Ironically, this idea snuck up on me while I was driving today. I was listening to a podcast (as per my usual driving routine) and I had this idea about how the information you consume in podcasts is practically valuable in the real world.
When I compare conversations that I used to have with people before I listened to podcasts several years ago to conversations I have today with people now that I do listen to podcasts, I find that I have a lot more random facts and knowledge about whatever subject we may be talking about.
For example, I was sitting with a friend of mine who's really into fitness and working out. We were talking about a no-carb diet strategy and how/why it might benefit us.
I'm not extremely experienced in fitness, but I have listened to several scientific podcasts related to fitness. Like the Rhonda Patrick episodes on the JRE show for instance.
We were talking about how carbohydrates effect insulin levels early on in the day and I just blurted out a bunch of info on insulin sensitivity - info that I honestly didn't remember hearing in the podcast until the moment that it was brought up in conversation.
This is what I mean about the sneaky nature of learning: learning isn't always something that will yield a measurable result out of the gate. Sometimes you learn stuff and stow it away in your memory and then find yourself randomly retrieving it because it has all of the sudden become relevant.
It's kind of crazy how our brains work, but I think that this classification of knowledge applies even more broadly to nearly every type of learning imaginable. Think about a time when information just random came to light in your brain and you'll know what I'm talking about!