system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
If I try to listen to a podcast while reading a book am I strengthening any skills or just making it harder to accomplish both tasks?

So I'm doing homework which requires me to read a few short stories and I want to listen to a podcast because it's entertaining. It's hard but possible to pay attention to both of them at the same time, and although it's frustrating it made me wonder if I can strengthen multi-tasking skills or listening skills or something by doing it.
gpt
You can't do two activities that require the same cognitive demands at the same time. Since reading and listening to a podcast both require language processing, it's literally impossible for your brain to to do both at once. You can, however, listen to music without words while you read, or do a task that doesn't require speaking/reading/writing while listening to spoken words. 

Also you shouldn't try to switch back and forth between them - you'll end up doing both things *worse*. There's no such thing as multi-tasking with similar tasks - what you're doing is just task-switching, which ultimately trains your brain to be more distracted. Try focusing on doing one thing at a time, unless the two things don't demand the same type of cognitive attention (such as listening to music while doing something with your hands).