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@hmm_cook reading with another source of language does not mix. One wins, usually then spoken one.

Thinking while listening to a podcast however works until I start writing, then the spoken word looses one way or another.

Listening to a podcast while trying to read a book sounds like a wonderful exercise in futility. Music with prominent lyrics (above vocal chillout, where it mostly blends) feels more like a podcast with background music but without interview partner.

@hmm_cook I can't read if the TV or radio is on, or if someone is talking. I completely lose focus and the audio wins every time. If it's music without vocals, or in a language that I don't speak, then I do better.

Likely related, once you've got multiple people talking at once, I struggle to pick them apart, or focus on what one of them is saying at the expense of the other. Or rather I can, but it's a big mental effort and it wears me out. Even if it's a person talking when the TV is on.

@hmm_cook I was talking to someone about this last year and tried to illustrate it visually.

Person one says "two people talking"
Person two says "at the same time"

The first picture is what I imagine most people can do. They can separate out the voices and listen to one or the other, maybe both.

The second picture is what I get. It's all the same information but it's an effort and a lot of concentration to separate them, and even then there's no guarantee I'll get it right.

@hmm_cook Me neither. Instrumental music can be okay, but nothing with words.

@hmm_cook As child I was encouraged to actively listen while reading, which kind of worked, though multitasking got a bad reputation in the decades since.

Not paying attention to spoken text while reading definitely doesn't work.
Instrumental music or lyrics in a language I don't understand works, but I'm still actively listening while reading.
Which can be nice if the music fits what I'm reading, but is dissonant otherwise.