I'm the same way for fiction, but there's a certain class of non-fiction audiobooks (memoirs, (auto)biography, essays, etc) that works very well for me even when doing light chores.
It's made me much more selective about what podcasts I listen to, since I've realized just how information-poor most of them are.
I do still enjoy a good interview, or even just the para-social pleasure of "hanging out" with hosts I like, but I'm now doing so consciously and not by default.
I read 189 books last year, mostly due an accidental discovery.
I have a lot of trouble reading in noisy places, since I get distracted easily. My habit would be to put on some very minimal / low-information ambient music like Stars of the Lid and it worked well.
Then one day I randomly decided to put the audiobook on while reading and it was a revelation. After adjusting the audio rate to match my reading speed (usually between 2-3x depending on narrator / subject) it allowed me to totally lock in. Both "inputs" seem to reinforce each other. I researched and apparently people call this "immersive reading".
I find I can (just) listen to (easy) non-fiction like biographies, memoirs etc since they don't usually require much deep thought. But for fiction or harder/denser non fiction I read and listen at the same time.
When I was studying music technology and using state of the art software synthesizers and sequencers, I got more and more into playing my acoustic guitar. There's a deep and direct connection and a pleasure that comes with it that computers (and now/eventually AI) will never be able to match.
(That being said, a realtime AI-based bandmate could be interesting...)
There are also other less ethical ways that I use, though to compensate I buy the books I really like in physical form.