Podcast Listening And Your Daily Commute

 When COVID lockdowns were initiated in spring 2020, the number of people of commuting plummeted by 40 percent for six weeks. Podcasters began to chew their fingernails. Without commuters, the audience for their podcasts would crater. Advertisers would flee, as would listener donations. 

In those early days, when we faced COVID with little knowledge of the power of our enemy, a large portion of the economy went into hibernation. But a funny thing happened to podcast downloads. They decreased for that first month in April, but only by a few percent. To paraphrase writer Jonathan Swift, "reports of podcasting's death were greatly exaggerated."

Commuting still isn't up to pre-pandemic standards, but podcast downloads are experiencing a growth spurt. Things are good again in the podcasting world.

So despite avoiding a meltdown in demand during the pandemic lockdown and afterwards, podcasting began to ask itself: What is our connection to commuting?

After all, companies discovered that remote workers are happier and, more important, more productive when working from home. All that "face time" at the workplace in the chaotic scrum called the open office concept truly was not necessary for profit, revenue, and the stock price to grow.

Do remote workers still listen to podcasts despite the lack of a daily commute? According to Edison Research, the audience for podcasts has more than doubled in the last five years. Meanwhile, smaller radio stations close, and even the bigger stations struggle with fewer listeners and less advertising revenue.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average one-way commute in the U.S. has increased to 27.9 minutes. That's close to an hour to and from home. The average length of a podcast is 32 minutes, so the average commuter could listen to two podcasts during their commute. On public transportation, the average one-way commute is 54 minutes, so a commuter can listen to more than an hour and a half of podcasts during their time on the bus, train, ferry, or subway.

Why does podcasting fit so comfortably into people's commute routine? 

Podcasting benefits from the same heuristic as streaming music. The listener controls the audio experience, choosing a playlist or a podcast that fits their mood or interest level. Radio, over-the-air and even satellite to some extent, structures the listener experience and the commuter assumes a passive rather than active content role. Even if you listen to The Beatles satellite channel, you may get The White Album when you're in the mood for A Hard Day's Night.

That's where podcasts and streaming music diverge. While I am sure there are some people who listen to the same songs every day, music offers a sonic experience that is heavily influenced by mood, life stress, and recent events. For example, studies show that people commuting home from work listen to more upbeat, up-tempo music than people traveling to work. 

The opposite dynamic seems to apply to podcasts, where news and informational podcasts like The Daily podcast, Business Wars, Stuff You Should Know, and NPR's Up First are morning favorites.

Political podcasts, such as Ben Shapiro, Pod Save America or Mark Levin appeal to AM commuters, because grievance, outrage, and the sense that everyone's out to screw you prepare you better for the travails of the workplace. 

As fiction and true-crime podcasts have grown in popularity, these genres offer commuters a more immersive experience where they can escape the grimy, sweaty confines of the subway car or bumper-to-bumper traffic on the expressway and mentally transport themselves to another world until the commute is over for the day. 

Podcasts like Criminal, Killer Queens, Morning Cup Of Murder and Serial relieve commuters from their misery -- people talking on their cell phone in speaker mode on the bus, sitting next to a man who smells like kielbasa on the train, and enduring drivers who change lanes every two minutes in gridlock to move up 20 feet.

A new podcast such as Love And Noraebang keeps listeners guessing as it switches genres from Rom-Com to telenovela as seamlessly as an automatic transmission on a Tesla. Batman Unburied redecorates superhero melodrama, trading capes and colors for audio richness and sonic complexity. 

Even at work, podcasts offer a multitasking option when reading and deleting the150 emails in your inbox every morning. While watching movies on your laptop at work may prompt a visit by the I.T. police, listening to a podcast with your AirPods streamed from your cell phone tends to skirt the rules. Workers use earbuds to listen in on audio conferences all the time, so someone with their phone screen faced down on the cubicle desk and AirPods can get through three episodes of the Carbon Copy podcast by lunch, which is just in time to make a passionate plea for climate change and ammunition to blunt the attacks of climate deniers who scoff at such nonsense any time it snows anywhere in the world.

My personal podcast listening strategy can be summarized as a "review and relax" plan of action.

On my morning commute, I'll listen to several podcasts as soon as I get into my car. Maybe Today, Explained, APM Marketplace or Curiosity Daily. I surrender myself fully to the topics covered in these podcasts. But then, about five minutes before I arrive at work, I switch to Yacht Rock music and begin to mentally prepare myself for work. What meetings do I have? Any projects due? Employee discussions to follow up on? When I park my vehicle, I have the mental preparation needed to begin work with a plan in mind and relieve the stress of some much uncertainty. 

It's like I'm Adam Scott's character in Severance on Apple TV Plus, where his brain has been severed into separate realities for worklife and homelife. 

On the way home, the opposite strategy prevails. As I drive out of the parking lot, I review my day with a top 40 streaming channel. Did I complete all my tasks? What did I screw up? How can I fix my mistakes tomorrow? Why is my boss such as an asshole? 

After five minutes, I return to my podcasts. Very Serious With Josh Barro, The Town with Matt Belloni, Ten Percent Happier, Switched On Pop, and Slate Money. 

By the time I've battled traffic jams, drivers who could not have possibly passed a road test, and ignored calls from work, I'm in the perfect frame of mind to walk in the door to my house. 

The next day, I do it all over again. As always, podcasts are my constant traveling companions. On my commute, I am the master of my domain over content, whether it be music or podcasts. Since my boss micromanages me at work and my family tries to overturn any decision I may make, like a daily Roe Vs Wade reversal, I am consoled by my time with my podcasts. 

Commuting makes up about five percent of our daily life when we work. We are not getting paid to commute. It's costing us money in gas, electric current, mass transit fees and tolls. It's time away from either family or simply relaxation or fun or challenging activities. 

Podcasts can make commuting less painful and, as an added benefit, makes us more informed, more thoughtful and more empathetic, unless you're listening to a Fox News podcast, in which case you'll be hating anyone and everyone who doesn't agree with you, since you're surrounded by Antifa and radical socialists.

What's your podcast listening strategy during your commute. Inquiring minds would like to know!

Photo by Mentatdgt