There’s always a conversation going on about how many podcasts is too many podcasts or what speed to listen to podcasts, but I don’t really see people talking about their style of binging podcasts.

You don’t have to start every podcast from the first episode. Shows that are more conversational can be started with the most recent episode. Other shows, such as audio dramas, actual plays, true crime, or any kind of show that follows an episodic narrative have to be started from the first episode.

Sometimes this isn’t that bad. Some shows are just a tight package of eight 28-minute episodes. But other shows can be far less forgiving, with maybe a hundred or so episodes that are on average over an hour. Sure, these larger shows tend to create recap episodes, but it’s a pretty imposing beast to take on.

And yet somehow we all do. Everyone isn’t caught up on every podcast, but everyone is working on catching up. Someone just got to the end of The Adventure Zone Balance arc and is crying on Twitter. Another just finished Wolf 359 and wants to both fight and hug Gabriel Urbina.

How are we doing this? I asked around the podcasting community to see how people handle the binge while also keeping up with shows they already listen to.

“For me, marathoning podcasts works really well for heavily-plotted audio fiction. Because I listen to so many different podcasts, and especially so many different works of fiction, it’s much easier for me to listen in one fell swoop so I can keep all of the characters and plot threads together. However, I will say that some of steeping in a story is lost when you listen to them all at once; I don’t have the time with each character to appreciate them fully as I would if I listened week by week. When it comes to nonfiction, I actually can’t stand marathoning most shows; I get too tired by the hosts’ voices, the segments, etc. The only nonfictions I’ve successfully marathoned are serialized investigative reporting like The Dream.”

Wil Williams, Discover Pods Author and Podcast Journalist

“When it comes to bingeing shows, I really commit. If I find a serialized show, I usually finish it in 1-2 days. While I’m bingeing, I throw in my regulars, just to make sure I keep up. I wake up to “The Daily” and “Up First,” and then in the afternoon, it’s all about “Today, Explained,” and “What Next?” And then, of course, there are the weekly shows: Criminal, It’s Been a Minute, The Big One, and more. I’ll listen to these right when I get the notification that they’re available, and then it’s back to the show I’m bingeing at that moment.”

Arielle Nissenblatt, founder of EarBuds Podcast Collective

“After my recent queuedown challenge in January,I’ve found myself approaching listening catch up differently this year. I’m in “sample mode” a lot of the time as RadioPublic’s Podcast Librarian—lots and lots of first episodes, some second episodes, then a smattering of more if I really like the show. For serialized shows, either short-run shows that are a set number of episodes or audio dramas especially, I would usually get stuck around episode three or four and not find any more time to continue because I was sampling so much across such a wide range of shows.

With the queuedown’s focus on encouraging me to listen more during long spans of time, I found that marathon listening (I’m working hard to abolish the phrase “binge-listening” from my vocabulary, since “marathon listening” indicates there’s some sort of control by the listener to decide to continue and the content is compelling enough to keep a listener engaged) to these two particular kinds of shows increased quite a bit. Better for me: episodes of audio dramas, even intense ones, are great listened to one after another because it’s easier to immerse myself in the story. Harder for me: the short-run podcasts that are really, really heavy (which includes many of them, since a deep dive into a difficult or horrifying topic is well-encapsulated by a singular narrative arc. For example, I listened to the bulk of Drilled and The City over one weekend and went to bed on Sunday in sort of a “People and Power are The Worst and I am Complicit and Yet I can’t Do Much of Anything” stupor which wasn’t the best. (I cleansed my palate with a short, goofy episode of Pants On Fire instead.)”

Ma’ayan Plaut, Content Strategist & Podcast Librarian, RadioPublic

“Lately I have my slate of shows I listen to on the days they come out. There are about 10-12 of those, and normally they’re topical, daily news type shows and if I’m not interested or just overwhelmed with the world I will remove them from my feed since they will always be there if I want to listen later. There have been a handful of serial shows I’ve discovered that with large backlogs where I wanted to start from the beginning, notably Philosophize This!. I would download around 10 at a time and since I was flying a lot for work so I would listen to them in 2-3 hour chunks. If an episode of another show came into my feed I might move it to the top of the queue, but mostly I just focused on getting through those episodes.

There are days where it seems every show I like releases an episode I’m interested in, and I normally decide to take an extra long walk that day to catch up. This isn’t a luxury everyone has I realize. But the opposite is also true, especially during the Holidays all the shows I like are releasing previously released episodes or maybe a cross-feed episode of another show. For those days I have some downloaded episodes of shows I want to try but just haven’t had time for.

Mainly I like to keep my feed very clean and if I find there’s a show I’m more often than not simply deleting without listening, I just unsubscribe. I occasionally fear I’m missing out on a great episode, but to me it’s just not worth the clutter, if there is a really good episode out there I will eventually hear about it and listen. Only shows that consistently create high quality episodes get priority these days, which gives me time to try out shows I’ve never listened to before! My biggest piece of advice in podcasts or anything really is: don’t be afraid to quit on it. If something just hasn’t grabbed your attention even if you think it should, just unsubscribe! Nobody has time for things that aren’t really working for them. If you look at your feed and think “Ugh I have so much to get through”, you might want to re-evaluate your approach.”

Charlie King, contributor to Discovers Pods

“Don’t overthink it. Podcasting is a massive wave that is hard to get on top of, and complicating it with a system or listening pattern will turn your hobby into another job. Listen to what you want, when you want! Pick up your favorite shows when they drop, and catch up with ones you don’t like that much (or maybe, just maybe, unsubscribe from the shows you don’t actually listen to). In terms of binging, I’d be careful with serialized shows. The plot always starts to swim in my mind when I reach the fifth episode in a row. But a show with a deep, non-sequential backlog is a perfect balm for that (like Friendshipping or MBMBaM or All Fantasy Everything).”

Eric Silver, Producer of Join the Party and HORSE

There shouldn’t be a set system on how you binge podcasts. Everyone has their own different way, be it meticulously organized or played-by-ear. It’s important to remember that you aren’t obligated to be caught up on everything. Just listen to what you like!

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