Listening to a podcast and music at the same time

I might be nuts. Today while listening to podcasts, I also want music. Emotionally, I want something more. Is this a multi-tasking urge? Maybe so, maybe not. I’m a big fan of focusing while watching a TV or movie—not doing anything else. Maybe the podcast just feels a bit dry and needs a little extra flavor.

I pull up Spotify and search for “quiet”. Now I’m listening to the “Jazz in the Background” playlist by Spotify.

Screenshot of the Spotify playlist "Jazz in the Background"

Now this quiet jazz is playing alongside the podcast “Something You Should Know” by Mike Carruthers. Specifically an episode about Why Do We Experience Déjà Vu?

Screenshot of "Something You Should Know" podcast in a podcast player, Downcast.

This overlap of déjà vu with jazz is quite a combination. It’s even hilarious when there are certain moments of serendipity with the music and podcast. For instance, the music track had some some audience applause the very moment that the podcast went to an ad break. It’s almost like there was a live audience applauding the concluded segment of “Something You Should Know”.

Have you ever tried listening to a podcast and music at the same time?

It’s actually working pretty well for me right now. Of course, the trick would be to pick music that has no lyrics. I couldn’t imagine trying to listen to a podcast while someone is singing.

Work expert Marco Buscaglia suggests, “I have to have each playing on its own speaker(s).”

NICE POINT. Play the music and the podcast on different speakers. Someone can listen to a podcast while in a coffeeshop that is playing music. How that is possible? Perhaps because the sound is coming from different sources.

Simultaneously vs. at the same time

Side note: The URL of this blog post used to have the text “listening-to-a-podcast-and-music-at-the-same-time”. It’s a bit of a long URL. The “at-the-same-time” part seems especially long.

I replaced the text “at-the-same-time” with “simultaneously”. That would be shorter, right? Nope. “at the same time” uses 13 characters (without the spaces/dashes). Whereas “simultaneously” uses 14 characters. “simultaneously” is LONGER. Isn’t that amazing? The single word version has more letters!

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3 thoughts on “Listening to a podcast and music at the same time”

  1. I find this very interesting. As a podcast producer, I do not, generally, use a lot of music behind speech. That might be because I am a stick-in-the-mud old fart who learned that craft, such as it is, at a well-known broadcaster. Also, it is really difficult, especially when there is no-one I can ask to do it for me. Listening to track after track after track to find the right one is so time-consuming. But maybe that’s a waste of time? You seem to be suggesting that I just bung some smooth jazz under everything.

  2. I find this very interesting. As a podcast producer, I do not, generally, use a lot of music behind speech. That might be because I am a stick-in-the-mud old fart who learned that craft, such as it is, at a well-known broadcaster. Also, it is really difficult, especially when there is no-one I can ask to do it for me. Listening to track after track after track to find the right one is so time-consuming. But maybe that’s a waste of time? You seem to be suggesting that I just bung some smooth jazz under everything.

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