I think I’ve written about this before, but it recently became very present for me again when I was listening to streaming music, and the song “Music is love”, by David Crosby, came on.  The version inserted here is Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young:

I don’t listen too as many podcasts now that I live so much closer to work, and don’t have up to two hours a day wasted in my car.

In my commuter days, driving from home in Rockville, MD to work in Baltimore, by the time I got in my car, I would have already heard the entire Morning Edition broadcast.  Our alarm was set to NPR, so listening to the news on my commute was redundant. For years, after discovering Audible, I listened to books, but I found that didn’t work great because my mind wandered, or traffic would demand my attention, and I’d find myself rewinding and listening to chapters over again. Then, I discovered podcasts, and I had the perfect solution!

Podcasts are like the news, so, if you have to tune out to pay attention to traffic, or your mind just wanders off (as mine often can), you haven’t really lost anything, as you do when listening to an audiobook.  And, there is so much that I can’t listen to because of scheduling. When I got more serious about observing Shabbat – and don’t turn on the radio on Saturdays, I was missing one of my favorite radio programs, Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me, and also, This American Life.

I have a lot of music on my phone, but I found I almost never listened to music.  I had identified some time ago that I generally don’t listen to music when I’m feeling depressed, but I didn’t really connect that with my listening habits in the car.  I just figured that I needed talking to listen to in the car, rather than music.

But, I discovered I was wrong!

Lately, I’m finding that I am falling behind on my podcast listening, because I’m only listening to music.  Yesterday, when I ran the Dexter-Ann Arbor 10K – my first 10K race – I was so psyched to listen to music while running.  When I didn’t like running as much as I do now, I used to think that listening to podcasts helped me take my mind off the pain of running, but now, I can even run without any sound accompaniment, like I did last Wednesday, since it was Shavuot (a Jewish holiday, which prohibits work), and I didn’t really want to use technology.

So, I’m realizing that I’m happier than I have been in a long time, and I am able to listen to music, which is truly a joy.

But, I’m missing out on great podcasts!!  If only there was more time in a day…