The Long-Form Rebellion

In an age of TikTok, Twitter, and infinite-scroll feeds, I’ve rediscovered something wonderfully anachronistic: podcasts. Not the new 8-minute “snackable” podcasts designed for attention-span-challenged audiences, but the original kind – hour-long, unedited conversations that meander, pause, and sometimes go nowhere in particular.

And it’s been revelatory.

What Makes Podcasts Different

They’re Long

A typical podcast episode is 45-90 minutes. That’s an eternity in digital-attention terms. You can’t consume a podcast in the gaps between other activities. It demands sustained engagement.

This is a feature, not a bug.

When I listen to a podcast, I’m committing to an hour of my attention. This commitment creates space for:

  • Ideas to develop slowly
  • Guests to think before speaking
  • Topics to be explored in depth
  • Conversations to follow unexpected tangents

None of this is possible in social media’s 280-character, dopamine-hit format.

They’re Linear

Podcasts have a beginning, middle, and end. You can’t scroll past the “boring” bits to get to the highlights (well, you can skip forward, but it’s less reflexive than scroll-and-filter).

This linearity is uncomfortable at first. We’re trained to expect constant stimulation. But it’s also liberating – you surrender control and follow wherever the conversation leads.

Sometimes this means sitting through less interesting segments. But it also means discovering insights you wouldn’t have sought out yourself.

They’re Voices, Not Text

There’s something intimate about listening to someone speak for an hour. You pick up:

  • Hesitations and thinking-aloud
  • Humour and irony in tone
  • Enthusiasm or uncertainty
  • The rhythm of natural conversation

Text communication strips all this away. We’re left with words, which we read in our own internal voice, at our own pace. Podcasts restore the human element – these are actual people, actually talking.

They’re (Usually) Not Algorithmically Curated

When I choose a podcast, I’m deciding what to listen to. The platform isn’t choosing for me based on maximizing engagement.

This means:

  • I listen to entire episodes, not just “recommended” clips
  • I discover through active searching, not passive feeding
  • I build sustained interest in shows/hosts, not fleeting exposure to viral moments

The recommendation algorithms exist, of course. But they’re less central to the experience than on social media.

Why This Matters for Attention

Rebuilding Sustained Focus

I realized I’d lost the ability to pay attention to one thing for an hour. Reading, listening, watching – my mind would wander after 10-15 minutes, reaching for something new.

Podcasts have been training wheels for rebuilding attention span. Because they’re:

  • Engaging enough to maintain interest
  • But not hyperactive enough to train constant stimulation-seeking
  • Long enough to require settling in
  • Flexible enough to combine with other activities (walking, commuting, chores)

After months of regular podcast listening, I can now read for an hour without checking my phone. That’s not coincidence.

An Antidote to Outrage

Social media algorithms optimize for engagement, which means amplifying content that provokes strong emotional responses. Outrage, fear, anger – these keep us scrolling.

Podcasts (good ones, anyway) optimize for insight, not emotion. A typical episode might include:

  • Nuanced exploration of complex issues
  • Acknowledgment of uncertainty and trade-offs
  • Long-form arguments that develop over time
  • Space for guests to explain their thinking

This doesn’t mean podcasts are always right or unbiased. But they’re structurally different from outrage-optimized feeds.

Making Time, Not Finding It

“I don’t have time for podcasts” is what I used to think.

What I actually meant: “I don’t have spare time to sit and do nothing but listen.”

The insight: podcasts don’t require spare time. They transform otherwise wasted time:

  • Commuting becomes learning time
  • Walking becomes conversation time
  • Chores become seminar time
  • Exercise becomes podcast time

I listen while doing dishes, walking to work, weeding the garden, or lying in bed before sleep. Activities that used to be either silent or accompanied by music now carry ideas.

The Return

I say “return” because podcasts aren’t new. They’ve been around since the mid-2000s. But somewhere along the way, I’d stopped listening.

What changed?

The Subscription Trap

Around 2015, I subscribed to too many podcasts. My queue became overwhelming – 50+ unlistened episodes. The guilt of “I should listen to these” combined with the paralysis of choice meant I listened to none.

Solution: Unsubscribe from everything. Start fresh. Subscribe only to shows I actually listen to within 24 hours of release.

Current subscriptions: 6 shows. That’s it. And I’m 3-4 episodes behind total, not 50.

The Completionist Fallacy

I used to think I had to listen to every episode of every show I subscribed to. Skipping episodes felt wrong – like missing class or not finishing a book.

Realization: Podcasts aren’t obligations. If an episode topic doesn’t interest me, skip it. If I start listening and it’s not grabbing me, stop. There’s no podcast police.

This permission to be selective makes the whole experience lighter and more enjoyable.

The Passive-Listening Discovery

For years I tried to listen to podcasts while working. This doesn’t work (for me). Podcasts require more attention than music, and my work requires more attention than background listening allows.

Solution: Pair podcasts with physical activities that don’t require cognitive load:

  • Walking (perfect)
  • Exercise (good)
  • Commuting (good)
  • Cooking simple meals (good)
  • Household chores (good)

And stop trying to listen while:

  • Writing (impossible)
  • Coding (impossible)
  • Reading (impossible)
  • Serious cooking (difficult)

Matching the medium to the activity transformed podcasts from “something I should do” to “something I enjoy doing.”

What I’m Learning

Current podcast rotation (as of September 2018):

Conversations with Tyler - Tyler Cowen interviewing diverse guests about their expertise. Best for: Intellectual breadth, unexpected connections.

The Ezra Klein Show - In-depth policy and ideas discussions. Best for: Understanding political and social complexity.

Planet Money - Economic storytelling. Best for: Making economics fascinating.

99% Invisible - Design and architecture. Best for: Noticing what’s normally invisible.

The Weeds - Policy deep dives. Best for: Understanding how things actually work.

Sean Carroll’s Mindscape - Science and philosophy. Best for: Big ideas accessibly explained.

This rotation gives me ~6-7 hours/week of podcast time. Combined with audiobooks, that’s easily 40-50 hours of listening per month.

That’s the equivalent of several university courses worth of content. Except I’m “taking them” while walking, not sitting in lectures.

The Broader Point

Podcasts aren’t magical. They’re just one format among many. But they represent something important: a slower, deeper alternative to the rapid-fire content of social media.

Choosing to spend an hour listening to one conversation instead of scrolling through hundreds of snippets is a small act of resistance against the attention economy.

It says: I value depth over breadth, sustained engagement over constant novelty, developed arguments over hot takes.

This isn’t about podcasts specifically. It’s about finding formats and practices that:

  • Reward sustained attention
  • Encourage deep understanding
  • Resist algorithmic manipulation
  • Support learning rather than just entertaining

For me, that’s podcasts (and books, and long-form articles, and substantive conversations).

For you, it might be something else.

Practical Advice

If you want to try this:

1. Start Small

  • Pick ONE show that genuinely interests you
  • Listen to one episode
  • If you enjoyed it, add to regular rotation
  • If not, try a different show

2. Find Your Activity

  • What do you do that’s physical but not cognitively demanding?
  • That’s your podcast time
  • Don’t force podcast listening into incompatible activities

3. Let Go of FOMO

  • You cannot listen to all good podcasts
  • Missing episodes is fine
  • Unsubscribe without guilt
  • Quality over quantity

4. Give It Time

  • If you’re used to constant stimulation, podcasts may feel slow at first
  • That’s your attention span being retrained
  • Stick with it for a few weeks
  • The patience to listen will develop

5. Combine With Other Changes

  • Reduce social media time
  • Create phone-free spaces
  • Read long-form content
  • Have real conversations

Podcasts alone won’t fix attention problems. But as part of a broader practice of intentional media consumption, they’re powerful.

Why This Matters

We’re in a battle for attention. Platforms compete to capture and monetize every spare moment. The weapons are:

  • Infinite feeds that never end
  • Notification badges that demand checking
  • Variable reward schedules that create compulsion
  • Social comparison that triggers FOMO

Podcasts don’t solve this. But they offer an alternative mode:

  • Finite episodes that have endings
  • No notifications (unless you want them)
  • Predictable content from chosen sources
  • Solo listening without comparison

In the attention economy, choosing to spend an hour on something with no advertisements, no tracking, no algorithmic manipulation, and no social metrics is increasingly radical.

It’s saying: some experiences are worth more than their ability to generate engagement data.

The podcast revolution isn’t about technology. It’s about reclaiming time and attention for experiences that reward depth rather than trigger responses.

That’s why I’ve returned to podcasts.

And why I’m staying.