[lsc]

What I find interesting about the program is that I have an emotional reaction like they are talking down to me.

I mean, yeah, it's a podcast targeted at the average person, sure, I'm not expecting them to really go deep. But I don't know very much about that sort of thing, so sometimes they really are giving me information I don't have.

But the tone? Well, it really does feel like I'm being talked down to. I do not know why. I find my own reaction odd, and I've listened to the podcast several times in an effort to try to figure out what, exactly, I found condescending.

It's especially odd because I'll listen to other podcasts targeted at the average person, and I'll be entertained or informed, and I won't feel like they are talking down to me. There's something about the planet money folks that sets me off.

[joezydeco]

Wow, and this podcast was done by Bloomberg and Kestenbaum, two of their better reporters.

I mean, yeah, it's NPR. You're not going to get amazing voice talent reading the stories. I don't feel talked-down-to as much as I feel like I'm hearing a work done by second-year broadcasting students trying to finish a project. Listen to Chana Joffe-Walt or Zoe Chase sometime.

But if you think this podcast is annoying, best you skip the rest of them...

[lsc]

nah, the voice acting is fine. And certainly, I'm not claiming that they are objectively arrogant, or that a 'reasonable person' would feel talked down to, and when you get down to it, I'm the last person to call someone else out on arrogance.

It's odd, too, as the non-financial stories on, say, this American life usually doesn't trigger the same response. (I mean, I'm not a huge fan of this American life, but not because I feel talked down to.)

I was commenting mostly because I find my own reaction... unexpected. And I think the question "what is arrogance?" is an interesting one. Different people will perceive vastly different levels of arrogance in the same document or reading.