> If I'm doing something else at the same time, I would rather listen to music because anyway I won't be focused enough to not lose track of the podcast every 30 sec.

I tend to listen to then when doing something relatively mindless (walking, cleaning, on the bus, etc etc). I don't find concentration to be an issue there; your mileage may vary. I found I listened to them a lot more during the pandemic, when I really wanted to avoid silence.

> It makes you feel like you did something productive, when you actually barely listened, achieved nothing

This... feels like a weird way of looking at it? I'm not looking to _achieve_ something; I generally listen to podcasts because they are _entertaining_. I'd put them in the same general bucket as audiobooks.

I think people, particularly people who don't listen to podcasts, tend to assume that they're all interview-format. None of the podcasts I listen to are; the closest would be "Behind the Bastards", which does generally have a guest; however the role of the guest is effectively for the host to have someone to tell a story to.