If you listen to podcasts at 1.5x speed, psychology says you share these 7 traits

You know that sly little tap on the speed icon that turns everything from a stroll into a brisk walk?

That’s 1.5x.

I use it too—on morning walks to the café, while I’m doing mobility work, or when I’m batch-cooking for the week. After a few years of listening like this, I’ve noticed something.

People who prefer 1.5x aren’t just impatient. They tend to share a handful of subtle traits that shape how they learn, filter, and move through the day.

If that’s you, see how many of these feel familiar.

1. They optimize for opportunity cost

Time is the only ingredient you can’t resupply.

When you choose 1.5x, you’re not trying to “hack” life. You’re acknowledging that every minute has a cost. Thirty minutes at normal speed becomes twenty at 1.5x, and you redeploy the extra ten into a lift, a call to your mom, or a quiet moment without inputs.

It’s the same logic I learned on the line. If my station spends five minutes too long on garnish, the steak rests too long and the plate dies on the pass.

The point isn’t to rush — it’s to match pace with purpose.

You’re not anti-leisure. You’re anti-waste.

2. They calibrate to their processing sweet spot

Some brains run warmer. Yours might be one of them.

1.5x feels “right” when the content sits just above your default processing speed. It forces gentle focus without flooding your circuits. You’re not trying to impress anyone.

You’re tuning the difficulty like you would on a treadmill—enough incline to stay engaged, not so much you fly off the back.

Here’s a tell. If 1.5x makes you calmer because the host stops dragging between points, you’re not rushing. You’re removing friction.

It’s cognitive mise en place: clear the counter, then cook.

3. They crave signal over filler

You respect a clean edit.

People who love 1.5x tend to have a low tolerance for verbal cotton candy. Endless preambles, five-minute ads, and story detours make your shoulders itch. You want the story, the insight, the lesson — without the fluff that dilutes it.

This doesn’t make you harsh. It makes you discerning. The same part of you that trims a paragraph when you write or skims a menu for the three dishes worth ordering is the part that speeds a podcast because you value clarity over quantity.

You’d rather have a tight 22 minutes than a meandering 45.

4. They stack habits by default

You listen in motion.

Dishes, walking, commuting, light gym sessions—1.5x listeners tend to pair audio with a simple physical task and let those minutes do double duty.

You’re not glorifying busyness. You’re building a rhythm that keeps idle time from evaporating into doom-scrolling.

In kitchens, we called this “use your corners.” While the sauce reduces, chop herbs. While the stock simmers, set up the next course. In your day, 1.5x becomes the seasoning that lets two modest habits combine into one satisfying course.

It’s not multitasking. It’s pairing.

5. They keep a growth engine humming

Curiosity sits in your back pocket.

People who prefer 1.5x often consume a wide variety of shows—skills, health, business, relationships, creativity. You’re not “collecting content.” You’re building a rotating syllabus and letting serendipity feed new ideas into your week.

You know not everything will stick. That’s fine. The point is to be regularly surprised by a new frame, a smarter question, or a small behavior you can test.

You don’t need a breakthrough every day. You need constant drip irrigation for your thinking.

That’s how a viewpoint matures—drop by drop.

6. They like agency over inputs

When you speed a show, you’re asserting a small form of control.

Volume, skip, playback speed—these are dials on your attention. For 1.5x people, the act of customizing the experience matters as much as the time saved. It’s the same mindset that pushes you to tweak your phone’s home screen, batch notifications, or set your email to fetch less often.

You’re not at the mercy of whatever the world tosses into your ears. You season to taste. You trim what drags. You slow when it’s art, and you speed when it’s instruction.

That agency leaks into other areas.

Menus. Workflows. Workouts.

You give yourself permission to design.

7. They practice flexible discipline

Finally, the most important trait I see in 1.5x listeners is flexibility with standards.

You’re disciplined about how you consume, but you’re not dogmatic. You’ll drop to 1.0x for a story that deserves to breathe, an interview where tone does the heavy lifting, or a show you simply want to savor. You’ll bump to 2.0x when you’re reviewing notes or re-listening to a familiar topic.

It’s the same principle I use in the kitchen. Not every ingredient wants the same heat. A delicate fish deserves gentle warmth; a tough cut needs low and slow; a quick sear can wake up vegetables without turning them to mush. Speed is a tool, not a religion.

You keep that nuance, which is why 1.5x doesn’t turn your life into a race.

Tips to make the most of 1.5x

If those traits landed, here are a few ways to make 1.5x work even better—without turning your brain into a stopwatch.

Start with intent.
What’s the job of this episode? Learn a technique? Hear a story? Decide whether to read the guest’s book? Let the job decide the speed. When content is dense and new, use 1.25x and take air breaks. When it’s familiar and functional, use 1.75x and move.

Create frictionless capture.
Insight without capture is entertainment. Pair your listening with a tiny note system—voice memo, pinned note, or a rolling “ideas” doc. I keep a one-line rule: one sentence per idea, max two per episode. Anything longer becomes homework, and I’ll avoid it.

Respect saturation.
If you notice you’re re-listening to the same minute three times, that’s your cue to slow down or stop. Overstuffed brains leak. Swap to music. Walk without inputs. Let the ideas settle like a sauce that needs a gentle simmer to thicken.

Batch your shows like a tasting menu.
Put heavier topics earlier in the day when you’re sharper. Save lighter interviews for chores or the end of the day. The order matters. You wouldn’t follow an espresso with a heavy stew; don’t ask your mind to do the equivalent.

Use speed to protect silence.
This might sound odd, but one of the best reasons to go 1.5x is to finish sooner so you can afford ten minutes of nothing. No phone. No voices. Just breathing and the sound of your shoes on the pavement. That’s where ideas link up.

The bottom line

People who listen at 1.5x usually value time as a scarce resource, prefer clean signal over filler, and know how to tune inputs to their cognitive sweet spot.

They stack habits without pretending to multitask, keep a growth engine quietly humming, and exercise agency over what gets space in their ears.

Most importantly, they practice flexible discipline—they speed when it helps attention and slow when the moment deserves it.

That’s not impatience. That’s intentionality.

Prefer 1.5x?

You likely value signal, design your inputs, and practice flexible discipline—speed as a tool, not a race.