There are podcasts for children that promise to lull them to sleep with ambient sounds combined with fairy tales. And then there are podcasts that bore listeners to sleep. Here boredom doesn’t mean ineffective. These are voices that come with a rainbow of accents, easily helping you to get some shut-eye.
You can call them borecasts, for this category of podcasts is sleep-inducing. Listen to Sharon Handy read the 1897 Sears Roebuck catalogue or Ben Boster talk about iron. The idea is to disconnect from the online chatter and focus on a voice that’s calm. When the pandemic started people thought it would allow better sleep routines. It did only for the first few months. And then we got glued to work from home and more screen time. Here are four borecasts to help you dive into Snooze Land.
Boring Books for Bedtime
The title of the podcast is enough to describe its contents. Sharon Handy’s gentle voice will make pull a blanket over you. As the host, she selects passages from an old public-domain book. In each episode, the host calmly, quietly reads something rather boring. Think Galileo, Aristotle, Emerson, and whoever wrote the 1897 Sears catalogue. Recent episodes included The Ethics of Aristotle and The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. Sharon previously created and co-hosted the popular Great British Bake Off review podcast, Gin and Cake.
I Can’t Sleep
The podcast has enough boring episodes on topics that create enough interest to “put you to sleep”. Ben Boster is stunning when it comes to vocal chops; it’s certain to put you in la-la land. Brilliant and effective, recently I listened to the episode called Iron in which he “dives headfirst into the riveting world of… iron”. How exciting can be the history of iron?!
Bunk Bed
A brilliant podcast from Patrick Marber and Peter Curran. They talk about stuff that has no meaning and that’s what makes it brilliant. It lives up to its description of “funny, intimate in-the-dark conversation and the voices of the famous dead” and the hosts “let those crazy disconnected thoughts before sleep float into the air”. A personal favourite? The recent episode titled Explaining genitalia to Aliens.
Sleep With Me
This one comes from Drew Ackerman and it “combines the pain of insomnia with the relief of laughing”. Drew has dedicated himself to “help those who feel alone in the deep dark night and just need someone to tell them a bedtime story”. What makes each episode memorable are the asides and, of course, the lovely voice.
