The Case for Listening at .8x
Slow down your podcasts (for everyone’s sake)
It all started with a desire for longer musical interludes. I was listening to podcasts that had ~30 seconds of music between segments, and I found myself wanting to stretch these breaks to three or four minutes, so there would be entire songs punctuating the spoken segments. Then, I found myself noticing the silences more than I ever had before. So many of them seemed to be five or ten seconds shorter than I wanted.
Pretty soon, everything about my podcasts was feeling too fast. I’m usually a 1.1x or 1.2x listener — nothing too noticeable, but just enough to give my shows some extra pep and myself some extra time. And it works: according to my podcast player, I’ve saved 7 days and 11 hours through variable speed. But now, even 1.2x seemed unbearably quick. So I stopped speeding up my podcasts at all.
I don’t know if it’s podcasts that changed, or if it’s me. The world is heavy right now, and my heart can’t take too much, too fast. I’m more grateful than ever when a creator leaves long stretches of silence that give the story, and me, a chance to breathe.
This week, I took it one step further: I slowed my listening speed to .9x, then .8x. The voices distorted slightly, but it was worth it for what I gained. I gave myself the gift of time — not time saved, but time spent in a place I really wanted to stay.
Don’t get me wrong: There’s plenty of content to rush through and information that I just want to download into my consciousness. But for those other stories, I implore us all to slow down. Makers, give us more space and time. Stretch out your silences and music breaks, leave in more tape of your guest struggling for words, and trust that listeners want to linger in the worlds you’re building. Listeners, make that time for yourself. Take one more step into the world in your headphones and let yourself just be.
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