I’m walking to work through the streets of southwest London, and getting up to speed with Donald Trump’s latest outlandish remark, what punishment should be directed at Manchester City for cheating and the story of how Joseph Stalin rose to power in the USSR. It’s admittedly an odd mix of topics but then I listen to a lot of podcasts. 

Like many people my age, I’m a content addict. Currently, I listen to around three hours of podcasts a day, and that doesn’t count the TV shows and documentaries I watch as well. Whenever I sit down to eat, I am usually flipping my phone into landscape and loading up the latest episode of The Traitors or a history video.

Being able to consume all this information while I’m walking to work or washing the dishes feels like a no-brainer. It’s being efficient with my time, right? After all, I’m not doomscrolling. The effects of short-form content, such as Instagram reels or TikTok, are well-known. Countless studies have found that it shortens your attention span, overstimulates your brain and can elevate your levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Podcasts and long-form documentaries, full of useful facts and important real-world information, feel like they must be better for my mind.

But lately, I started to wonder how healthy this habit really is. As soon as I wake, I’m fumbling for my earphones, and I feel the urge to hit play on a half-listened podcast to accompany mindless tasks that would only take a few minutes. Do I really need to listen to Alan Shearer moan about Newcastle United’s while I put the bins out? Or why Gen Z protests are erupting across Europe while folding some clothes? 

My habit seems to have migrated from a genuine curiosity about the world into a compulsive urge to fill the silence. And what’s worse is that I feel I absorb very little of the information that I set out to glean.

The other day, I had to re-listen to The Newsagents’ podcast on the Budget because there were whole segments that I could barely remember. During the next podcast I had teed up – a meaty audio essay on the repercussions of the recent Israeli elections  – I spent most of it considering weekend plans, birthday presents I needed to buy and times I had embarrassed myself when I was younger.

And this lack of focus bleeds into other parts of my life, whether I’m trying to digest a long article or write on a complex subject. I used to read novels too – perhaps three a month – but that hobby has fallen by the wayside. Nowadays, I’d rather have stories spoken to me, by actors, while I hang the washing out.

Of course, I’m not the only one. The vast majority of public transport commuters (Gen Zers, but older people too) are glued to their phones, earbuds nestled in their ears. I regularly see people watching screens while eating in a restaurant (a YouGov poll found that 55 per cent of UK adults watch something while eating dinner) or even as they lift weights at the gym.

Statistics from Ofcom published in December 2025 found that adults in the UK spent a total of 4h 30m online every day, with 3h 28m of that being on their phone. However, 18 to 24-year-olds topped the screen-time rankings, clocking in at 6h 20m, with 5h 6m spent on their phone. 

So it is clear that long-form content is hugely popular, but how harmful is it when it becomes an ingrained part of your routine?

“A lot of research currently is focused around the effects of short-form content because so much information is hitting your brain quickly, but with longer-form, you are still being bombarded with information and it can overwhelm your brain over time,” explains Beth Bell, a senior lecturer in mental health and wellbeing at the University of York. “You’re consuming information at times where your brain would typically be less active and it prevents more mindful moments from happening.”

Bell adds that, whilst not always a negative thing, if you are listening to a podcast during an activity such as a walk, you are probably not fully engaging with what you are doing, which can contribute to a feeling of “cognitive overload”.

Nilli Lavie, a professor of psychology and brain sciences at University College London, says that potential harm comes from using multiple sources of information simultaneously. 

“There is no harm in listening to a podcast while engaging in menial activities, you are just stimulating your brain and learning more information – as long as this is done in moderation,” she explains. “It becomes a problem if you are focusing on a task and you are feeling a compulsion to engage with an additional source of information [such as watching a video while listening to a podcast]. 

“If you do this, you can train your brain in a way which makes it harder to control your focus and stay on task, and the brain may lose grey matter volume in the relevant regions for cognitive control and attention.”

Thankfully, there are tricks to try and cement key information into your mind. Firstly, having a gap of time between one programme and the next helps.

“If you want to make sure you are actually absorbing the information from a podcast, take a break before going to the next episode to actually properly digest the information,” explains Lavie. She also suggests writing a few notes, or making a few voice recordings, on a podcast’s key points if you want to move onto another episode more quickly.

Taking the time to properly reflect on what I’ve listened to might help me retain more information, but I still know that I need to tackle my unhealthy relationship with podcasts.

“In terms of trying to reduce the impulsion you feel to always be consuming some kind of content, a digital detox – where you stop using digital devices and social media as much as possible – for as little as one day to a few weeks can help,” Bell suggests. “Afterwards, people usually decide to use technology less. They also generally report that they have been more conscious, mindful and have had more focus.”

Breaking habits is also important so she recommends I leave my phone outside my bedroom – as it tends to be the first thing I pick up. “If you find yourself being distracted by social media, delete those apps,” she adds. Bell also recommends a Brick – a device which can block selected apps on your phone – to help stay focused and make it harder to fall back into addictive behaviours.

While I’m not about to restrict access to my phone, I have started to make a conscious effort to refrain from assailing my brain with information at every waking moment. This practice has become a social media trend known as “rawdogging”. Originally, it involved people enduring a commercial flight with no music, films or pods and simply sitting with the flight map, but has now extended to all parts of life, whether that is workouts, lunch breaks or even just evenings at home. 

I tried it while eating dinner and was mortified at how difficult I found it. My brain, starved of stimulation, was tugging at me to flip open my laptop and open YouTube. However, after a few minutes of consciously resisting the impulses, my thoughts settled. I have now completely removed technology during my morning routine and commute. My brain feels less busy, but there has certainly been no profound moment of clarity. 

In fact, for someone whose mind is usually completely blank when I have no external stimulus, I have surprised myself by sometimes absent-mindedly humming. But also my thoughts have gone to the friend I’ve been meaning to message for ages, and that recipe I really wanted to try. Just everyday thoughts meandering through my mind.

I’m not having an all-out ban on podcasts – after all, there’s so much I wouldn’t know about football, politics and history without them. But I am going to give my brain a break from the constant bombardment. I’m hoping that I – and that stack of unread books – will feel the benefit.