This one is for you, Kyla.
Everyone listens to dang podcasts these days. That’s fine but they don’t do much for me. Jenn will put some on when we go for road trips or to the cabin and I generally enjoy the ones she chooses. So far I have liked This American Life, RadioLab, Cocaine and Rhinestones, Revisionist History, Stuff You Should Know, and a handful of short series investigations into murders and shit. Side note, I wonder how typical my podcast tastes are. Am I a basic bitch? Whatever, who cares.
Anyway, despite enjoying those podcasts when Jenn and I are traveling or having dinner or sitting by a camp fire, I don’t like listening to them at other times. I admit I haven’t tried that often but I have a bit, and I haven’t liked it. I just tried again tonight. First I checked out a podcast by a black female fighter I really like (Angela Hill, she’s hilarious, and a great fighter) and her friend and UFC commentator who I also really like. They were talking about topics I’m very interested in so I thought, “wow, this sounds good.” I was excited to check it out. But after 5 or 10 minutes I was bored, disinterested. Pulled the plug. I felt bad because I really do want to support those girls but I just wasn’t feeling it. Then Kyla sent me a podcast she thought I would like, and I didn’t like it at all. I have already thought about this topic a lot but tonight’s events lead me to decide that I needed to blog about this.
Here’s the thing: I would almost always prefer to listen to music instead of a podcast. I love using music to elicit a particular vibe or feeling that I’m seeking, or using it to enhance whatever shit I’m already feeling. I love that, and music is great for it. Podcasts are obviously way better at communicating more concrete information, but I usually just don’t care. And I think this is the big problem, that I’m more of a feeler than a thinker. I’ve never felt like that before, because while I’m no genius I’m obviously not the biggest dunce on the block, but my preference for music and feelings and vibes over learning new shit has had me thinking about this a lot recently.
And that’s a shame, really. I’m jealous of how much Jenn learns from her constant podcast consuming. She frequently teaches me new shit that she has learned from them, and I’m envious of that. I want to learn cool shit too!…but I’d rather listen to disco or chillwave or nihilistic progressive black metal so that I can feel emotional and weird.
As with everything, I think finding a balance is important. I think both music/feelings and podcasts/thinking have equal value so I wish I could dig the latter more than I do. But I also believe that the left and right brain use different approaches to achieve similar things. I mean, they are just specialized in certain types of information processing. One is for abstract info, the other is for veritable info, and both are equally valuable. So maybe I’m not necessarily making myself dumber by choosing one over the other, like I’m afraid I might be.
But I am definitely afraid that I am just sticking with music because of the nostalgic value of a lot of the stuff I like. Nostalgia is fun and all but it lacks depth, I think. It’s pretty one-dimensional. It’s reliving old, safe experiences instead of creating new ones. Seeking new experiences is riskier, there is a greater likelihood of elements you don’t like, and that variety of elements adds more colour, more dimensions to the experience. But fuck, is it really that simple? I mean, when I listen to the right music at the right times, it can bring me to tears. I feel like that is a dead giveaway of deep emotional value, at least for me (I’m not a crier). But I’m also always digging for new music so I don’t think I’m totally obsessed with nostalgia when it comes to art anyway so this is kind of a moot point.
Conclusions:
- This is a really muddled post but I’m tired now and don’t care.
- I think podcasts and music are equally valuable but I generally prefer music.
- The jury is still out on nostalgia — it might be totally vapid crap but I don’t know, it sure doesn’t feel like it to me.
I might have to edit this tomorrow so Tizzy Sliz-a-bing-bong, I’m sorry if you get this crappy version emailed to you and never see the super duper cleaned up version. I just hate having incomplete posts sitting in the drafts folder, they weigh on me heavily.
Night night.
*Inevitable edit* – Ben texted me and pointed out that music is good for passive listens, while podcasts are not. I mean, how much information can you fully absorb from a podcast if you are distracted by whatever else you’re doing? I thought that was a really good point. Meanwhile, background music has tons of value. So yeah, I’m feeling better about my choices for when I listen to podcasts and music. Thanks Benny boy.
crimson highway 