Podcast Filter 2021: Sleepytime Edition
February 1, 2021 3:08 PM   Subscribe

I am seeking recommendations for a podcast to listen to while I'm falling asleep. Something quiet. To me, that means soothing, consistent voices, with no excitement, hilarity, or arguments. If there are ads, they have to be the same voices/tone as the rest of the podcast. These are my two biggest problems finding appropriate 'casts, and rules out anything from iHeartRadio, Wondery, MaxFun or other networks. Additional snowflakes within.

The perfect sleepytime podcast for me is Futility Closet. It is random, interesting, soothing, ad-free (except their own Patreon plugs) and 30 minutes long. I used to loooooove Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe (their voices were amazing) until iHeartRadio turned it into ads every 10 minutes. I'm not against advertising, but the shift in tone as I'm drifting off invariably wakes me right up.

Snowflake requirements:

Fewer voices/hosts is better.

Nothing upsetting or too heavy (no sadness, violence, dystopia, or musings on the sorry state of the world. Politics are out)

Nothing too self-help or emotionally oriented. I do not need to consider my mental health at bedtime, nor do I wish to hear about how others overcame adversity. I'm really sensitive and struggle with depression, so these things can be very upsetting sometimes, even if they are meant to be a positive spin.

Nothing fictional/serialized. I fall asleep and miss things, it gets frustrating. Plus all the different voices in a fiction podcast are too distracting.

Interesting, intellectual content that will keep my mind relatively engaged.

History is great. I've listened to all of the Byzantium and Rome series. Started one about the crusades but didn't like the content enough. I don't love serialized options because I don't get through the podcasts. One-off episodes are best.

Please do not recommend "Sleep With Me." I personally do not love the host's voice, and it is a little too pointless. I wanted to like it so badly, because its advertised as what I am looking for: something to keep my mind going, but not keep me awake.
posted by dazedandconfused to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (39 answers total) 39 users marked this as a favorite
 
I was a bit skeptical at first because of the self-help-y orientation, but I've found Nothing Much Happens to be fantastic for putting my ADHD brain to sleep. YMMV but I enjoy the host's voice (and agree with you about Sleep With Me). The ads are all up-front so they don't disturb the drifting-off process.
posted by brackish.line at 3:16 PM on February 1, 2021 [3 favorites]


It falls square into every stereotype about middle-aged American men, but here I am listening to videos by Drachinifel, a British guy who is very interested in pre-cold-war naval history. Lots of information presented in a very dry British way. May fail your “no violence/peril” criteria because of descriptions of naval warfare, but he’s more interested in the machines than the people, so the peril inherent in combat is relatively muted. Whether you’re satisfied with that is, I think, pretty subjective (I’m a hardware nerd and have made my peace with it, but I completely understand why others might not).
posted by Alterscape at 3:45 PM on February 1, 2021


Ok, hear me out. A cereal podcast. It’s called The Empty Bowl. One potential drawback is that they sometimes play listener calls, but the whole goal of the podcast is to have a “meditative” mood. No ads, two similar-sounding male hosts. It might be worth a try?
posted by Night_owl at 3:58 PM on February 1, 2021 [4 favorites]


I have similar requirements for sleepytime pods and also couldn't sink into Sleep With Me enough to actually drift off. Watching this excitedly to see what other suggestions people have.

I'm sure you know Stuff You Should Know, and it is iHeartRadio now, but I find their ads to not be too intrusive. However, it really depends on the episode content - I'm not drifting off to "History of the KKK" or other horrible tragedies. But an hour about aspirin? Sure.

On Being can be good for this, especially the unedited episodes that they release alongside each produced episode in their podcast feed. Each one starts with like 5 minutes of testing audio and the guests talking about what they had for breakfast, the rest of the episode is very meandering, and Krista Tippett's whole demeanor chills me out.

Acquired is a show with two hosts recounting the detailed histories of various tech start-ups, a subject I care absolutely nothing about personally. It's boring and perfect. No loud music to intro/outro different segments.

Longform has ads and, to me, too distracting an intro segment of the hosts talking about the upcoming interview, so I usually skip ahead until the actual content starts before closing my eyes. But it's interviews with writers, which is usually interesting enough to keep my mind from wandering but not too stimulating.

Oh No Ross and Carrie is Max Fun, but they don't have disjointed ad breaks like other MF shows. They just slowly slide sideways into talking about SquareSpace as if it's the next thought that popped into their heads.
posted by circle at 4:04 PM on February 1, 2021 [1 favorite]


In Our Time. The ultimate nappy podcast that is also extremely interesting, and varied in subjects.
posted by General Malaise at 4:12 PM on February 1, 2021 [9 favorites]


This Had Oscar Buzz is interesting enough for me to listen to while I’m driving or doing laundry or whatever but if I put it on when I’m in bed with the lights out I am reliably asleep within 15 minutes. It’s two guys talking about movies (specifically movies that seemed like they might get an Oscar nomination but didn’t, but they digress a lot), no ads, once in a while they’ll have a clip of a film or some music but that’s unusual.

Double Love is a podcast where two women talk about the Sweet Valley High books, generally with one ad at the beginning and one at the end and a promo for another podcast from their network in the middle. They’re Irish and the promoted podcasts are also all Irish, FWIW, and the promos are usually quite low key and soothing. This one can be a bit excitable so it’s a less conducive to sleep,
posted by mskyle at 4:23 PM on February 1, 2021


I don’t have any recommendations as such but one thing that works for me is to find a fan podcast for an old tv show or series of books that I am very familiar with. I can drift off to people nattering on about totally inconsequential trivia about stuff I already know.
posted by AndrewStephens at 4:31 PM on February 1, 2021 [3 favorites]


Sleepy is a podcast that's calmly read classic literature. Its companion show Dreamy features classic stories intended for children. Both have done wonders for me.
posted by knile at 5:07 PM on February 1, 2021 [3 favorites]


From a previous ask, I also recommend BBC's "In Our Time". The host has a conversation with three academics about some usually esoteric topic that I know nothing about and usually not that interested in (philosophy, religion, historical figures you've never heard of, etc.). It's been on for a long time - there are nearly 900 episodes to chose from.

I've also added to CurioSCIty to my help-with-sleep list.
posted by ShooBoo at 5:24 PM on February 1, 2021 [6 favorites]


I also like The Empty Bowl for this.

History on Fire also works for me; they front-load the ads and they’re all done by the podcast host.
posted by tchemgrrl at 5:32 PM on February 1, 2021


Thirding In Our Time. I tell myself that I will either cure my insomnia or become very well-educated, and I've had more success with the former.
posted by pierogi24 at 5:32 PM on February 1, 2021 [4 favorites]


I think I saw this recommended here on AskMe: A Way With Words. It's about "language examined through family, history, and culture." They do take calls from listeners but they are almost invariably older folks with calm stories about a phrase their dad or grandma used to use. I think they have ads but I can't even remember them? So they must not be too intrusive. The subject matter won't interest everyone, but I happen to like language as a topic, so it works very well for me.

Sleep tight!
posted by CiaoMela at 5:47 PM on February 1, 2021 [1 favorite]


Nothing Much Happens is my go-to for this. One voice, no ads, not plotless but nothing important happens, everything is pleasant. It’s so great!
posted by punchtothehead at 6:27 PM on February 1, 2021


Imaginary Worlds. His voice is so soothing and subject matter is interesting but not at all violent. He occasionally will interview people but those can easily be listened to during non-sleep times.
posted by tipsyBumblebee at 6:42 PM on February 1, 2021


I like the Overdue Podcast, where two hosts with friendly, soothing voices talk about books. I often fall asleep to it and either they don’t have ads or if they do they’re the type where the two hosts talk calmly about Squarespace or The Great Courses or something like that, in the exact same tone as the rest of the podcast.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 6:54 PM on February 1, 2021


I should add: you will want to read the descriptions of the book ahead of time so you know it doesn’t have disturbing content. But they’ve got many episodes about non-disturbing books.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 6:57 PM on February 1, 2021


The Pen Addict has a lot of information about fountain pens. I have never used a fountain pen. I don’t know what the ads are like because I have no idea what happens after the first fifteen minutes.
posted by quadrilaterals at 7:10 PM on February 1, 2021 [4 favorites]


I recommended In Our Time for this before and I will again, but my current favorite is Medieval Death Trip. No ads, just the host (who did at least some of the episodes as part of his phd) reading from medieval or early modern texts, with a little prologue giving context for what you'll be hearing and often a postscript connecting the reading to other texts or histories. It hits the sweet spot between soothing and fascinating. There's a drawback that it isn't updated very regularly because he's not a professional podcaster and has to, you know, teach and grade and all that, but a huge plus is that means there are no ads. The only volume issues I have is he occasionally likes to lead into the readings with atmospheric foley work that can be startling if I'm already drifting, but the quality makes up for it.

History of Philosophy without any gaps?
posted by theweasel at 7:32 PM on February 1, 2021 [1 favorite]


Get Sleepy is absolutely wonderful and ticks all of your boxes.
posted by ReginaHart at 8:16 PM on February 1, 2021


Maybe The History Of Philosophy Without Any Gaps? That, especially the first 15 episode or so, has been a go to for me for many years. The History of English podcast has been another good one. The British History podcast should work, but I find it too engaging mostly. When Diplomacy Fails might be worth a go, I never settled into its rhythms. I also found a lot of episodes of the Total Party Kill podcast effective for me, and historically You Look Nice Today and The Flophouse were strong for me.
posted by wotsac at 8:28 PM on February 1, 2021 [2 favorites]


Myths & Legends and Fictional have the same host, and each consists of him summarizing various myths and works of fiction, respectively. He doesn’t “act out” the stories, so the tone is very regulated and conducive to falling asleep.
posted by Comet Bug at 9:01 PM on February 1, 2021


Youtube is actually a good resource for this. Both pirated (actual sleepytime audio products) and original, which is usually titled and tagged as ASMR. I've stumbled into them genuinely looking for historical documentaries and i found utterly random ones. Here's one channel, and let the algorithms do the rest.
posted by cendawanita at 11:00 PM on February 1, 2021 [1 favorite]


I personally use History of English by Kevin Stroud for this — I think it meets all your criteria.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:52 PM on February 1, 2021 [5 favorites]


Haha adding a third comment for History of English. I usually end up relistening to each episode four times because I genuinely like and want to retain the information, but it’s great to drift off to.
posted by caitcadieux at 12:47 AM on February 2, 2021 [2 favorites]


The Boring Talks podcast is great for this - currently inactive, but there are 54 episodes. A different speaker each time takes a fairly niche topic. Disclaimer: not actually boring. They always seem to hit the right balance of soothingness.
posted by JJZByBffqU at 1:26 AM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]


IKEA has created the IKEA Sleep Podcast where two Swedish employees read from their furniture catalog and help with pronouncing the names of your favorite bookcases.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:38 AM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]


The episodes might be a little short, but otherwise I think The Memory Palace would give you what you're looking for.
posted by oakroom at 12:36 PM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]


Astronomy Cast for soothing discussions about the storms raging on Jupiter
Home of the Brave is quietly stunning, a great source for monotone roadtrip recaps
Rumble Strip is reliable for measured, lovely, unexpected interviews on a wide range of topics
History of 1000 Objects
posted by veery at 2:16 PM on February 2, 2021


I used In Our Time as a sleep aid for years, and it worked great. Recently Myths and Legends has been my go-to. Myths & Legends might fail your criteria about nothing fictional.

In both cases, the shows used to completely lack intrusive ads. For a few years now In Our Time has been tacking on some extremely intrusive ads. I'm sad to say that I noticed Myths & Legends has started doing some very interruptive ads in just the last few months. I woke up in the middle of the night confused and upset that I was hearing some loud ad for another podcast that interviews the victims of stalkers about how their lives have been ruined. :( :( :(

So...either might work for you if you download old episodes. However, this depends on whether they insert fresh ads when you download, or whether old episodes are still in their pure state. I don't know the answer. Also, I understand that if you sign up as a supporter of Myths and Legends, you get ad-free downloads.

[On preview] I used to like Astronomy Cast, too, but that robotically repetitive ad for the software design firm drove me out of my mind. Also, some of the mistakes in the discussion on Astronomy Cast drove me out of my mind.

Lately, I'm really favoring audiobooks over podcasts because of the predictability of the books.
posted by polecat at 2:32 PM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]


I would have also recommended In Our Tine except that yeah, they now have end of episode commercials that can be louder. If you like art history, the National Gallery has a podcast that is just audio of lectures presented in their auditorium. You will miss out on the visuals, obviously, but I find them informative and interesting but also soothing and with no commercials. Unfortunately they don’t come out frequently but there is a deep back catalogue.
posted by PussKillian at 8:46 PM on February 2, 2021


BBC's The Boring Talks are perfect for falling asleep to! They're lectures people give about "boring" topics they are obsessively interested in, and they really lean into the soothing, calming, soporific atmosphere with sound design, even in tone and very drone-y. Recent episodes were on things like jigsaw puzzles, car boots, breakfast cereals, and windows.

Other BBC podcasts that can be very even in tone, with little variation or emotional turbulence: Arts & Ideas, The Radio 3 Documentary, Word of Mouth. All of these will occasionally have political episodes, which of course you would want to skip, but you can tell the content very clearly by the episode title and description.
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 4:16 AM on February 3, 2021


P.S. For people who are mourning the addition of intrusive ads at the end of In Our Time (as I did!), I noticed the app Pocket Casts now has a function where you can program it to skip the last [x] seconds of a certain podcast, in addition to the first [x] seconds.
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 4:17 AM on February 3, 2021


I discovered long ago when I found myself regularly sleeping through Car Talk weekend mornings that any talky show will put me to sleep or keep me asleep if it features people I really like. Even Paula Poundstone's podcast works for me despite the fact that it's basically 90 minutes of people yelling. Mike "Boom Boom" Bonafet can call up and scream at Adam about that bitch Paula and I slumber peacefully through it all.

My number one go-to is Judge John Hodgman. If you listen enough times awake to get used to the regular wielding of the gavel, then the old-format episodes might work because there aren't the earpiercing shrieky ads for other maxfun shows, just John and Jesse droning on about bedsheets or whateverall. There are still the litigants to deal with, but the old ones used to start with a trial with live guests and then go to "clearing the docket," which is the most soporific soundscape in the history of the world. This is because they showed it was happening in the judge's chambers by adding a crackling fire + dreamy jazz thing under the action. The "action" being John and Jesse droning on and getting into the deep weeds over how people should eat cereal, load their dishwashers, position themselves in restaurant booths relative to their significant others, decide who walks the dog, arrange their furniture, etc. etc.
posted by Don Pepino at 7:47 AM on February 3, 2021


I think Lore is the perfect podcast to fall asleep to. It's not actually scary though sometimes it tries to convince you that it is.

I also have been enjoying The Hidden Djinn which is produced similarily.

I like The History of Witchcraft

The memory palace
is great, though very short usually.

This podcast will Kill You is wonderful and they just read the ads, though I find this podcast too interesting to fall asleep.
posted by euphoria066 at 1:20 PM on February 3, 2021 [1 favorite]


I'm a fan of You're Wrong About for my sleepytime. I usually end up listening to them three or four times to catch the whole thing. My other fav is This Podcast Will Kill You, already mentioned above.
posted by liminal_shadows at 5:06 PM on February 3, 2021


I Can't Sleep podcast - a guy with an amazing, boring, smooth, calm voice reads Wikipedia articles. LOVE IT.
posted by wannabecounselor at 10:59 PM on February 3, 2021 [2 favorites]


I'm not sure what the ad status is on these, but the BBC's A History of the World in 100 Objects was great for this - and both the BBC and other podcasters have riffed on the idea, so the BBC has A History of Mozart in a Dozen Objects and I think a Shakespeare one as well, and then there's things like Objects Out Loud from the Ashmolean Museum - I haven't listened to it, but it might be worth a try. There are probably similar things from other museums.

Nthing In Our Time, if you can find non-ad versions or if you can find a player that omits the ads.

Have you looked into what used to be iTunes U content? I just searched iTunes for "physics lectures" and found some stuff from Stanford, Oxford, and Caltech. Searching for "history lectures" turns up an Ocean Lectures podcast from the Smithsonian, and also some Anthropology lectures. Searching on Stanford, I'm seeing lectures on psychology, Human Behavioral Biology, and the Geography of World Cultures; MIT has The Early Universe and The Film Experience and Intro to Biology and Exploring Black Holes; I'm betting Yale and other big schools have some stuff like that as well.

If that sounds interesting, but you have any trouble downloading the lectures from iTunes/Apple, you should be able to get a lot of them direct from MIT's Open Courseware.

Hope that helps - In Our Time has been my absolute favorite falling-asleep podcast forever, and I really hope you can find some way to listen to some without the ads.
posted by kristi at 4:15 PM on February 4, 2021 [1 favorite]


I once tried to listen to The Office ASMR podcast and it literally put me to sleep, so that might be good! It's just very, very soothing/calm/boring recaps of episodes of The Office.
posted by lunasol at 12:47 PM on February 8, 2021


I fell asleep listening to the BBC podcast Bunk Bed last night. (Link goes to the eps currently available on the BBC 4 page, but Apple podcasts also has about 30 past episodes.) I remember very little after the first few seconds, which is impressive as it normally takes me a long time to fall asleep. When I’ve listened while awake (rare) the style of conversation kind of reminds me of The Trip films with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.
Bunk Bed is another show that seems strange when you explain it. Now in its fifth series, the show is simply a recording of grown men Patrick Marber and Peter Curran lying in the dark in a bunk bed, talking about life, the universe and “the velocity you’re expected to travel at, just to keep up”. Though the result sounds like stream of consciousness, there is much sharp editing going on, and this is a funny show. Last week, Curran worried that he was never bored, while Marber confessed to being bored most of the time and, also, to being boring to young people: “As soon as you utter the two words “I” and “remember” conjoined, young people, understandably, just think, ‘shut up’.”

Last week, Curran, who often plays clips to trigger conversation, opened by playing one that referenced James Bond. Marber said he thought James Bond was a bit pathetic. “Is this you being a middle-aged man trying to claw back some sensitivity?” wondered Curran. And later: “Are you still a nasty piece of work?” Marber’s contributions included: “Were you a bit Spandau?” and “All I can see is Old Ma Curran in a pair of grey shorts.” They do make me laugh. “I think we’re entering the pompous stage of our lives,” remarked Marber. “Pontification occurs in your 60s, we’re pre-pontification.”

Actually, they’re both quite modest, and it’s nice to hear middle-aged blokes talking humorously about their mundanities, as opposed to bigging up their supposedly impressive achievements. Ahhhh. Taking a bath in the weird is always refreshing.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:19 AM on April 23, 2021 [1 favorite]


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