Do You Speed Up Podcasts, YouTube Videos, Audiobooks...?

[What Would Jesus Do?]

I recently noticed that you can speed up YouTube videos. If I'm listening to a news report or lecture series and the delivery isn't already brisk, I've started bumping it a bit faster.

I've been doing that for a long time with audiobooks. And some podcasts allow that, too, depending on how you are listening to them. That feature is often available when listening to podcasts from a webpage, but I don't know how to do it from a smart device like phone or Alexa.

My old brain doesn't like things sped up too much. For me, 1.2x is the sweet spot for most media. My preferred audiobook reader offers that. YouTube and most podcasts offer 1.25x as the smallest increment. I will choose that, but occasionally it's a bit too fast for my tastes.

Anyone else speed these things up? What speeds work best for you?

Not recommended for music. Duh.

 

[onlyTheObvious]

I speed up some podcasts to 1.2 or 1.5 if I am trying to finish one before getting home on my commute.

Once in a while I go to 1.8 or even 2.0 but I have found when you do that you need to listen for a while at 1.5 to get ready for the tempo.

1.2 is almost unnoticeable IMO and preferred with some slow talkers.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

I speed up some podcasts to 1.2 or 1.5 if I am trying to finish one before getting home on my commute.

Once in a while I go to 1.8 or even 2.0 but I have found when you do that you need to listen for a while at 1.5 to get ready for the tempo.

1.2 is almost unnoticeable IMO and preferred with some slow talkers.

It's definitely true that you can adapt to even higher speeds with some content/speakers. But it can also be jarring.

Most of the time when I switch to 1.2x (where allowed) it takes no more than a few seconds to adapt. A little longer with 1.25x and occasionally I have to back down to 1.0x (if no intermediate speed is offered). I wish everyone would offer 1.2x or even finer gradations.

I'm currently listening to Rachel Maddow's latest book. With her speech patterns I had to level off at 1.15x. I could adapt to 1.2x I'm pretty sure, but why force it?

It's an interesting book, for those who don't have an instant revulsion to the mention of her name. It traces the rise of fascist and pro-Nazi thought in the US from the early 20th century up into WWII. So far (I'm nearly done) no comparisons have been drawn between these early activities and modern times - although maybe that's coming. Which is to say that even Trump supporters can enjoy this book (as far as I have gotten).