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Re:Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 b... by colechristensen on Wednesday September 04, 2019 @05:15PM (#20881506)
It depends on the speaker. Some speakers are particularly slow with lots of long pauses and others are faster.

I think anyone can get to 3x but it takes some time to adjust to faster and faster speeds. It also depends on what you are doing while listening. Distractions or listening while doing something else (driving for example) lowers my ability to comprehend. For example on the interstate without much traffic I'll listen to audiobooks at 3x, but in a city or a crowded highway I have to slow it down.

Re:Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 b... by Swizec on Wednesday September 04, 2019 @05:23PM (#20881563)
Overcast has a great feature where it cuts out pauses and otherwise leaves the speed intact. It easily speeds up podcasts by 30% and more
Re:Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 b... by liability on Wednesday September 04, 2019 @05:49PM (#20881768)
FYI if anybody is interested in doing this without an app, check out ffmpeg's silenceremove filter.
Re:Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 b... by dexterdog on Wednesday September 04, 2019 @10:17PM (#20883317)
Most decent podcast players also support this.