What’s it like to avoid all media all day long for months?

When I was cycling across the country on my bike, I spent anywhere from six to nine hours a day in the saddle—for almost three solid months.

It made a lot of people wonder: What did you listen to all day long?

“Was it mostly music, or more like audiobooks, podcasts?” asked a friend of mine when we went for a drink at a bar after I got back home. “What was on your playlist?”

“Nothing,” I said.

She frowned slightly, as if she’d misheard me. “What do you mean, ‘nothing?’”

“I mean, nothing. I don’t listen to anything when I ride,” I replied. “I don’t even wear earbuds.”

You could see the wheels of her mind grind to a standstill. “What the hell. You . . . you just ride along in . . . in what? In total silence?”

“More or less,” I said, laughing.

“Allll dayyy longgg??”

“Yeah.”

She was g