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Is anyone keeping up with it all? It boggles my mind how podcasters find the time to produce all their content. I can barely keep up with what my favorite personalities produce.

For those on the right, podcasts are now the primary medium for political news and commentary, especially for young people, offering the perspectives and niches missing in previous decades when Fox News and a few radio shows were all that was available for conservative media.

Overall, podcasting is a net positive, as it democratizes the public square and keeps one viewpoint or personality from dominating discourse on the right. But it comes at a cost.

Easy access to a plethora of information and commentary gives the common man a sense of limitless knowledge. The constant stream of new, improved, and ground-breaking content creates a restlessness born of an influx of information where no finish line exists. There is always a hot take, a controversial interview, or some novel information that convinces us to stop everything we are doing to watch or listen immediately.

Podcasters themselves are not at fault. Nor are they – in most cases – malicious. Many are actually producing valuable content. It’s just that the level playing field offered by new media brings a cacophony of voices that leaves the casual political observer overwhelmed and confused.

For example, I keep meaning to listen to a few of Tucker Calrson’s most recent interviews, but I simply haven’t had time. I feel almost guilty about that. I don’t have a hot take on Candace Owens, because she produces hour-long daily episodes and I haven’t had a moment to listen to more than a few clips each week. People tell me Allie Beth Stuckey is wise, and I believe them, but I’m waiting for a moment to listen to those Tucker interviews before starting her podcast. Oh, and I should probably start tuning into The Charlie Kirk Show more often, given recent events. But I haven’t.

The baby boomers received information from Fox News on full volume as daily background noise, sending them into a tailspin as they tried to process all of the worrying news the TV told them. But their millennial and Generation Z children face an intensified and more chaotic version of that same overload. How do the younger generations handle such an information avalanche?

To the overwhelmed and confused – including myself – I would simply urge a quiet calm. It is perfectly fine if we don’t know all there is to know about every trend. You haven’t failed if you haven’t listened to that viral interview, or heard the latest on that breaking news saga, or checked out that interesting new host. Find the few that interest you, listen to as much as is beneficial to you and your sanity – and then move on with life.

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This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal. 

Image credit: Unsplash