Your great great great grandparents were podcasters
Reading and writing are the anomalies
Podcasting is a reversion to the mean
For over 200,000 years, humans have thrived as a species defined by oral communication. Storytelling, song, myth, legend, fairy tale, and spoken wisdom passed knowledge across generations, binding communities through shared narratives. The invention of reading and writing, arguably around 10,000 years ago, was a revolutionary anomaly—a blip in our long history. This hypothesis posits that literacy, while transformative, is an outlier in human communication, and the rise of podcasting signals a reversion to our oral roots, a return to the mean of how we naturally connect.
Before writing, humans relied on spoken language, gestures, and memory to convey complex ideas. Oral traditions were dynamic, adaptive, and deeply personal. Stories evolved with each telling, shaped by the teller’s voice and the audience’s reactions. This was not a primitive system; it was sophisticated, fostering social cohesion and cultural continuity. The human brain, wired for narrative, thrived in this environment.
We listened, we spoke, we remembered.
The advent of writing—starting with Sumerian cuneiform around 3400 BCE—changed everything. Writing externalised knowledge, making it static and portable. It enabled empires, science, and bureaucracy, but it also detached communication from the immediacy of human presence. Reading and writing demanded solitude, specialised skills, and access to resources like papyrus or parchment. For millennia, literacy remained the domain of elites, a stark departure from the universal accessibility of oral exchange. Even after the printing press democratised texts, reading remained an individual, cerebral act—far from the communal, sensory experience of storytelling.
Literacy’s dominance, though profound, spans just 5% of human history. It’s an anomaly when viewed against the vast timeline of oral communication. Writing reshaped society, but it didn’t rewrite our biology. Our brains remain tuned for the cadence of speech, the emotional resonance of a human voice.
Enter podcasting.
Barely two decades old, podcasting (originally called audio blogging) feels like a technological throwback. It strips away the barriers of literacy, inviting anyone with a microphone and a story to participate. Listeners tune in, not to decode symbols on a page, but to hear voices—intimate, unfiltered, human. Podcasts revive the oral tradition’s communal spirit, fostering para-social connections that echo ancient campfire tales. They’re consumed while driving, cooking, or walking—activities that mirror the multitasking of pre-literate societies, where stories unfolded alongside daily life.
Data backs this shift. In 2024, over 100 million Americans listened to podcasts monthly, with the medium growing 12% annually. Unlike books, which require focus and time, podcasts are accessible, requiring only ears and curiosity. They’re also diverse, covering niche topics from true crime to philosophy, much like the varied tales of old. This isn’t a rejection of literacy but a rebalancing. We’re rediscovering the power of the spoken word, amplified by technology.
Podcasting’s rise suggests humans are reverting to their communicative mean: oral, immediate, and collective. Writing was a detour, brilliant but isolating. As we speak and listen anew, we reconnect with the essence of who we’ve always been—storytellers, bound by voice.
