In the
spring of 2020, when so many of us became involuntary shut-ins, haunting our
own homes like premature phantoms, routine mail delivery could feel oddly
thrilling. We cheered the arrival of new packages not only for their contents
but simply because they were new — tantalizing evidence of a wider world within
reach.
اضافة اعلان
Early in the
pandemic, I noticed my podcast feed performing a similar function. My social
life had been decimated; my meaningful exposure to other humans, especially the
kind that ordinarily accrued through chance encounters on the subway or in
cafes, summarily canceled. But every day my feed refreshed with new dispatches
from other rooms and other lives, snapshots in what felt like a vast and fluid
mosaic.
I am a heavy
podcast consumer in normal times; I have more rewarding relationships with “Heavyweight”
and “Love + Radio,” long-running nonfiction series that are consistently
original and frequently moving, than I do with most TV shows. But in a year
when movie screens went black, concert venues fell silent and Broadway came to
a standstill, podcasts played a larger and more essential role in my life. Once
a diversion for idle hours or commutes, now they were a balm and an escape
hatch. They offered precious few occasions to feel surprised or inspired, to be
reassured by the company of a trusted voice in a darkening world.
Those voices
integrated seamlessly into my new normal. Without an office to commute to, I
savored new episodes of “Culture Gabfest” and “The Watch” on daily walks during
my lunch break. I listened to “Home Cooking” while making an unprecedented
number of weeknight dinners with my wife. I spent weekends sheltering in place
with the intoxicating plot twists of “Nice White Parents” and “Deep Cover.”
And, with the help of “Lovett or Leave It,” laughed regularly while following a
grim presidential campaign and its aftermath.
According to
Podtrac, an analytics firm, I’m not the only one who leaned into podcasts in
2020. After a dip in the spring of 2020, when statewide shutdowns first killed
commuting, downloads in the US have been climbing steadily. At the end of
October, 2020, they were up 47 percent from the same period in 2019, continuing
a skyward trajectory that has sharpened over the past decade. In a year when so
much in our society and culture was bent or broken, we had faith that the feed
would provide.
.jpg)
.jpg)
