I have contracted Music ADD. I just cannot settle on one playlist, artist or a single song even to listen to all the way through. I used to be able to listen to music while I read for class or studied for a test, but lately I get so distracted thinking, “Is this the right song to be listening to right now?” or, “I wonder what song is next on my playlist?” and eventually before the song is over I have to change the it. Then I lose my place in my book and have to re-read entire paragraphs. It’s seriously a problem. And now it has spilled over into my workout playlists. This is even more of a problem because you don’t want to be that girl on the elliptical glued to her phone. It is also physically impossible to change a song while you are bobbing up and down on a treadmill. But I have found a solution (for what to listen to at the gym, at least)- Podcasts!
I like listening to podcasts for many reasons:
- I tend to get bored while working out so having something more interesting to listen to helps keep my mind on something other than how badly my legs (arms, feet etc.) hurt.
- I feel like I am learning something. Even if that something is the history of skinny jeans.
- Podcasts are a good break for your mind, but still make me feel like I am being productive. For me, going from reading something very academic like how the transcendentalist thinkers of the 1840’s helped reinvent the advocacy tradition of Journalism to listening to Top 40 pop songs can be very jarring.
Here are a few of my favorites to listen to:
Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac | https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/apm-garrison-keillors-writers/id136642066?mt=2
TED Talks | https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/tedtalks-audio/id160904630
How Stuff Work’s Stuff Mom Never Told You | https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/stuff-mom-never-told-you/id304531053
Star Talk | https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/startalk-radio/id325404506
