You can’t hear your own thoughts with a podcast in both ears 24/7. Take one earbud out sometimes.

Constant input leaves no room for output. Your own thinking needs a gap to appear in, and if every walk, bus ride and sink full of dishes is filled with somebody else talking, you can go a long time without producing a thought of your own. That silence is not empty time; it is where your conclusions get made.

Try one journey a day with nothing playing, or one earbud out while you work. Expect your mind to wander and let it, since the wandering is the point. Keep a note on your phone for whatever surfaces, because it tends to arrive in the first ten minutes.