intros, exits, sponsored content and all that stuff as minimal as possible though, I definitely binged it but even then the fact that it was originally presented in these 15 minute chunks made it kind of exhausting at points. You need to get onto the LBJ ones! Not quite as good but it's pretty damn good.
  - oo0shiny 7y ago
    Certain podcast apps (I use Pocket Casts) will let you start a podcast at a certain timestamp. I've found that really helpful to skip the intros of the podcasts I listen to regularly.
- alexhutcheson 7y ago
  I highly recommend binging the back catalog of Hardcore History[1] if you haven't already. Yes, you have to pay for the older episodes, but it's a tremendous amount of really great content. My favorite individual episode is "Prophets of Doom": https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-48-prophets-of-doom/ https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-48-prophe... [1] https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-compilation-episodes-1-49/ https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-compilati...
  - icebraining 7y ago
    Yeah, I've heard many hours of Hardcore History, but while it's certainly good, Dan Carlin's style - both the writing and the speech - frankly tire me a bit. There are too many times when it's too over the top. I much prefer Mike Duncan's or Mark Painter's styles.

icebraining 7y ago

I just listen to podcasts in the order they get published. Alternatively, you can pick a podcast that started long ago, and just binge on the archive - Mike Duncan's work alone is enough to fill probably three or four months. That said, I listened to the Power Broker, and fully recommend it.

JansjoFromIkea 7y ago
but a podcast has a flow that makes you inherently aware of how much time is passing unless it has absurdly long and flexible runtimes (and I do listen to some 4+ hour podcasts weekly). Something like 99% Invisible is amazing but the condensed 15 minute episodes and you constantly listening to a loop of intros and closers can wear after a while. iirc the History of Rome was really good at keeping the intros, exits, sponsored content and all that stuff as minimal as possible though, I definitely binged it but even then the fact that it was originally presented in these 15 minute chunks made it kind of exhausting at points. You need to get onto the LBJ ones! Not quite as good but it's pretty damn good.
- oo0shiny 7y ago
  Certain podcast apps (I use Pocket Casts) will let you start a podcast at a certain timestamp. I've found that really helpful to skip the intros of the podcasts I listen to regularly.
alexhutcheson 7y ago
I highly recommend binging the back catalog of Hardcore History[1] if you haven't already. Yes, you have to pay for the older episodes, but it's a tremendous amount of really great content. My favorite individual episode is "Prophets of Doom": https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-48-prophets-of-doom/ https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-48-prophe... [1] https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-compilation-episodes-1-49/ https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-compilati...
- icebraining 7y ago
  Yeah, I've heard many hours of Hardcore History, but while it's certainly good, Dan Carlin's style - both the writing and the speech - frankly tire me a bit. There are too many times when it's too over the top. I much prefer Mike Duncan's or Mark Painter's styles.