I too love podcasts but I don't think the educational ones necessarily teach me much. Listening is too passive, especially if you're doing other things. If I'm not following a book or paying close attention, I'll put the book down. But its easy with well produced podcasts and audio to just continue listening while zoning out. I've listened to hours on a subject but if you were to quiz me on that subject I would be clueless. I don't think the same would be true if I had spent hours reading a book on a topic.

For the same reason I don't do audio books. I tried listening in the car during low overhead highway driving and quickly realized my attention faded in and out too much.

Along the same lines, I also came to theorize that books that were written to be read don't make good audio candidates. Yes, doable. But I found lectures and speeches to be better suited for listening (as it was their original and intended medium).

For sure my retention is better with text on a page. I kept a journal for a while about what I learned that day and that worked somewhat well. For the computer ones it's really just a starting point to find things I wasn't even aware of and dive deeper.

That a discussion of diminishing sexuality led to a discussion of podcasts tells us everything we need to know.

There are - of course - plenty of podcasts about sex, sexuality, sex therapy topics…

Talking it ain't doing it. That you think that those topics bridge that gap is also indicative of why people aren't fucking.

I disagree to the degree that a whole lot of people in the world are walking around without a lot of knowledge about their own sexuality. They often don’t even understand what their gas and brakes really are - which is often not even directly connected to sexual function (but that’s a topic for sex therapy).

That said, my gut impression is that people are less sociable and less socialized than we used to be. I believe we simply spend less time around other people, and we are less adept at building relationships. It’s easier to remain sexually, socially, financially, and resource independent from other people - so we do and sexual relationships become less frequent.

Not sure how this plays into the back and forth, but my reasons are pretty simple. People use apps to find partners now, and I don't want to be on the apps. Of course I still meet people, and of course I'll find a partner. It just won't be through the primary mediums used by most. To me a dating app profile feels like looking for a partner by standing naked in the middle of a stadium and having everyone in the audience hold up a sign to rate you. I'll persue the people I like that I meet, and it will take longer. And I'm okay with that. Podcasts have helped me rekindle a life of my own. I believe too much TV and too much movie can give people the same feelings as too much Facebook or TikTok. You see all these sitcoms and reality shows and people's highlights and these relationships and feel like you're lacking. But TV and movies are fake, and so is most of social media. Stepping into the world of podcasts let me keep the entertainment without the depression of "why not me!?". That's my 2 cents anyway.

You are discussing others as generalizations, and my argument is that our tendency to attach ourselves to discussions of generalizations itself is the thing that intrudes as it is the absolute opposite of having sex. Fucking is an act that takes place entirely in the concrete present. Our ability to continuously dissociate into intangible abstractions has made us lose touch with our bodies. The discussion of podcasts and identities and all these other archetypes and mediums that divorce us from our physicality are ground zero of this loss.

Perhaps, but we are not operating in a pure vacuum of naturalism and some amount of relationship building typically precedes sex. We are not merely coupling on a grassy plain by natural raw instinct. That might be a loss - but culture, sexual identity, religion have commandeered the natural sexual energies of mankind since… just about as long as we can tell.

If you are fully immersed in your raw, human sexuality - that’s great. For many, sex and sexuality is more nuanced than mere fucking.

I love my list of podcasts, but I can't help but worry that I use it as a crutch for not having a ton of friends in my life. I remember being devastated when one of my favorites kind of abruptly ended (luckily they were just leaving the company they were at to start their own thing). I'm not saying all podcasts cause the listeners to form parasocial relationships, but I've found that ends up being the appeal for a lot of shows. Maybe it's just me, but the substitution for real relationships seems to be a huge part of why podcasts have become so popular.

So are you saying it isn't TV that has ruined your sex life, it's podcasts?

Savage Love really improved my wife's and my relationship (physical and otherwise). I highly recommend it, but if you're not familiar with Dan Savage, be prepared for some varsity-level discussions.

>sex life

What is this "sex life" you speak of? (haha).

On a serious note they helped me learn to be content with being alone or at least not worry about "looking" for it via dating apps, and I would say not playing that game (dating apps) is what is "ruining" my sex life (or lack of).

Thanks for the list of podcasts. I will check these out. And yeah, I've generally steered away from podcasts because of all the garbage. Also, I tried listening to podcasts while I run on the weekends, thinking it would be a good use of time for about 2 hours. Not so. My brain completely shuts down when I run; it's difficult to stay engaged in anything, so listening to a podcast felt like extra effort.

> Stavros!

You can just say Cum Town ;)

Thanks for taking the time to put up that list

does your app let you export subscriptions? i’d love to plop an opml into overcast

Unfortunately no, I'm using Google podcasts. And after some searching I'm learning it's the most loathed of all podcast apps, haha.

[META] List posts this long shouldn't be allowed, or at the very least be for exceptional circumstances only. Gratuitous use of screen space that could have been served perfectly fine with commas.

there's a little [-] icon at the end of every comment header, that's for collapsing comments (and their children) that take up too much space

Thanks, I'm very aware of that.

It's basically a few pixels on mobile.