Do audiobooks count as reading?🎧📖🤔

And: Could you land a plane in an emergency?

Nov 26, 2024

Today we’re releasing the first two episodes of NO SUCH THING.

First up: Do audiobooks count as reading?

What began as an innocent debate soon devolved into accusations of deception and trickery. Is it misleading to say you read a book if, in actuality, you listened to it as an audiobook? And do you absorb information the same way when listening compared to reading? With some help from Dr. Virginia Clinton-Lisell, Associate Professor at University of North Dakota, we get an answer.

To recreate Devan & Noah’s experiment, here’s The Lottery, and the quiz.

Here’s a link to Dr. Clinton-Lisell’s meta-analysis of reading and listening comprehension comparisons. She’s on TikTok, YouTube, Threads, and Bluesky.

And lastly, a few audiobook recommendations from our friend Rich, who has developed an audiobook habit:

Barbarians at the Gate by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar: “A crazy business story about the leveraged buyout, the largest at the time, of RJR Nabisco, a processed snacks-tobacco company.”
The House of Mondavi by Julia Flynn Siler: “Tracks the story of the Mondavi family, who helped elevate American wines into the top tier around the world.”
Coming to My Senses by Alice Waters: “Charming memoir of a pivotal figure in developing modern American cuisine.”

Could you land a plane in an emergency?

(Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Acast)

Do you think you’d be able to successfully land a plane, with no prior pilot experience and relying only on air traffic control assistance? A YouGov survey found 13% of people are “very confident” that they could. In this episode, we explore why some people (like Manny) are prone to overconfidence, with help from social psychologist and professor David Dunning.

Here’s a look at Manny going Sully-mode with the flight simulator:

Special thanks to our life-saving flight instructor Taylor from Manhattan Flight Club.

Thank you so much for checking out these early editions of NST. If you like what you hear, please share with friends and leave a nice review wherever you’re listening.

Let us know how you feel about audiobooks and our imaginary flying prowess in the comments below, and if you have any questions you’d like us to tackle, please reach out at mannynoahdevan@gmail.com.

And one last thing: if this landed in your Spam folder or Promotions tab, move this email to your primary inbox. Sending a quick reply to this email should help, too.

See you next week!