Oh my - I have found a viable alternative to radio!

[MayIDestroyYou]

Radio - or at least the bits I mostly listen to - has been getting steadily worse. Sometimes there's nothing at all I want to listen to on R4 between 9.45 and The Archers. And I'm actively avoiding whole chunks of R3. Have never quite come to terms with podcasts and only ever visit YouTube under protest. (I do know about internet radio.)

So I've been missing the sort of in depth, non-performatively shouty, intelligent conversation my rose-tinted memory recalls.

Obviously this year I've been forced to turn up for a million zoom meetings on my own subject. Not all of them tedious. But I've lately been making a virtue of necessity and signing up for zoom conferences only tangentially connected to my own occupation. Today I wandered away from the screen (to make an onion tart) and left the thing playing in the background. It was sheer heaven. Exactly the level of civilised, academic debate, unfolding gently over an hour or two, that I've been longing for.

(Sorry, there's no reason for anyone else to care. )

Oh, I want to do that, but most of the ones I'd have on also have PowerPoint slides or demos I need to watch. I need to find some more inspiring ones that are just voice!

Sounds interesting, but I'd definitely recommend getting to grip with podcasts! I sort of didn't really get quite what they were at first, or how to access them in a sensible way . But there must be gazillions of them right up your street, going by your OP.

You may be right, lazylinguist - but the whole podcast thing seems so uncentralised and random Admittedly the only ones I've listened to have been broadcast on proper radio - but they're all whispery, too close to the microphone, let's make a melodrama out of a few facts silliness. A thing with Nigel from the Archers was fun, but barely an hour's listening altogether.

I suppose what I like about zoom conferences is that at least the speakers can claim some professional standing. The only thing anyone ever advertises is their forthcoming book, and, really, they're not expecting millions of listeners so the thing isn't pitched for likes.

It's true, it's most relaxing if it's not something I need to know about. Taking notes and studying PowerPoint slides is not relaxing!

I didn't get my head around podcasts until I realised the thing to do was just pick a podcasts app and put it on my phone. Then you can just search/browse millions of podcasts by subject, name etc, regardless of which channel/company/person made them, all via the app. I expect most people knew this, but I didn't!