Listening to Podcasts
Podcasts started to become more commonplace around 2005. Now we hear about them frequently and are reminded of their popularity when we see people walking and exercising with their earphones plugged in—listening to podcasts. Podcasts have become so popular!
Today, I will discuss how people with cochlear implants may enjoy them, too.
As a pure listening activity, podcasts allow people to listen while being occupied with other activities. Consequently, one may assume that podcasts are not a feasible listening activity for people with hearing loss (including those with cochlear implants).
Podcasts are often more challenging for auditory comprehension compared with audiobooks or recorded articles. There are a number of reasons why that is the case:
- Hosts are usually not professional readers; therefore, their speech may be difficult to comprehend. In many instances, the reader is speaking too fast for someone with hearing loss to follow.
- Because podcasts are often given in a spontaneous manner, they may contain more pauses, repetitions, corrections, false starts, and hesitation. This may frustrate listeners with CIs.
- The sound quality in podcasts may not necessarily be as high quality as other recorded options. Indeed, there is a wide range of quality in the podcasts relative to the recordings and editing.
- Background music or other noises can make auditory comprehension difficult.
- When the podcast is a conversation between two people, listeners must distinguish between the two (or more) speaker voices, voices which may have different speech characteristics. This may complicate listening and make it more difficult than understanding a single speaker. There can be rapid transitions from topic to topic in such conversations, adding to the challenges of following and understanding the discussion.
So, why even try? What makes podcasts valuable?
These are a number of reasons people like podcast:
- Podcasts use a different and exciting presentation of a topic and allow for a deeper level of content compared with radio.
- Comparing podcasts and newspaper articles, podcasts may present information in a less formal and processed way, allowing listeners more space to form an opinion and encouraging them to draw conclusions.
- Podcasts may be less structured and more like natural and even intimate monologues or conversations; they provide the listeners with a less filtered and more authentic experience.
- Listening to podcasts provides listeners with a glimpse into the personality of the hosts; listeners can relate to them. Moreover, when the host invites somebody to join the episode, it allows the listeners to experience a dynamic between them and the host.
- There are many podcasts covering many categories making it easy to find a podcast to connect with.
- Podcasts can be used as auditory training material for advanced CI users who are able to comprehend speech on other recorded materials such as (some) TED talks (without captions), audiobooks and recorded articles.
What can a CI recipient do to maximize the opportunity to listen and enjoy a podcast?- Begin by listening to video-podcasts where you can also rely on speech reading and captions when needed.
- Find podcasts that have captions or transcripts. Use the transcript and captions to support your understanding while listening, or read the transcript before starting to listen to the podcast. It will make the experience not only beneficial in terms of auditory training, but also rewarding and fun.
- Choose to listen to podcasts with speakers who have clear and highly intelligible speech and who are speaking at a slow pace.
- Select podcasts with high sound quality and a minimum amount of background noise.
Choose topics that you have some knowledge about; having some background will support your comprehension and help you to enjoy it, even if you miss some words. - If you can slow down the speaking speed, try to do that; reducing the speed to 75% of the original speaking speed may be helpful.
- Listen in a quietest room and use an assistive listening device to stream the sound directly to your processor(s).
A good podcast to start with
- Presented by a professional reader with highly intelligible speech speaking at a relatively slow speaking rate
- Excellent sound quality
- Although there is background music, it is played only during the first two minutes and the last 45 seconds of the podcast
- Captions and transcript are available!
https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/leonardo-da-vinci
Good luck!
