Road Trip!
Posted on: April 25, 2019
Where have I been this last week?
At my parent’s house in Maryland. Had a great time, got to spend time with my adorable niece who is the cutest little girl in the whole world, got to visit with Lesley Conner of Apex Book Company . . . . and got to spent in total about 22 hours in the car. it was a long drive made easy by the Ohio and PA turnpike, and good weather. Driving through the mountains is fun!
also, podcasts kept me from pulling my hair out.
So, i SUCK at listening to podcasts. Audiobooks put me to sleep, and podcasts usually make me feel guilty about not reading enough, or self caring enough, or not whatevering enough. I don’t want a podcast that’s like a radio station’s morning show, where it’s all in jokes and personalities I’m supposed to already know. Let it be known that i am THE WORST at listening to science fiction themed podcasts. see: guilt at not reading or not liking what the hosts are super excited about. I’ve been on science fiction podcasts! I enjoy being on science fiction podcasts! I just suck at listening to them. I think us Sci-Fi’ers love the sound of our own voices just a little too much sometimes.
I wanted podcasts that were going to keep my attention, keep me awake, teach me about something I don’t know much about, and be fun to listen to.
Here are the ones that kept me engaged:
Ologies – where has this podcast been all my life? I LOVED the podcasts on linguistics and etymology, and enjoyed the one on personality tests. I downloaded a bunch of others but haven’t gotten to them yet.
The Uncertain Hour – i love the tagline of this podcast so much that I’ve started using this line at work “because the things we fight the most about are the things we know the least about”. The first season was on things you don’t know about Welfare. The second season is about how and why we have government regulation. that sounds SO BORING, but the journalist who does this podcast makes it sound super interesting! Season 3 is about the Opioid Crisis, and that one may be too depressing for me to listen to.
99% Invisible – The sound quality of these episodes seems a bit all over the place, but the information is really neat. I listened to an episode about Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonia houses, one about San Francisco’s Chinatown, one about double-eyelid surgery, and one about the history of color. The color one was less interesting than I’d hoped, the other two were really interesting.
I didn’t listen to The Dream on this roadtrip, but that is another podcast I really enjoyed. She takes on Pyramid /Multilevel Marketing schemes. fun stuff!
11 Responses to "Road Trip!"
April 25, 2019 at 9:20 am
I’m terrible at listening to anything audio, except music, which I can zone out to. But if I had to drive for such a long time, I would give podcasts a try!
LikeLike
April 25, 2019 at 7:56 pm
for morning commutes i prefer music too! it’s relaxing to sing along to, or zone out to the radio on my way to work.
LikeLike
April 25, 2019 at 6:47 pm
Ah, I’m in MD, cool to hear you were in my neck of the woods 🙂 Sounds like you had a great time!
LikeLike
April 25, 2019 at 7:58 pm
i love driving through the mountains in good weather! the views are beautiful and the curves are fun. but man, i’ve done it in the rain and it’s a nightmare. how do ya’ll get over South Mountain in the winter??
LikeLike
April 26, 2019 at 11:19 pm
This winter wasn’t too bad. I love the drive through the mountains too, we did that last summer cutting through the range traveling westward!
LikeLike
April 26, 2019 at 10:45 am
Yay, like Mogsy, I’m in MD too, but central MD. 🙂
LikeLike
April 26, 2019 at 8:24 pm
I was somewhere near Frederick. I know how to get there from the PA Turnpike, but i couldn’t find it on a map.
April 26, 2019 at 9:47 pm
Ah, Frederick is about an hour away from me. There is a fantastic used bookstore there that I love called Wonder Book and Video, great place. 🙂
LikeLike
the Little Red Reviewer 
April 25, 2019 at 6:42 am
Fun! I’m a recent convert to podcasts as well. A long walk plus a good podcast makes me very happy.
My current favorite is “By the Book” where two women read self-help books and follow them to the letter, with often hilarious results. I also enjoy Kirsten Oliphant’s “Create If Writing” podcast.
Here’s a quirk I have. I love women’s voices on podcasts but I find men’s voices harder to listen to. I kind of zone out on male-hosted podcasts, so I don’t listen to them anymore.
LikeLike
April 25, 2019 at 7:54 pm
ooh, i’ll have to check out that By The Book podcast, that does sound hilarious! I used to listen to podcasts that ran 70-90 minutes, and thought I didn’t like podcasts. but then I found shorter ones, and liked them. I didn’t like podcasts, I just don’t have an attention span more than about 45 minutes for each episode!
interesting what you say about preferring women’s voices because you zone out to men’s. For me, it seems to be if the person uses a peppy (but not annoyingly peppy) radio news announcer voice, I do well. if they have a “I’m telling you a slow, relaxing story” voice, I just zone out and fall asleep. Example – I have zero interest in financial stuff, but I listen to Marketplace on NPR because I love listening to Kai Ryssdal’s voice.
LikeLike