Valerie Mates
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Podcasts that Valerie Likes

For several years, I was stuck spending a ton of time shuttling kids around in the car and standing at the schoolbus stop waiting for a kid's schoolbus, and that time felt really badly wasted to me. One year I calculated that it was about eight hours a week that I spent on these things! To me, podcasts are an amazing solution to all that dead time. Since I discovered podcasts I've learned so much, and been entertained -- it makes that eight hours into a time that I look forward to instead of a nasty chore that is eating up my life. It's definitely worth finding podcasts that work for you -- there are plenty that do feel to me like just a waste of time. But some of the good ones are (in my opinion) very much worth listening to. Especially compared to just standing around waiting for the schoolbus with nothing to do.

Some podcasts that I like are:

Yes, this is only my favorites among the podcasts that I listen to! I spend far too much time listening to podcasts.

You can increase the speed that you listen/watch at, and it makes a HUGE difference to the frustration of speech being so much slower than reading. I switched my podcast player to 1.3 speed playback, and then when I got used to that I went up to 1.7 speed, and then from there to 2.0 speed, and now often to 2.5 speed. For material that is dense or speakers with a difficult-to-understand accent I need to slow it down, or if I'm multitasking with something else. But podcasts and video at speeded-up speed are amazing!!!

Last updated January, 2021

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Valerie, January of 2023
Valerie - January, 2023