Podcasts are very good for interviews and conversations, which of course can be cleaned up and transcribed but may suffer for it.

There are also audio dramas, audiobooks, documentaries, and so on, that are all tightly scripted and can work very well. Some of them may work just as well as longform text and I guess that's what GP prefers. I enjoy audio documentaries a lot though.

Listen to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History series on World War I, and it will change your mind on the need for a podcast to have a conversation.

https://www.dancarlin.com/

For me, the best series by far that Dan Carlin did was the one on Genghis Khan ("The Wrath of the Khans", I believe it's called). The WWI one was also quite engaging, though. Before hearing it, I really was not interested in WWI at all, but he managed to make it very interesting for me.

The Tuchman book "The Guns of August" is an amazing book on the first month of WW1.

https://www.amazon.com/Guns-August-Pulitzer-Prize-Winning-Ou...

I have listened, and you're right that they're amazing. Perhaps OP is right that they would be better printed, but I doubt it, Carlin does speak with a passion.

In my defense, i did use the weasel word "mostly" :)

You do have to prep for those as well from experience on TWIWG (this week in wargaming) - you also have to prep for actual play ones look at the work that Mat Mercer puts in.