The New Yorker Radio Hour WNYC

I’ve been listening to the Fiction podcast since it’s inception. I still look forward to its arrival at the beginning of each month and so too all the other podcasts for which The New Yorker is responsible. I often go back and have second and third goes at the same podcast. Of course I hate the ads that interrupt the flow and sometimes (almost always) the intrusive voice is grating.

Speaking of sounds of voices, it’s very unfortunate that if you access The Radio Hour or Fiction Via Stitcher, you will find the voices are just a tad sped up and it sounds as though the conversation is on meth.

Stitcher please slow it back down to normal. We can deal with pauses.

Good at times, but it commits the unforgivable Podcast sin of lazily replaying episodes without indicating that it's an older, previous episode. I get it, you can't always be working and need to take breaks, but you guys are driving me nuts when there's no indication it's a rerun. I'm sitting there for 10 minutes trying to remember, "Have I heard this before? There's nothing about an original air date, must be new, no intro explaining why this story merits a second broadcast. I'm imagining things, this is definitely new. No, I've definitely heard this story. Maybe they've updated it? Nope, it's the same." Cool, thanks for wasting my time just so you can maintain the illusion of perpetually churning out content.

Good when it is good and tolerable when it's not. However it's no longer an hour, so it's no longer the perfect sized podcast for commuters as each episode is anywhere from 17 minutes to 30 minutes. The response given to this new format was that it was done for user convenience. Perhaps they need to do more user research before changing formats. UX is as important as UI. I've also switched to the NYT Daily since the content, length, and posting times are more consistent — allowing me to better plan my listening.