I listen to a ton of podcasts, and recently I tried listening at 1.5x speed. At first, it was a little weird. I definitely noticed the increase in speed, and the voices sounded slightly higher pitch, but after about a minute, it seemed like my brain adjusted. The increased speed started sounding normal.
Eventually, I bumped it up to 2x (although there are some podcasts that I keep at a lower speed like 1.6x). I see only benefits in doing this.
Save a ton of time
Consider a normal 1-hour long web design podcast (like ShopTalk Show). You literally gain a half hour of your life back every episode ShopTalk has over 80 episodes, so if you listen to every episode, you would gain more than an entire work week back. That is insane.
Some app options
I use an app called Pocket Casts for my podcasts. It’s beautiful, functional, and available on iOS and Android. I like it because each podcast can have a specific speed saved.
It’s $3.99, so if you are opposed to paying for the app, I used to use AntennaPod. It’s opens source and free, but you need to add a plugin to allow variable speed playback.
To be honest, I think PocketCasts is well-worth $4, but that is up to you.