A Day In The Life of Listening with Arielle Nissenblatt

Arielle has been working in the podcast space since early 2017 when she started a podcast recommendation newsletter, EarBuds Podcast Collective. Since then, she’s managed podcast studios, worked as an in-app curator, gone to school for audio production, produced several podcasts, run successful marketing and PR campaigns for dozens of shows, organized podcast communities on Twitter, Discord, and Slack, and more.

What follows is a look into my listening habits for *one day. The idea is to share with you, dear readers, some podcast recommendations, some suggestions for fitting more storytime into your day, and more. Hopefully this essay will help explain why my brain is completely filled with random facts that do not help in any way other than giving me a tidbit or two to pull out at a party. 

But to reel it back a bit, listening to podcasts changed my life. 

I started really listening to podcasts in 2014 when I started my first post-college job. I drove a lot for work and found that I was instantly captivated by the stories I was hearing – hours in the car would go by in a flash. 

I’d never been that great of a reader. Sure, I read books here and there. But sitting down with a book and getting cozy doesn’t hit for me the way some folks describe it. And I was always jealous of that. Until I sunk my ears into the waveforms of podcasts. 

People ask me all the time why I’m so bullish on podcasts (listening and creating). And for a while I struggled to explain — or even understand it for myself. But now I know that it’s because discovering podcasts, specifically the act of listening to gain knowledge and entertainment, allowed me totally immerse myself in the world — to be exposed to stories, people, and concepts I’d never heard of or took the time to get to know. And if I can help more people find THE podcast that does that for them, that’s what I want to do.

That’s the background on why we are where we are today, writing this listening log. And with that, let’s dive into my Day in The Life…

*Please note: most days, I am not THIS tapped into my podcast queue. This represents an ideal listening day. And, of course, there are shows left off this list. If you want my full list of recommendations (AKA what I’m currently subscribed to, email me).

Day in The Listening Life of Arielle

I finally wake up after snoozing my alarm a few times. While still in bed, I navigate to the Pocket Casts app and go to my News folder. I only recently created this news folder when Pocket Casts gave a free year of their pro features via James Cridland’s Podnews newsletter. I’m enjoying it so far. The grouping of like podcasts is clutch. I hit play on The Daily Zeitgeist. That show is, by far, the show that I listen to the most in terms of hours. Every single morning, Jack O’Brien and Miles Gray discuss what’s going on in the world, usually with a comedian friend, in the style of a parody morning zoo type radio environment. I’ve been listening since 2019. I listen to it twice a day. I’ll explain that later on in this piece.

While listening to TDZ, I usually text Lauren, because I know she also listens to the show, about that day’s guest, a joke they made that I loved, or gripes we have with their coverage (just because it’s my favorite show doesn’t mean it’s perfect). As I get up out of bed, I’ve got TDZ blaring on speaker (no AirPods yet) at about 1.8x speed. And I head off to the kitchen to make my coffee. TDZ usually lasts me through coffee, breakfast, and my getting ready routine.

I should note that if it’s a Monday, I also then navigate over to the Apple Podcasts app to see what’s been selected on the homepage for the week. I love to keep up with what’s trending and getting attention. If it’s a Wednesday, I do that but for Spotify.

I then go for a walk around the park, at which point I hit play on the rest of my news shows: Up First, The Daily (sometimes – really really depends on the day), NYC Now, and The 7 from The Washington Post. It might sound like a lot, but most of these are quick-hits and give me just enough info to start my day feeling informed about the local and wider world.

While I’m working, regrettably, I cannot listen to podcasts. Womp womp.

I know some people can. I can barely listen to music without getting distracted. So, between meetings, or if I find that I have enough time for a quick breath of fresh air during the day, I hit play on The Brian Lehrer Show. Yes, this is a radio show, but I listen to it as a podcast. They break it up into segments so it’s digestible and I don’t have to deal with radio commercials – just podcast ads, which I don’t mind. 

During lunch, I listen to another daily show called The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs in order to bend my brain a bit. I also like to listen to TBOY for a little dose of what’s going on in the pop culture and business worlds.

Back at work and between meetings, I usually put on a show that drops weekly. On any given day that could be Scam Goddess, ICYMI, Go Touch Grass, Talk Easy, Vibe Check, Savage Lovecast, Secretly Incredibly Fascinating, Who? Weekly, American History Tellers, American Filth, or more. 

After work, while getting ready to do an activity with some actual other people, I listen to my afternoon daily shows: Today, Explained, Pop Culture Happy Hour, NYC Now (again), The Daily Zeitgeist (again), The Journal, and sometimes Consider This, Podnews, and What a Day. 

When the day is done and I’m making my way back from the night’s activities, I try to listen to a limited series podcast. Lately, I’ve enjoyed Inconceivable Truth, Weight For It, Search Engine, The Worst Podcast, Shell Game, and Hysterical. 

As I ready myself for bed, and if there’s still space in my brain for more, I’ll rotate between funny and thought-provoking. Lately, I’ve been listening to Tiny Dinos, Unexplainable, On The Media, and WTF with Marc Maron.

I then whisper goodnight to my podcast heroes framed on my wall (kidding, but am I?) and drift off to dream about getting more people to listen to podcasts.

Thank you to Lauren for giving me the opportunity to share my listening log with you readers. In pursuit of my mission to get more people to listen to podcasts, I want to share how I find podcasts to listen to myself. Here are the big ones: Podcast The Newsletter, EarBuds (my own newsletter but it’s curated by someone new each week), browsing the listening apps’ homepages, recommendations for shows on other podcasts, and a bunch of other really great newsletters. 

I’m curious about your listening log! Let me know if we have any overlaps and/or what patterns you notice from my queue.