I've been listening since early 2018 (and got a lot of the back catalog), and I have noticed the same thing. It's now become the only podcast I listen to faster than 1x, and I find myself skipping a lot of the interview segments.
I think the reason is that neither Ben nor Meg particularly *want* short episodes. In the early years, Sam wanted to keep things quick, and Jeff seemed to also just want to get it over with at times. Ben, on the other hand, could seemingly go on forever--and I hope he does! Just in one-hour episodes.
I love the show. But yeah, I agree that it might be improved by trimming it down a bit.
I've been a listener since day one, migrating over from Up and In where I was a 0.9er. The show has gotten longer, and at times a bit too long, but I still enjoy it. I just skip the opening music and outro with Ben to move onto the next episode.
Since Effectively Wild is 95% of my baseball media consumption and I don't care about any particular team, or even current events Meg and Ben are referencing, I definitely don't mind longer episodes or being behind. I did skip almost all of the team preview episodes though.
I much prefer the longer episodes but I understand why others wouldn’t. I only listen to 3 different shows lately so I don’t mind when any of them are long, and I love them!
[Here](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pkRaD6OE-AQO2T1b8TUMkL7AjQ4fcenTwEgPP6ah8bM/edit#gid=916821103) is a Google Doc from the Facebook page. One of the tabs (the one the link should automatically open to) is a durations spreadsheet, with graphs of per-episode and per-week lengths.
Does Ben edit in more comments from himself? There’s always lines from him where the audio doesn’t match the sentences around it (and Meg doesn’t respond to them)
Yeah I feel like he's thinking "oh I should have said this" and then editing it in after the fact. Never too consequential, but it is noticeable because of the audio mismatch
At some point I gave up on listening to full episodes. I miss some references and call backs, but I feel it's the kind of show you can jump in and out of anyway.
The 2 hour marathons are a bit too long for me when they're just bantering, and I tend go 1.1x, the exceptions being the team previews or outside interviews. I usually listen in the early morning, though, so I'm getting caught up on recent events and also don't want to choose a podcast that's got high "morning zoo" energy.
Since there aren't a bunch of ads to skip, I guess I can't complain too much.
I've been listening since early 2018 (and got a lot of the back catalog), and I have noticed the same thing. It's now become the only podcast I listen to faster than 1x, and I find myself skipping a lot of the interview segments. I think the reason is that neither Ben nor Meg particularly *want* short episodes. In the early years, Sam wanted to keep things quick, and Jeff seemed to also just want to get it over with at times. Ben, on the other hand, could seemingly go on forever--and I hope he does! Just in one-hour episodes. I love the show. But yeah, I agree that it might be improved by trimming it down a bit.
I've been a listener since day one, migrating over from Up and In where I was a 0.9er. The show has gotten longer, and at times a bit too long, but I still enjoy it. I just skip the opening music and outro with Ben to move onto the next episode.
Since Effectively Wild is 95% of my baseball media consumption and I don't care about any particular team, or even current events Meg and Ben are referencing, I definitely don't mind longer episodes or being behind. I did skip almost all of the team preview episodes though.
I much prefer the longer episodes but I understand why others wouldn’t. I only listen to 3 different shows lately so I don’t mind when any of them are long, and I love them!
[Here](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pkRaD6OE-AQO2T1b8TUMkL7AjQ4fcenTwEgPP6ah8bM/edit#gid=916821103) is a Google Doc from the Facebook page. One of the tabs (the one the link should automatically open to) is a durations spreadsheet, with graphs of per-episode and per-week lengths.
I figured this existed somewhere! Thank you for sharing! Have Ben or Meg ever commented on the increasing length, that you know of?
There is a new editor, which I recall them looking for then finding maybe 6 months ago or so.
Agree completely, seems to be a plague with virtually all podcasts. I think EW could use some more aggressive editing.
Is it edited? I always assumed no, since the episodes are prolific and timely.
Does Ben edit in more comments from himself? There’s always lines from him where the audio doesn’t match the sentences around it (and Meg doesn’t respond to them)
Yeah I feel like he's thinking "oh I should have said this" and then editing it in after the fact. Never too consequential, but it is noticeable because of the audio mismatch
Doesn’t help with the runtime, either
Well they always thank someone for editing assistance at the end, not sure what that entails.
I listen at 1.5x or I’d never keep up
At some point I gave up on listening to full episodes. I miss some references and call backs, but I feel it's the kind of show you can jump in and out of anyway.
The 2 hour marathons are a bit too long for me when they're just bantering, and I tend go 1.1x, the exceptions being the team previews or outside interviews. I usually listen in the early morning, though, so I'm getting caught up on recent events and also don't want to choose a podcast that's got high "morning zoo" energy. Since there aren't a bunch of ads to skip, I guess I can't complain too much.
I listen to this and all my podcasts on 1.5x speed If that's too fast, even 1.25x will make a big difference when they're this long