Thanks to this forum's podcasts thread, when I run or bike or drive, I'm listening to podcasts (History of Rome, In Our Time, Dan Carlin, to name a few). I do genuinely enjoy it, but given that I forget nearly everything I hear in a few days, it's hard to say it's anything more than entertainment, ultimately the same as sniffing glue and never listening to them in the first place. I hear so many awesome things that I'd like to retain, but nearly all of it just doesn't bond to my brain unless it's reinforced. What's the solution? I can write things down, but it feels lame to keep a diary of quotes or references, especially after the fact, since I'm not going to be doing that when I'm working out. What's the play here, do lame diligent stuff like write things down or accept that it's mostly transient entertainment? What do some of the grad/profs do, do you guys find yourselves forgetting lots of thrilling things that you have to look up in your notes?

One solution is to listen to it multiple times (and obviously carefully selecting 'it' for maximum interest/enjoyment/intake).
If the topic you want to learn about is very vast (like the history of Rome) maybe try to get a short (-ish) podcast that gives a good overview over the area and listen to that several times to get the basics down, then delve into more detailed ones which you then hopefully wont have to listen multiple times to to remember better.

Also, what you're doing is >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> sniffing glue.

a) reading materials with listening often glues the whole thing and you will remember.

b)As previously stated, multiple re-listen

c) Also one thing i do, is picture myself in these situation in the past. Imagine being Lee after Gettysburg, Caesar in Gaul, Emperor Julian or William the conqueror. It's one of those thing that when you picture it, you get a whole lot of fun.

d)See if you can use any history you learn. Maybe impress someone, explain why a certain thing is like that through history a forum post or even use a lesson of history to your life.

Lastly, history can be enjoyed just for the sake of enjoyment(Dan Carlin's Hardcore history and the majority of intense Military history audio and books absolutely falls in this category. Its just fun to read! It's where reality is stranger then fiction...

Going to start my 3rd re-listen of History of Rome when I'm done with the Napoleon podcast; I think you guys are right that some combination with reading is the best idea, I can only imagine that reading anything about Rome right now would be 10x easier than it would have been without the History of Rome.

Well a couple of things on this...

1. All my lectures are on Powerpoint, so I can at least refresh myself on the main points when needed, so at the very least I remember what I want to talk about if I haven't taught the class in awhile.

2. I keep all my old college notes around. Now, this option probably isn't on everyone's list, but I always knew I wanted to go into teaching, and I didn't want to forget the cool stuff I'd learned anyway.

3. In my somewhat extensive library, I usually keep a couple flags in books where there is some key information I find useful, especially for teaching (although it's just generally interesting, which is why I use it).

4. For audio stuff (I enjoy a lot of these podcasts), I often listen to it a few times, but where possible, for really cool stuff, I try to cross-reference/confirm it and teach the material as soon as possible. Studies have shown over and over again that what solidifies memory more than anything else is the ability to convey that material to others.