My addiction.
Published March 17, 2025 · 9:12 · 93,464 views
About This Video
A confession about podcast addiction that works precisely because Van treats it with the same seriousness he'd bring to a more dramatic vice. The structure follows the addiction narrative: what he listens to, why the habit is initially beneficial (constant learning, ambient intellectual stimulation), where it tips into compulsion (filling every silent moment), the attempted quit, the relapse. The week without podcasts reveals what the podcasts were covering up.
The puzzle-pieces metaphor at the end reframes the addiction as a symptom of something architectural. Van isn't addicted to podcasts; he's addicted to having every gap in his attention filled with someone else's ideas. The silence the podcasts displace is where his own ideas would live if he let them. Nine minutes about earbuds that's actually about the relationship between consumption and creation. The real story here isn't the habit. It's the silence.
Transcript
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description thank you better help power on connected connected awareness mode off choose the daily choose fly on
the wall choose Rich Roll choose Mark Maron choose andrees Horowitz choose Chris Williamson Colin and Samir
flagrant daily stoic Peter Zion sau Ryan trigonometry Diary of a CEO Allin pbd
impact Theory the o Von broken simulation bcast my name is van and I am a Podcast Addict I'm addicted to
podcasts and I listen to them all day every day since had a bunch of Recs on
2016 that's nine years these are my earbuds one two 3 four and I have more
these are just the ones I keep in the studio I wish I was listening to a podcast right now but I've quit for the week more on that later but first I want
to tell you why I think my podcast addiction is a good thing
first I get so much done listening to podcasts those typewritten wall hanging
pieces that I made thousands of hours that was mostly Rogan Marin slav zek
when I could find him revision history and broken record
maybe also when I'm shooting microtasks putting things away sweeping organizing
podcasts allow me to let my body do what it needs to do while my mind can listen
to the smartest people on the planet talking about their
ideas second with without podcasts my mind does weird
things you're not making enough money you're not making enough money this video is taking too long this prop is taking too long this shoot is taking too
long this writing is taking too long this edit is taking too long deadline deadline deadline sponsors patreon live stream all day long all in here yes I
meditate it helps a little but podcasts basically sign Ence these voices and I'm
in an ocean of ideas or camaraderie a lot of these
podcasts are just guys hanging out like Rogan and Duncan Trussell do you think
Satan is real and the third Divinity of the podcast Holy Trinity put the kids toed songs stuck in my head
earworms I tried taking a break from podcast for a week this is one of those tasks where I'm dying to listen to a
podcast and I wrote down every time a song fragment got stuck in my head it was only nine songs in 4 days and so I
did the math and it's 6.22 two22 hours per song fragment you better watch what
you do put the kids to bed guess when that one Pops in my
head I pop in my earbuds and listen to some genius no more earworms earworm
[Music] pesticide I'm having a hard time writing this so my mind body is begging for podcast and zolinski is on Lex fredman
today okay so what's the problem what's the problem with a podcast addiction I don't do drugs I don't drink alcohol I don't take
nicotine but I used to I'm sort of Behaving with these podcasts the way I
used to behave with drugs I'm like inventing manual labor to do so that I
can listen to podcasts when I'm supposed to be doing writing and planning work
and my actual drugs and alcohol recovery training has taught me that your mind
plays tricks on you and you convince yourself that no no no these drugs are good for me am I telling myself that the
podcasts are helpful or even essential because that's what the addict mind does
or are they actually helpful and possibly essential so I had this idea
that I'd take a week off of podcast and it drove me nuts this is driving me nuts I'm dying to listen to something I'm so
my mind is just racing with negativity I'm very much enjoying this much much
less than if I was listening to podcast right now and I'm very much like in my
head in a very negative way and I'm starting to think this whole abstinence from podcast is stupid now I have the
Happy Days theme song stuck in my head I get up at 4: 4:30 and let me tell you the world is a much lonelier and less
encouraging place without the and like 5 days in was the peak of the fire evacuation drama so the fires are
currently going on and after five days of podcast sobriety I've relapsed and I'm listening to Adam Corolla talk
about his experience in the Palisades fire he lives over here in malibo and I
just went way back into the podcast comfort that I get and
since then I've I've been there making this episode has been a struggle I've been working on it for 2 months I made
another episode in the interim between starting this one and then quitting this one and starting it again
and I don't have a good take on the podcast compulsion or addiction or
whatever it is I'm just it's a puzzle piece and I'm just processing it and I
don't have a conclusion writing and making these episodes helps me process
the puzzle pieces of my life and this is still like real time puzzle piece that I
don't know like am I in this kind of strange head space because of the aftermath of the fires this is the first
I'm seeing of the burn scar into panga we're on Saddle Peak Road a friend of ours who lived on this
road lost their house and the podcast is one of my coping mechanisms for it is it an unhealthy coping mechanism am I just
like building up towards something I don't know I wish I had a
more satisfying ending for this episode for you guys but I
don't and the Tim Dylan show is crack join our patreon team at $5 a
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Products & Tools Mentioned
- BetterHelp mentions — sponsor
- Kill Spencer CW Morgan bag uses — camera bag shown/used
People Referenced
Lex Fridman, Rich Roll, Marc Maron, Chris Williamson, Colin and Samir, Peter Zeihan, Theo Von, Joe Rogan, Duncan Trussell, Adam Carolla, Tim Dillon, Zelenskyy
Films & Media Referenced
- podcast addiction subject
- podcast mentioned
- podcast mentioned
- podcast mentioned
- podcast mentioned
- podcast mentioned
- podcast mentioned
- Bert Kreischer podcast mentioned
- podcast mentioned
- podcast mentioned
- podcast mentioned
- tech podcast mentioned
- podcast mentioned
- Saagar's podcast mentioned