Podcasts at the Speed of Thought

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Ever since I started my podcast I've been listening to more and more podcasts. Being that most of them are weekly and each episode is an hour to two hours long, it's a big time commitment.

Luckily BeyondPod recently came out with an update that now supports multiple playback speeds. I didn't think much of it until I tried it out and realized just how much of a time saver it is. And the best thing is that even though I couldn't comprehend what people were saying at 2x speed at first, I am slowly making my way up. I started at 1.3x and am now up to 1.45x.

Of course speeding up a podcast works better for some shows. I have found that At the Nexus and Control Structure are quite easy to understand (and I bet my show would be too) because we're not professional podcasters and we don't talk very fast. Same goes for the PC Gamer Podcast. The Besties talk a bit faster, and The Nerdist is extremely fast (although it does depend on the guest.) I was also recently introduced to Welcome to Night Vale and I haven't decided if I want to listen to it at increased speed because a huge part of the humor of that show depends on his monotone delivery and timing.

The weirdest part of listening at 1.4x speed is the theme song that typically happens at the beginning of a podcast. In the case of Control Structure, where they have a musical transition between sections of the show and occassionaly music playing under their voices, it gets even weirder.

Overall I really like the ability to speed up podcasts because it is a more efficient use of my time and it makes me feel more like a pro.