Car Talk podcasts play too quickly: Tom and Ray sound like the Chipmunks on helium. Why is this?

I live outside of the US and listen to Car Talk podcasts on my iPhone. This all started about a year ago while driving my 1994 Land Rover Discovery. The phone was plugged in to the 12V power socket for juice. So far, so good. When I listened to Car Talk, and only Car Talk, the entire show was sped up; kinda’ like playing a 33 rpm record on 45 or 78. All other podcasts and music play at normal speeds. It only happens with Car Talk. Tom and Ray literally sound like the Chipmunks on helium, as do the callers. Of course, this way the show only lasts like 35 minutes, so at least I don’t have to suffer through the full hour. So I sold the Discovery but it now happens as well in my 1974 Land Rover Series III, but not in my 2005 VW Passat. Can anyone explain this phenomena?

hmmm … I’m usually not able to listen to the show when it plays on the radio, schedule conflicts, so I usually listen to the NPR version of the podcast later in the week. I have one of those nameless $15 mp3 players that look like a usb memory stick. Not an Apple product in other words. I’ve been doing this for several years with no problem whatsoever.

Are you listening to the Itunes version of the mp3? If so, you might try listening to the NPR version instead, see if the problem goes away.

Easy answer if you are using the Apple Podcast App!

When you start listening to the podcast, you should get a screen with a “NPR Car Talk” cover, pause, skip forward, skip backward, etc… buttons. If you tap on the “NPR” cover photo, the photo will slide up revealing a “Tape Player” with three more buttons for Sharing, Speed, and Sleep Timer. The speed should be set on “1x”

See the photo below:

A-ha. Thanks nzahn1. I’ll give that a shot.