I've been listening to the JRE since the very first episodes with the snowflakes.
The reason for listening to podcasts (instead of, say, your whenever o'clock news, or mockumentaries, or ad-riddled TV content, or sound-byte yelling matches that last less than 5 minutes by design) for me is threefold (and here I'm using JRE as an excellent example, but there are other podcasts I can recommend for the same reasons)
1) Variety of content. For the stated goal of personal interest, the host has had an incredible range of guests, from mountain climbers to rocket scientists to hulking mma beasts to brainiacs, all with multiply contradicting points of view from which the listener learns a great deal as they get untangled during the podcast, from a variety of angles
2) Clear intellect. Jordan Peterson crystallized this for me in a recent JRE podcast of his, but essentially clear intellect can be described as truthful intent, transparency in communicated thought, or just a certain "vibe" that you get from someone. Clear intellect from the host allows for the guests to open up and talk freely, rather than clam up and try to defend something, and it allows for limitlessly deeper discussion
3) Uncensored for content and unedited for time. Pretty self explanatory. The lack of censorship should go without saying, but in today's world its kinda crazy that there's still rampant censorship "out there". But even more important for me is the lack of editing for time. Some podcasts have gone on for 3+ hours, and 2 hours seems the sweet spot. If you can enjoy a feature length film, why not a discussion between a professional conversationalist and a professional something-else about a variety of topics no less interesting than a film plot?
Bonus: portability. The audio-only nature (although many podcasts including JRE have a video portion that is sometimes useful) allows you to listen at ease during your commute, heads down coding sessions, whatever.
