Podcast burnout

[Lustful Gustav]

Alright folks, this will sound like a fake topic, but it's a serious question. Hence, I put it in the "let's talk like boring serious assholes" section of the forum. Yay!

Has anyone else experienced comedy podcast burnout? I don't mean burnout in the sense that I'm no longer enjoying them, but more that I realized I can't fit them in my schedule like I'd want to, without getting distracted and doing 1% of the work I'm supposed to do. (You know, at my job. Where I'm supposed to do work. To get paid, to not be homeless.)

The other thing is in the winter I could fit 1-2 episodes in on my vapid life-sucking subway commute, and now I'm back to riding my bike.

I love so many great podcasts that in the past they would literally take up my entire work day, and I'd find myself stopping work to rewind to "something funny someone said about their dick that I didn't catch" 500 times. So now that I listen to music at work more often, I have a stockpile of over 10 podcasts I haven't heard. And now I feel like a slave to the motherfuckin' man, man. Anyone else?

[smartbunny]

Yeah I don't drive as much as I used to so I have less podcast time. I gave up a couple.

[misscritta]

Yeah, I have the same issue. I get a little overwhelmed by my ever growing podcast list. I just had to let some go. If I have days at work where I'm at my desk all day, then I have time to listen. Here lately, I haven't had that opportunity. I do have a 12 hour drive to Orlando in two weeks, and we will listen to a ton then. I totally get it.

[ImAScooby]

The wife and I uses to work opposite shifts so I would have about 8 hours to kill every night, and got a lot of podcast listening done then. Then her schedule changed and now I have a backlog that is growing by the day. Unfortunately I don't have a job that really lets me listen to them either, so I am pretty much screwed. Time to find a boring desk job!

[Ian Brill]

My enjoyment of pdocasting is exceeding my schedule. It does sting a bit when I give up on a show that I enjoy, but just can't keep up with because there's just not enough time in the week. I kind of feel like there's an awesome party going on and I can't make it.

I also wish I could offer financial support to all the podcasts I listen to (which is just not an option right now). It do feel like I'm getting away with something, getting all this entertainment for free.

[aenemaTron]

Podcasts, just add them to the list of things that I don't have enough time for. At least I can enjoy them when I'm doing other stuff, which I always am.

[Lustful Gustav]

Time to find a boring desk job!

That's what I have, and the podcasts make me do a really shitty lazy job. TODD GLASS WANTS ME TO BE UNEMPLOYED.

I kind of feel like there's an awesome party going on and I can't make it.

Yup, you nailed it with this description.

[ericluxury]

I think that article in the Onion AV Club that every comedian talked shit about was about this. I do think maybe people with less OCD wouldn't find this a problem, but once you become a big fan of a certain show and you see how listening to each one can make the whole better, you start feeling like you should listen to every show you like that way. Its a recipe for burnout and I've stopped liking a bunch of comedians because of it. Especially if they are funny but one aspect of their thing is annoying, I found myself really disliking the person in a way that was weird.

Having a desk job wasn't good for it since I found I wasn't being present at work. So I just cut down on shows. The 3 that are unmissable NNF, WTF, CBB (and Planet Money but thats not comedy) I always catch. Thats most of my commutes and busywork. Then I'll go on a streak of Uhh Yeah Dudes or something when I am cleaning or having an errand day. Best Show is tough because I love it but its so long, so I always have a queue of them.

But having too many, I think it helps to find the ones you really love and drop the ones you like. I also used to go by guest, like I'd always catch a Paul F on any show, but I found that when I went to see him live I didn't find it as fun as previous times because I was so used to his rhythms they werent surprising me, so now I just listen to him on the shows I would normally listen to.

[scamboogah]

Anyone else listen to podcasts at 2X speed? It really helps to increase the number you can listen to, but also can make you into a jittery, anxious catatonic that is constantly quoting things but can't remember which of the 7 podcasts a day that they heard it on.

Or so I'm told...

[BillBrasky]

At this point, I have pretty much cut myself down to Comedy Bang Bang, Doug Loves Movies, Never Not Funny and Who Charted (only the Wednesday one, not the end of the week one).

I will occasionally listen to The Nerdist or WTF if there's a guest I'm interested in on there.
Sklarboro Country I download every episode of, but very rarely get around to listening to it, and it usually ends up being an "if there's a guest I care about" one too.

That's about it for me. I've made peace with the fact that even though I find Todd Glass funny, I'm so behind on his show I'll never be able to listen to every episode (the fact that they're all 2+ hours long doesn't help). In a way, I'm kind of glad PFT and Dana Gould made theirs a monthly thing, because I feel like if they did one every week I'd probably start to like them less, like Eric said.

[MrDys]

In an odd, unintentional way, I've limited myself to the podcasts that I pay for. Weekly, I'll listen to the MaxFun podcasts either on my commute or as I'm falling asleep. I'll listen to WTF when there's a guest I want to hear, or thanks to the WTF thread on here, whenever people rave about someone I've never heard of (like Mary Mack), so...good job AST.

I feel bad about falling off with NNF (maybe 3 or 4 seasons ago), but I really need it to be a half hour shorter. Now I'm in a rut where I feel like I need to catch up with it in some kind of marathon listening session. But that may turn out to be more burnout inducing than enjoyable...

[smartbunny]

Jordan Jesse GO, Nerdist, You Look Nice Today, Judge John Hodgman & My Brother My Brother and Me are my must-listens.

Others I hear if there is someone I really like on or I have more time. (WTF, Pop My Culture, NNF, Bullseye, Int' Waters, Making It).

[BillBrasky]

Re: WTF, I know it's become the trendy podcast right now for comedy fans, and it won best podcast at the Comedy Awards and everything, but I feel like for the non-super nerdy comedy fan, listening to the average episode wouldn't be that entertaining. (Whereas CBB would be entertaining to anyone, I think). A lot of it is just like Marc Maron's therapy sessions rather than a discussion of comedy. The first 20 minutes of the podcast where Marc just rambles about his insecurities is unlistenable to me. He is a good interviewer, but the focus of the show still seems a lot of times like "let me apologize for being a dick 20 years ago" rather than a discussion of comedy. I'm sure there are probably episodes that are an exception to this that I haven't heard.

As an alternative to this, you have NNF, which is a bunch of guys just sitting around talking about their lives/whatever pops into their head/bad '80s music and it's still entertaining. I can listen to that and get something out of it, whereas Marc kind of makes me want to jump out a window sometimes.

[SeanX3]

I have a job where I can listen to what I want all day long. My problem is that I find it hard to listen to comic rambling and think at the same time. If I'm working in Photoshop, no problem. If I'm coding, forget it.

I'm starting to prefer shorter episodes. More often than not, I'll pick a podcast under 30mins over a two hour commitment.

Skipping episodes of WTF feels like I'm back to being 15 when I decided to stop praying—I felt sick but I knew I had to move on.

[badinia]

Agreed, there are so many good podcasts- I remember when Todd Glass and Jimmy Dore used to joke about how they could not imagine who would listen to them over two hours on Comedy and Everything Else, but I couldn't imagine not listening to all of them (my beloved Todd!)- but if a podcast is regularly over an hour now, I tend to drop it. I already don't watch teevee, and I'm only going to be alive for another thirty years, prolly!

[scamboogah]

I'm pretty sure the average person would enjoy an episode of WTF a LOT more than an episode of CBB. One of them wouldn't make them feel totally confused about what was going on.

This is not a bad thing about CBB, it's just that it's made for a much narrower niche audience than an interview show.

I know it's weird that I disagree with Brasky about something, but weird shit happens sometimes.

[davidd]

I feel like my specific podcast burnout is more associated with a general content overload. There are a few I listen to on a general basis, mostly because I spend a lot of time either commuting or walking my dog and I need something to quiet the voices in my head. But at the same time, listening to new stuff gets to feel like a chore and I sometimes find myself re-listening to my favorite episodes rather then jumping on new ones. I've kind of started doing the same thing with TV shows too. I think it's sort of a comforting return to my teenage years when there was no chance of having too much content directed at me. I'd listen to the same Pixies album over and over again, watch Letterman and Conan every night, replay the same comedy albums, re-read the copy of the zine I found that had interviews with Yo La Tengo or whoever, etc...

But I guess re-listening to eps of The Long Shot and the Todd Glass Show is just more interesting to me than listening to new eps of any other podcasts at this point. I just think some podcasts (like the two I just mentioned) are more worth listening to because they are more concerned with having fun and with doing something different than they are just putting out content for the sake of putting out content.

[BillBrasky]

I'm pretty sure the average person would enjoy an episode of WTF a LOT more than an episode of CBB. One of them wouldn't make them feel totally confused about what was going on.

This is not a bad thing about CBB, it's just that it's made for a much narrower niche audience than an interview show.

I know it's weird that I disagree with Brasky about something, but weird shit happens sometimes.

I hear what you're saying, and there are definitely episodes of CBB that get very inside-jokey, but the focus of CBB is still mainly comedy skits, songs, games, silliness, etc, as opposed to WTF, which focuses on Maron's personal history with the comedians he's interviewing, which is probably interesting to some but mostly not to non-AST types.

[Monty]

Anyone else listen to podcasts at 2X speed?

Yes, but only by accident. For the longest time, I thought "You Look Nice Today" was hosted by people talking in weird, robotic accents for no reason.

[thegreg]

Tom Scharpling on 2x sounds almost exactly like Mike Schmidt.