you can make 8-minute daf into 16 or 4 minute if you play it at different speeds. Playing at 1.5x speed seems to work better for my mind for a normal speaker, as I have less time to go into other thoughts.
If you don’t know whether to trust the producer, take a topic that you know well and listen on that topic and see how he stands against what you already know. If you are concerned about political slant, take a topic that you know that touches on that item. There is a story about I don’t remember who, who was asked whether a certain sefer on Chumash is kosher. He opened it briefly in 3 places and said – no it is not. How did he know? He opened in places where Chumash hints to Olam Habo (Yaakov buried, etc). In all places, the author chose not to discuss the issue, so he does not believe in it (a typical type of kefira at the time)