I love the author A.J. Jacobs. He specializes in the “life experiment” genre— meaning he completely immerses himself in a unique lifestyle for a year and writes about the trials and tribulations of trying to embrace that commitment fully. In The Year of Living Biblically, Jacobs set out to live the ultimate, literal biblical life. Of course that included following the Ten Commandments, loving his neighbor, being fruitful and multiplying, but he also tried to follow obscure laws of purity, attempted to “stone” adulterers in New York City (by throwing pebbles at them) and offered animal sacrifices (okay, by leaving out a plate of food, he also vowed not to do anything violent or hurt animals).
Last year, Jacobs released The Year of Living Constitutionally, his attempt to follow the original meaning of the Constitution. This time, he marched around Manhattan in a tricorne hat, musket in hand, quartered soldiers, and delivered handwritten petitions to Congress, all while trying to appreciate the literal meaning of this important document.
I often think about what “life experiments” I would like to partake in. Adopt the RV life for a year and sit around the fire at campsites with regular folks? Become a bus driver in Philadelphia and listen to my passengers’ stories? Work the grill at McDonald’s for a year and get a sense of what manual labor and minimum wage are really like? All of this is about walking a mile in another person’s shoes, of course, and developing a deeper sense of the motivations, dreams and challenges of others.
Which leads me to this provocation: Could we set out to live the life of real radio listeners for a year (or a month, or even two weeks)? Stop thinking about your P1s, Cume, TSL, TLR, the 3-minute rule, this weekend’s promotion, and appointment listening—forget it all for this experiment. Get behind the wheel of a 12-year-old car like the average American drives. Listen to what you want, but avoid any behaviors you picked up because “it’s your job to listen.”
Erase all the presets on your car radio. Then see if you have any desire to reset them— or have the ability to figure that out even if you want to. No physical radio in your house (or office). Maybe you have Alexa, but you have to ask somebody else to get it to play a station. In general, live their life, not the artificial one we all created by “monitoring” our stations all day long. Spend this time immersed in real life—raising kids, running to appointments, cooking, cleaning, and working. If that includes some listening, great, but you can never force it. Go get stuck in traffic at 7 AM. What do those people in the next car care about?
The goal would be to appreciate the lives of your listeners. Try to live and think like they do. Are we meeting their needs, or are we trying to fit them into ours?
