When I scroll through Spotify or the YouTube trending page, it feels like every day there’s a new podcast capturing America’s attention. According to a 2023 Pew Research Center study, 42% of Americans aged 12 and older said they had listened to a podcast at least once in the past month. More people are tuning into podcasts, audiobooks, and other audio sources now than ever before. Even the most recent election cycle was shaped by podcasts — with both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump appearing on massively popular shows like Call Her Daddy and The Joe Rogan Experience.

So here’s the question I think more of us should be asking: With the rise of audio-based information sharing, what are we replacing? In my opinion, the answer is simple: we’re starting to replace reading.

Reading is powerful because it creates space for interpretation. The best books, articles, and essays let readers bring their own experiences into the process. Think about your favorite books and their movie adaptations. The book was better than the movie because when you’re reading, you have to actively build the story in your mind, interpret the tone, and decide what it means to you.

Podcasts remove a lot of that. When someone speaks directly there is less need for the listener to engage in deep interpretation. The meaning is already pre-packaged.

Now, that’s not always a bad thing. In situations where clarity is crucial, podcasts are an incredibly powerful tool. But at the same time, we need reading. We need the exercise of interpreting text, making meaning, pausing, and thinking. If we trade that away though, we risk losing something fundamental: the ability to analyze, to sit with complexity, and to make our own meaning from what we read.

I remember in middle school, I’d scroll through blog after blog whenever I was searching for something online. Back then, they were everywhere. And honestly, I loved them. With the right writer, it felt like you were reading someone’s thoughts in real time. But now, blogs have kind of disappeared. Or at least, they’ve been drowned out by other formats. Podcasts seem like the natural replacement.

Blogs were personal, so it makes sense that creators are turning to podcasts to tell their stories. But as a reader, I miss that feeling of clicking through a well-written post. I like being able to take things in at my own pace. I’d rather read a quick blog post than sit through a 45-minute episode to maybe find what I’m looking for. Maybe that’s just me. But I think reading still gives something podcasts can’t.

That’s kind of the whole idea behind this site. I want to be part of something that brings more balance back to how we consume content. Millennials grew up with blogs. Gen Z grew up with podcasts. But what about the next generation? Can we make room for both? I want my younger sister (and anyone else growing up right now) to not just learn how to listen, but how to read deeply, reflect, and imagine for themselves.

This website is just getting started. But who knows — maybe it’ll be the thing that inspires someone else to start reading blogs again.