A claim made by Mike Pesca on his ‘occasional’ ๐Ÿ”— Substack. But maybe that isn’t the point? Maybe that is also not right? He asked for comments. This post is is my response. What do you think?

I definitely agree with the sentiment of your post. I do feel I kinda โ€˜knowโ€™ people on podcasts better than, those whoโ€™s newsletter or blog I read. That said โ€ฆ

To spend time listening to a podcast is a big time commitment. Example - listening to The Gist each week day requires me to devote around 2% of all my available time on that day, which translates to (maybe) 25% of my โ€˜disposable timeโ€™ (8hrs of sleep, 8hrs of work, (say) 6hrs of โ€˜lifeโ€™ leaves 2 of disposable time).

Yes I can do other things while I listen, but it is still time intensive. PLUS, there is a commitment to that time to even get to know whether I want to listen. I know I can speed up the podcast - but really?

Meanwhile, I can grok newsletters, blogs et al pretty quickly and make a decision if I really want to commit time to reading it. So to get to information - the written word every time. To get to โ€˜knowโ€™ someone โ€ฆ audio.

But there wonโ€™t therefore be a large number of people in that category that I really โ€˜knowโ€™ - if in fact any. Example: despite listening to the Gist for many years - because I like the show and more often than not enjoy what you are talking about - I still donโ€™t really โ€˜knowโ€™ you.

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