Only if you can stand the format. Even when (maybe especially when) they cover a topic that I'm interested in, I find it infuriating to listen to.
It's filled with endless repetition and rephrasing of the same thing over and over again. For example here's a snippet from a transcript:
JENN: ... to see if he can find anything in the interstitium that's happening that could explain this. And he finds ...
QIUSHENG CHEN: Telocytes.
INTERPRETER: Telocytes?
QIUSHENG CHEN: Telocytes.
INTERPRETER: Telocytes.
JENN: ... these cells ...
JENN: Oh, telocytes.
QIUSHENG CHEN: Yeah.
JENN: Telocytes, yes.
JENN: ... called telocytes, which are a newly-discovered cell ...
The whole thing is like that, where they take something that could have been a single sentence and stretch it out over 3, 5, even 10 minutes of repetition and unnecessary detail and throughout all of it they randomly insert stock audio and sound effects of things that don't matter to the content at all. Like someone will say they went into work and the audio abruptly cuts to 15-30 seconds of nothing but the ambient sounds of an office environment.
The transcript might be easier for some to tolerate. The anesthesia episode doesn't seem to be too bad in terms of the number of sentence fragments, repetitions, and pointless interjections as some episodes. Even as transcripts some are extremely frustrating to extract information from.
I'd expect a lot of interjections (yeahs, okays, ums, rights, etc) in normal conversation, but people don't keep repeating back everything that's said for the "benefit" of an audience. Not in my experience anyway, although I suppose there are probably some people who do... maybe as a vocal tic or something. You'd get none of the pauses for sound effects or music in normal speech either. The podcast comes off as being very "produced" as opposed to having a natural conversational tone, and some people love that aspect, but the low information density is what gets to me the most.
I mean, here's an except from another transcript and even ignoring that they're using a ton of sound clips to explain something simple, the amount of repetition would be insane in a normal conversation:
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Grief often comes in five stages.
RACHAEL CUSICK: I'm not sure when or how exactly I came across it, but...
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SCRUBS")
DAVE FOLEY: (As Lester Hedrick) You're going to go through what we call the five stages of grief.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Five stages of grief.
RACHAEL CUSICK: It was this five-part checklist.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: There are five stages of grief.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: What are you talking about?
RACHAEL CUSICK: You might have heard of these stages. The idea is pretty simple. It's basically that in the wake of losing a loved one, you'll go through a series of feelings.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RACHAEL CUSICK: First...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Stage one.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SCRUBS")
DAVE FOLEY: (As Lester Hedrick) Denial.
RACHAEL CUSICK: Denial.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Denial.
RACHAEL CUSICK: Then stage two.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Step two, that's anger.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SCRUBS")
DAVE FOLEY: (As Lester Hedrick) Anger.
RACHAEL CUSICK: Then bargaining.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SCRUBS")
DAVE FOLEY: (As Lester Hedrick) Bargaining.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: OK.
RACHAEL CUSICK: After that is...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Depression.
RACHAEL CUSICK: ...Depression and...
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SCRUBS")
DAVE FOLEY: (As Lester Hedrick) Finally, acceptance.
RACHAEL CUSICK: ...Last but not least, acceptance.
This is traditional, leisurely paced “slow media”. Nothing wrong with it. You can get the same content in short form by reading an encyclopedia if that’s preferrable.
