Continuing Education

The nature of my job is such that I don't always have to give 100% of my attention to the task at hand, so I can listen to things while I work. Most of my co-workers listen to music while they work on things, but I listen to podcasts. This creates a small problem when people walk by and start talking to me because, unlike with music, I can't jump out and jump back in.

One day, a co-worker asked what I was listening to, and I named the podcast. She said, "Wow. So you're actually, like, learning about stuff. You must be really well-informed." I don't know how informed I am, but I do learn a lot. Proof of this? The other day I saw this comic strip and while I didn't know everything on there, five of them were things I knew about from podcasts, which is five more that I knew than I would have.

So what do I listen to at work? Here is my podcast list:

BBC Documentaries
BBC Witness
BBC's More or Less
Freakonomics
BBC's Friday Night Comedy
BBC's Comedy of the Week
Hello Internet
Intelligence Squared and Intelligence Squared US
Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!
NPR's Story of the Day
Invisibilia
Radiolab
TED Talks
Stuff You Should Know
Stuff You Missed in History
and NPR's On the Media

My great accomplishment of 2014 was to actually catch up on podcast episodes. I am now current (and unfortunately, that sometimes means I don't have very many to listen to at work. Thank goodness for audiobooks!)

One way or another, whether from podcasts or from what I'm working on (I'm an archivist--finding out new information is inevitable), I am constantly learning something new. Just the way I like it.