Handling an Unruly Podcast Queue

Right now, I am currently subscribed to 170 podcasts. And while I don't necessarily listen to every episode of every podcast I subscribe to, it does lead to my podcast queue to become rather unruly.

Right now, my queue stands at 283 episodes totaling over 250 hours worth of content. The funny thing is that it was over 900 episodes before I got a new iPhone and ended up clearing out a lot of my queue due to a sync issue with PocketCasts. I probably could have recovered most of it, but given the large number and how old some of the episodes were, I took it as a chance to trim the queue.

I don't really know what a good solution is. I go through my “new” filter and archive the episodes I know I don't have an interest in, queue the ones I do and see the queue count grow.

I try to keep up with it, but I don't always get the chance to listen on a regular basis. If I'm deep in thought trying to solve a difficult task at work, music ends up being a better option as I don't have to keep track of the story or discussion. Nothing is more frustrating than missing several minutes worth of discussion because you're focused on something else, then are trying to catch up with what you missed. This is a case where me listening at podcasts at 2x speed might not be the most helpful.

It's a shame really because many of the podcasts I listen to are interesting and I WANT to listen to them all, but might just be resigned to having a queue that dates back 6+ months. The best “process” I have going at the moment is to just archive the episode I'm listening to if it doesn't grab my attention after 5-10 minutes.

Are there any tools or apps that you can think of that might help keep my queue a little more organized? I currently use PocketCasts to listen to podcasts with a filter for all new podcasts. I generally add most episodes to the end of the queue so I listen to the oldest episodes first.