06 Jan Public Journal :: 005 • The Best Podcast Ever

“If you listen, instead, without premature judgment, people will generally tell you everything they are thinking—and with very little deceit. People will tell you the most amazing, absurd, interesting things. Very few of your conversations will be boring.”  – Jordan Peterson

Here’s the best podcast you’ll ever experience.

Ready?

It’s called… pay attention to the people in your life… dot com.

If being with my family this holiday season proved nothing else to me, it showed me that there’s so much I don’t know about my family (I’m grateful I got to know some of them a lot better this time). 

And why is this the case?

It’s not because they don’t want to talk about themselves. In my experience, most everyone likes to talk about themselves on one level or another. 

I’m convinced that, more often than not, this doesn’t come from a bad place. My self is the subject in which I am most well versed. Talking about my experience being myself is the task in which I have a truly unique expertise. We are drawn to talking about our lives, our thoughts, experiences, likes, dislikes, feelings, desires, and opinions because in a sense it is something that only we can share.

Further, we all want to know that our perspective matters to someone other than ourselves. When someone grants us the gift of attentive listening most of us value it more than we consciously realize. Their willingness to extend curiosity in our direction affirms the truth that our story matters.

On top of all of this, we humans are wired for interpersonal connection. Why do we like listening to podcasts so much ? Because we value learning interesting things, from interesting people, with interesting stories, in the context of interesting conversations. Such is the essence of connection—a genuine mutual interest between people and the opportunity to explore it.

I contend that the elements that make a good podcast—all the “interesting’s” above—are in plentiful supply amongst the people that are currently in our lives. 

Connections await. 

The more I learn to ask good questions, the more I realize that everyone has an interesting story to tell. Accessing these conversations requires two simple things:

1. Intellectual Humility—We must start assuming that people have something interesting to teach us. 

2. Presence—We have to create the margin to spend quality, undistracted time with people.

If we practice building proficiency in these two areas we won’t have to rely on podcasts so much for vicarious human connection. Instead, we’ll start doing our own, one-of-a-kind, special edition podcast episodes with the people we know and love. What’s even better is that we’ll be investing in our relationships in the process.