Screw music, here’s a podcast.
Let’s fill in my shoes for a moment. It’s early Monday morning and you’re on the shuttle to campus. When you get off, it’s a good 10-15 minute walk to your lab. The university is bustling with a myriad of people walking in the midst of your peripherals. For once, you cut the concrete social media stare down with your smartphone and you make a brief observation. What do you notice? Headphones. What about them? They’re on everyone. Teachers and students alike are glued to these buds that dangle from your ears as if it were surgically attached and only music would be your life-dependent prescription.
Isn’t it beautiful? Music is literally life. Now how about we take a break from it? As a zealous music devotee, it may seem paradoxically odd to advocate such a blatant statement as to put music aside. It’s preposterous really. Music is life, right? Well, not so much. Although it may seem practically impossible to fathom a world where music would be completely swept from our grasp, back in high school, I took a break without even knowing it.
In 2009, Markus “Notch” Persson opened the world of Minecraft and when I snagged the beta in 2010, I was starstruck. Anything you can think of you can build and I utilized my urge to create like no other. I forged fortresses, traps, passages to mines, houses, and with the addition of mods, villages. It was euphoric. I even watched an innumerable amount of videos to ameliorate my imaginative building prowess. As fate would have it, I stumbled upon Simon and Lewis, who were more reputably known as The Yogscast. They swooned me with their magnanimously hilarious partially improvised drama: “Shadow of Israphel”, which started off as a harmless expedition of two jubilant explorers who plunge into the fictional land of Minecraftia with a direct mission to relinquish the nefarious Israphel and his devious army.
The series resulted in non-stop laughter. I couldn’t stop watching. Though it may seem strange to find it entertaining to watch two guys playing a video game, you might be tempted to ask: “How were you so hooked?” Their personalities were simply addicting to listen to. First off, they had the best British accents. Secondly, everything they talked about triggered your brain to wail out: “I NEED MORE.” Their discussions, as comedic as they were, were succinctly thorough and generated even more in-depth dialogue that kept me on a leash. All this stimulation made me desire more content so it’s not surprising that soon enough I would find the dynamic duo on iTunes and inevitably unearth my first podcast: the YogPod.
At the time I owned a 5th generation iPod Classic but instead of music, a good chunk my iPod was strictly devoted to Simon and Lewis. I was so immersed in their dialogue it was inconceivable. Minecraft wasn’t just the only source of entertainment anymore. I was more so intrigued by their frivolous banter in which they would haphazardly portray public figures (J.K. Rowling, Gary Coleman’s ghost, Queen Elizabeth II, etc.) who would occasionally butt into their discussion. Even though their impersonations were quite horrendous, the idiosyncrasies that they injected to each character kept each podcast alive. What was remarkable about each show was the genuine improvisation that came to play. Each podcast had unique content, from a Halloween special where they would read scary stories posted by users on reddit to having an actual celebrity star on the show. In one notable episode, they had the pleasure of having Kristian Nairn (Hodor) to discuss the release of the first season of Game of Thrones (which is how I even got to know the show in the first place). I had the honor of enjoying the Yogscast without having to sit around all day fumbling through their recent uploads on YouTube.
Did you know that the content that you can find on any conventional search engine only encompasses 3% of the entire World Wide Web? Did you know about the conspiracy between the FBI and an alleged accomplice to the Boston bombings? Did you know Arnold Schwarzenegger did real estate? I found all these very intriguing stories on the two and half hour drive from San Antonio to Killeen. I readily listened to podcasts not only as a source of entertainment, but also of news and other engaging subjects that you wouldn’t be tempted to find on your own. Getting acquainted with the Yogpod opened up my curious mind to venture into the thoughts of other individuals. I discovered The Nerdist, Stuff You Should Know, and even figured out that universities use podcasts as a tool to supplement their curriculum. Now what I love most about podcasts is the fact that nothing is scripted, just a subject to talk about. This subject can then be branched into endless discussions and can only be halted at the hour mark (the average run time of a podcast), something music cannot simply do.
Just to clarify, by no means did I replace music by podcasts. I was simply entranced by a new form of portable entertainment and I definitely encourage you to take a gander at these innate talks about life. Furthermore, even though the majority of podcasts are subjective, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing. Each show can open up a new perspective on a different subjects of matter and you can always learn something new from a random voice without having to open your mouth or read an article about it. All you have to do is listen. So open up the iTunes store and plug those headphones in!