Buzz
There’s an abundance of incredible podcasts available (like Mytour’s The Upgrade), but with limited hours in a day, it’s tough to keep up. The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted how 'podcast nuts' speed up their listening with apps like Overcast—sometimes as fast as 5x speed. While it saves time, it could raise your blood pressure and make podcast listening more stressful. So, what’s the ideal speed to enjoy podcasts without sacrificing your health or the experience?
Many podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, offer features that increase playback speed. Overcast's Smart Speed, for instance, reduces silences to speed up podcasts. I tried Overcast’s Smart Speed on The Upgrade’s episode about awkwardness, bumping it up two notches. It turned the 53-minute episode into a 34-minute one, maintaining voice pitch and audio quality (thanks to technology). The speed varied between 1.1x and 1.8x, mostly staying at 1.3x. As I got used to it, I pushed it to an average of 1.8x. I tried 3x, but it felt too fast—though I could still understand the content, it became mentally exhausting to follow.
Mytour's Nick Douglas mentions that Overcast’s Smart Speed works wonders for unscripted talk shows but not so much for heavily produced ones. While using Smart Speed with The Upgrade, the speed only increased from 1x to 1.1x, which doesn’t really save much time. However, for shows like On Being with Krista Tippett, which airs unedited versions of episodes, Smart Speed boosted playback from 1.2x to 1.7x.
While speeding up podcasts does save time, it may detract from the overall listening experience depending on personal preferences and the type of show being played.
Obviously, you shouldn’t speed up podcasts when the timing is crucial, such as with meditation, music, or comedy podcasts—listening to Welcome To Nightvale at 2x speed would ruin the suspense and disrupt its storytelling tone. However, for podcasts focused on information, like The New York Times’ The Daily, speeding them up can be a more time-efficient choice.
Similar to multitasking, where I’m trying to accomplish as much as possible in a short time, I’ll continue listening to podcasts at faster speeds, accepting the tradeoff between enjoyment and efficiency. There’s a certain appeal in maximizing efficiency, even when it’s unnecessary—and gaining an extra 19 minutes to enjoy another podcast episode is a tempting bonus.
