Insight or Information

I stopped listening to Pod Save America because I’d heard it all before.

Okay, that’s the hook.

And it’s not a great hook.  It ends with the word “before” and that’s bothering me, but I also like the turn of phrase--

“I’d Heard It All Before”

That would make a good title for something, but not this.

No, this is called “Insight and Information” which isn’t exciting or catchy at all, but very rarely these days is any piece of writing about two very clear things, and this is--or should be--so I’m going with the more direct title.

Insight and Information.

Now back to the hook--

I’m only being halfway facetious when I say I stopped listening to Pod Save America because I was starting to feel like they had nothing new to say to me.

Before you get angry--which is a common response to reading something somebody’s written--let me assure you that I still enjoyed listening to it for the most part, but--

OH MY GOODNESS IS THERE A LOT TO LISTEN TO

And when it comes to podcasts, specifically podcasts that are about news or politics or culture or anything in the non-fiction realm, it seems like “I like listening to it” just isn’t cutting it.

I need insight.

I need information.

If I can get both, great, but I need to get at least one.

And lately, Pod Save America isn’t delivering.

Now, to be fair, and I’m nothing if not occasionally fair, it’s not their fault.

Many people are having trouble being insightful or informative these days.

Hell, I used to have a podcast that was just me talking about stuff I thought was interesting and I eventually stopped doing it, because it felt like--

Who cares?
Who cares what I think about this or that?

I realized that while I do sometimes have insight into a particular issue, those times were few and far between, and certainly not something that could be counted on to appear on a weekly basis in time to put out a podcast.

So then it comes down to--information.

Look, at one point, being able to tell people what was going on in a clear and concise fashion was valuable.

Very valuable.

In fact, you barely had time for insight by the time you were done telling them what was going on and why.

Wait--would the why be insight?

Who knows?

Who cares?

The point is--

We now have information coming at us from every angle all the time.

Ten minutes after something’s happened, it’s old news.

You know that right?

That’s nothing insightful.

But since information can be gotten just about anywhere, and needs to be delivered promptly--like in seconds--any sort of regular program--podcast, television show--needs to either be ready to go at a moment’s notice OR they need to have a fresh take on that news when it’s their time to comment on it.

The best example of insightful programming would be Last Week Tonight.  Initially, the idea of John Oliver giving us the news on a Sunday evening (SUNDAY EVENING??) was laughable.

News five or even six days late?

Why bother?

Well, because it turns out, John Oliver and his team are pretty insightful.  They have an interesting way of looking at things.

The Pod Save America guys have gotten into a habit of just sort of...telling us what happened and then telling us what they think about what happened, and while that is one way of sharing insight, their opinions just aren’t that...insightful.

They’re sort of just logical deductions with a heavy dose of bias.

And listen, I’m not begrudging them their bias.  I love bias. Give me all the bias you’ve got. But underneath it all, there needs to be something new worth hearing.

Now, I’m not suggesting that’s easy.

It’s not easy.

Having something new to say is something that’s plagued creators and thinkers throughout history, but at a time when we have more content that we’ve ever had before, the rules of creation still apply.

Have something new to say.

Or--

Have a new way of saying something that’s already been said.

In the rare case that you can give us information--amazing!

Sometimes on Pod Save America, they’ll (seemingly accidentally) share with us a detail we didn’t know before from their history working in DC, and whenever I hear that, I always yell--

YES!  THAT! THAT’S WHAT I WANT MORE OF!  THAT’S WHY YOU ALL HAVE THIS SHOW IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Btu it seems like they’re not exactly....clear on that.

The same problem plagues cable news--a collection of panels where each person gets to have one opinion conveyed through a series of talking points.

The difference is, we’ve been making fun of cable news for awhile, and we still sort of...revere podcasts and essays like this one.

At least in the publishing world, the bar still seems pretty high in terms of making sure you have something interesting to say before someone lets you say it in a magazine or book.

But in the still-growing world of podcasts, all you need is a brand and a firm grasp and the ability to check a box marked “Topics” and you’re good to go.

There are some exceptions to this--

The Daily often has people on to recap the information of the day and then offer real insight into them.

Still Processing is always a great deep dive into various topics that leaves you actually processing what the two hosts were talking about.

Death, Sex, and Money might be the most insightful podcast out there if you really want your brain to go for a spin.

There are others, but there are also many more that just sort of...regurgitate information and then offer a quick “Well, I think what you probably expect me to think” frosting for the subject along with some attempts at snark that usually just come across grumpy.

(Is there a difference between snarky and grumpy?  Yes. It is a fine line, but I can assure you, it is there.)

Now, whenever I watch, listen, or read anything, I ask myself the question--

Is this insightful or is it informative?

And if it’s neither, then--

Is it entertaining?

But usually--if I’m not learning something new or being taught to think of something in a new way, I’m usually not being entertained either.

Even your current run-of-the-mill streaming content can usually fall into one of the two big boxes.

Catastrophe is a half-hour dark comedy that gives real insight into marriage and relationships.

The Umbrella Academy is a new approach to the superhero genre.

Tidying Up is teaching me how to fold a fitted sheet.

It’s all fresh and fantastic, but it also passes the Insight or Information test.

And if I’m being honest--and normally I’m not--I needed something to cull all this stuff.

If Marie Kondo has taught me nothing, it’s that anything has the ability to pile up--even Netflix watchlist, and it was time to do some organizing.

Once I went through my DVR with the “Insight or Information” strategy, I found that--

No, I really don’t want to watch that.

No, I know where that storyline is going, so why bother?

No, I don’t need to hear another pundit repeat talking points for an hour.

It was liberating.

And I still have five days worth of television to watch.

But, you know what?

It’s a start.