Submerged in Stories: How Best-Selling Author Jodi Picoult Uses Zygo to Stream Audiobooks Underwater
You may know Jodi Picoult as a New York Times best-selling author and skilled wordsmith of more than thirty novels, but you may not know her lesser-known passion: a longstanding dedication to swimming.
Living in the picturesque landscapes of New Hampshire, where the summer season is fleeting, Jodi and her husband embarked on a journey to build an endless pool just before the onset of COVID. Delays in the construction process led to the project taking nearly three years to complete. When the pool was finally ready, she discovered Zygo, a game-changer that added a new layer of joy to her daily swimming routine.
"Before Zygo, I had waterproof headphones, but the hassle of downloading content in advance was prohibitive," Jodi recalls. "As soon as our pool was ready, my husband gave me Zygo as a gift. The concept of streaming from my phone while swimming was life-changing. I can now immerse myself in an audiobook effortlessly, without having to think about it in advance.”
Jodi's connection with water goes back to her early days in New York, where one of her first jobs was lifeguarding in a retirement community. Over time, as she got married and had children, she gravitated towards swimming whenever the opportunity arose.
"For me, swimming has always been my exercise of choice," she said. "It's a privilege to have a pool attached to my house. With Zygo, swimming every day has become incredibly easy."
So, what sort of books does an award-winning author listen to while she’s swimming?
“I always listen to a certain kind of book when I’m swimming,” she explains. “Instead of listening to literary fiction where you want to linger on every word, I tend to listen to fantasy because it has such a driving plot. I am completely invested in the story, and I have to keep listening,” she said.
Jodi’s favourite way to listen to audiobooks is to load an entire series on her phone and just keep going. Recently, she completed bestselling author Amanda Bouchet’s entire fantasy series.
“Because I am in an endless pool, I just swim against the current and there’s nothing to break up the act of swimming. Without music or audio, swimming can be incredibly boring, but being able to swim, and use that time to enjoy books is just phenomenal.”
While Jodi’s pool was under construction, she started running, but a knee and hip injury ultimately sidelined her new hobby.
"Swimming is such a terrific, low-impact exercise, especially after my running injury,” she explains. "I can swim knowing I’m not hurting my body, and Zygo makes it extremely easy to get a mile in every day.”
Despite her family's varying interests in swimming, Zygo found another devotee in Jodi's daughter, who is expecting a baby in the coming months. To safely exercise while pregnant, she started swimming and discovered a newfound passion for the pool with the help of Zygo.
“The ability to have entertainment underwater was the one thing that was missing from the world of exercise and swimming,” Jodi said. “Zygo is such great technology and knowing that it will only get more advanced as time goes on is exciting. It is really gratifying for someone like me – who has fallen in love with the product – to tell their friends about it and know that they will love it too.”
