You got me! I've read McLuhan and while I think he can be a bit overdramatic in his proclamations, his way of looking at media as whole user experience rather

You got me! I've read McLuhan and while I think he can be a bit overdramatic in his proclamations, his way of looking at media as whole user experience rather than just content in isolation makes a lot of sense. It's relevant in this discussion because the content and the user's environment both determine whether a thing is "good" or "bad" (or as McLuhan would say... cold or hot). I personally don't listen to podcasts as a passive activity, I try to concentrate as if I were reading them to follow along with the concepts, but that's a function of what I'm listening to, I tend to favor theoretical discussions of concepts rather than people making jokes about the news or analyzing sports highlights or something that is more divided into discrete sections. I can listen while driving a car, because driving a car is purely reactive (the GPS is telling me when to turn, and otherwise I simply react to signs, traffic lights, and other vehicles without thinking much). But listening while coding doesn't work, I'll have to constantly rewind to a section of stuff that I've tuned out while reading docs or thinking about something else. On the other hand, if someone prefers listening to analysis of the previous day's NBA games and because they live in Houston they don't care about the Bulls vs the Knicks, who cares if they tune that part out and miss most of it? Listen while you're watching TV or cooking dinner if that's what floats your boat.