Weird podcasts are the best.

October 4, 2023 2:40 PM

Sleep With Me has put me to sleep for 10 years and 1200 episodes, entertaining me and helping me feel better about the brain bots that keep my mind busy at night. Northwoods Baseball announces games for a made-up league in northern Michigan. Everything Is Alive is back for another season, this time exclusively interviewing animals. And EIA's sister-show In The Scenes Behind Plain Sight rewatches a fictional show about a nudist colony, as an homage to rewatch podcasts (and it drives my husband up the walls).
posted by rebent (47 comments total)

Northwoods Baseball (Previously) is quite fun. I sometimes listen to it even when I'm not trying to go to sleep. Each episode has one or two moments that are chuckle-worthy. Like, there was the one where there was a hot air balloon hovering in the sky directly above the pitcher's mound. Around the 5th inning, its flame when out, and it slowly descended down onto the field, causing a temporary stoppage of the game. I was tickled by the relaxed way the announcer commented, "Oh, the humanity."
posted by JHarris at 2:56 PM on October 4, 2023 [17 favorites]

I love Northwoods, it's genuinely enjoyable just as a thing. Also makes me want to go listen to old baseball games.
posted by drewbage1847 at 3:23 PM on October 4, 2023 [6 favorites]

Keep the recommendations coming!
posted by ShakeyJake at 3:35 PM on October 4, 2023

Northwoods Baseball has greatly enhanced my afternoon naps. It's a little bit interesting, and sometimes funny. I often drift off right after the players are introduced; listening to the player names (and nicknames) usually enables me to doze off in good humor.

What is remarkable to me is the incredible detail in these invented games. Not only in calling each pitch, hit, run, etc., but also doing it in a very professional (if necessarily subdued) fashion.

A bonus is that the weather is always in the low 70s, clear, with a bit of a breeze -- "A perfect night for baseball."
posted by young_simba at 3:46 PM on October 4, 2023 [9 favorites]

I love Northwoods Baseball!

One of my favorite falling-asleep podcasts is In Our Time, which is not intended to be a sleep aid, but often functions as such, especially when mild-mannered British historians discuss the history of philosophy or some such thing.
posted by suelac at 4:09 PM on October 4, 2023 [8 favorites]

Sleep Baseball is the best podcast.

2nd place goes to Normal Gossip.

I never stay awake til the end of either.
posted by the primroses were over at 4:26 PM on October 4, 2023 [4 favorites]

Linking my post from last week, sorry not sorry
posted by avocet at 5:37 PM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

Can't forget The Beef and Dairy Network, the number one podcast for those involved or just interested in the production of beef animals and dairy herds
posted by jenjenc at 6:50 PM on October 4, 2023 [16 favorites]

You can't mention weird recap podcasts without mentioning Meet My Friends the Friends, which is finally back for a new season.
posted by rikschell at 7:25 PM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

OMG, Northwoods Baseball literally is the podcast I've been waiting for my whole life! I say this in all sincerity.
posted by smcdow at 7:38 PM on October 4, 2023 [5 favorites]

Looking forward to checking these out!

I just discovered the low-key and magical weirdness that is Joe Pera. He had soothing and charming Adult Swim show called Joe Pera Talks with You but he also has an even more soothing podcast called Drifting Off with Joe Pera.
posted by treepour at 7:39 PM on October 4, 2023 [4 favorites]

I’m totally torn. These recommendations all sound like podcasts I should check out, but will also find analysis-worthy and compelling, making it impossible to fall asleep. And I do need help falling asleep. O dilemma!
posted by carmicha at 8:04 PM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

Old Time Radio? Maybe Bold Venture, or since it's spooky month, Lights Out.
posted by credulous at 8:57 PM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

Can't forget The Beef and Dairy Network

Hogball is brought to you by Hyundai!
posted by JHarris at 9:23 PM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

I don't understand the principle by which Sleep With Me and Northwoods help me get back to sleep in the middle of the night, but boy do they work.
posted by escabeche at 9:27 PM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

Northwoods is grand. It's the late night game after working around the house listening, then, to the Tigers on A.M. during a greyish afternoon.

ASMR at the museum is also good.
posted by clavdivs at 10:12 PM on October 4, 2023

I’ve just discovered this genre with the Get Sleepy podcast and I’m looking forward to trying out the recommendations.

carmicha, the titles often sound interesting (how the Rosetta Stone was discovered and the history of the universe are my two favorite Get Sleepy episodes) but they’re only just enough interesting to keep your brain from getting bored and coming up with dreadful real life disaster scenarios to keep you awake with (if that sort of thing is a problem for you). But they are so full of pointless details and read by people with slow sonorous voices that it just knocks you right out.
posted by antinomia at 12:33 AM on October 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

I love "Sleep With Me". Couldn't tell you what a single episode is about, but I love it :)
posted by easternblot at 1:07 AM on October 5, 2023 [5 favorites]

The Empty Bowl a "meditative podcast about cereal", cohosted by Justin McElroy and Dan Goubert. The ninety-fifth episode came out recently, I've listened to all of them I think, but never once straight through.
posted by jeremias at 5:00 AM on October 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Northwoods Baseball is a delight, although I find the voice used in the "commercials" to be a bit creepy.
posted by JanetLand at 5:25 AM on October 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

I’m listening to Northwoods at 9AM and it nearly put me out.
posted by MtDewd at 6:18 AM on October 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

Is everyone sleeping with their phone or are you listening to these podcasts some other way?
posted by interglossa at 6:38 AM on October 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

I often drift off right after the players are introduced; listening to the player names (and nicknames) usually enables me to doze off in good humor.

Same here. I don't think I've actually heard any of the games since Episode 2 or 3.

The one downside to sleep baseball is that I've sometimes woken up just as the game was ending and this makes me feel very distressed in a way I have difficulty explaining. I'm not upset that I missed the game, it just makes me feel....alone?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:53 AM on October 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

Is everyone sleeping with their phone or are you listening to these podcasts some other way?

Internet streaming radio!!
posted by JanetLand at 7:17 AM on October 5, 2023

I grew up in St. Louis (where Cardinal baseball is really a public religion) and listening to baseball games on the car's AM radio with my dad while my mother was grocery shopping. I started listening to Sleep Baseball shortly after it began and have never fallen asleep faster. The Tomah Tigers are my second favorite baseball team.

I also like Boring Books for Bedtime (wherein I have listened to narrations of a Sears Robuck Catalog, Etiquette by Emily Post, Our National Parks by John Muir and other public domain books), and In Our Time (a BBC podcast in which affable professors talk about subjects that are not super interesting to me).
posted by honeybee413 at 8:12 AM on October 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

My personal nighttime fave is Sleeping with Celebrities, where John Moe asks celebrities to bring their ZZZ Game and talk softly with him for about an hour about a very niche interest or experience. Examples: Don’t Go Down the Clown Rabbit Hole with Susan Orlean, Neil Gaiman Will Not Name His Sourdough Starter.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:33 AM on October 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Lyn Never, I really like that podcast, but I don't sleep to it. The opening song is such a bop.
posted by Night_owl at 9:14 AM on October 5, 2023

I sent around a bunch of emails last year trying to get friends to help me start a podcast called The Night Where I Am -- the premise is that people turn on the Voice Memo or other similar recording function on their phones and put them outside / on a windowsill / etc. from about 1:45 - 3:15 am, and I edit that down to an hour. No voice, no intro, no nothing, all the info is in the description. It's just one-hour field recordings from all over the planet from various people's houses in the middle of the night.

Never got enough uptake to start it, but it's still a pipe dream.
posted by Shepherd at 12:00 PM on October 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

I love Sleep Baseball and proudly have a Wally McCarthy sticker on my laptop. Episode 4, "Bring Your Dog Night," is also really funny somewhere around the 5th inning. I know they all have good shenanigans but I've only been awake for a few of them, and my personal rule is to always start a game at the beginning instead of skipping to the middle to find out.
posted by rouftop at 1:14 PM on October 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Shepherd, I encourage you to keep the dream of The Night Where I Am alive, I could see that becoming popular.

rouftop, it feels like Sleep Baseball could use a fan wiki (although hopefully not on Fandom, they suck) that gives a synopsis of each episode, what the ads are, and what mid-game events happen. Well, a wiki might be overkill, although it might be interesting to see if we could figure out the league progress over time.

One thing I've noticed about Sleep Baseball, BTW, if you've ever made it to the end of one awake, is that sometimes the game doesn't "end," it just sort of fades out into the background noise. Not always, there is at least one game that actually does conclusively conclude, but more than once?
posted by JHarris at 1:49 PM on October 5, 2023

I'm not much of a podcast listener, but I just discovered Keegan-Michael Key's History of Sketch Comedy (Audible.com). Key is apparently quite the comedy nerd and this podcast is full of interesting info - and it's full of laughs, of course.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:54 PM on October 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

No voice, no intro, no nothing, all the info is in the description. It's just one-hour field recordings

So.. like the WALKING podcast?
posted by progosk at 2:54 PM on October 5, 2023

Welcome To Night Vale scratches the itch for weird, funny, sometimes surreal things to distract the bedtime brain gremlins. Over ten years of episodes to choose from.

Note: There are elements of horror, though often things turn out just fine by the end of the episode. Except for when they don't.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 4:15 PM on October 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

There was a podcast I stumbled upon very randomly—basically someone who had written a video game article (I want to say for Rock Paper Shotgun but honestly who knows now) said in their bio that they also ran a podcast that was supposed to be light sci-fi worldbuilding, recreating the ambience of a space station (not ISS NASA-punk style, but The Expanse cyberpunk mall style). She'd play sort of sci-fi muzak and general space station hum, and then relay random news, requests and announcements over the station PA (or maybe news channel).

It was a neat idea that I planned to examine in more detail, but have instead completely forgotten what the podcast was called, who ran it, and whether it's still active or not.
posted by chrominance at 8:10 PM on October 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

Is everyone sleeping with their phone or are you listening to these podcasts some other way?

Sleeping with my phone, unless I'm on a plane or sharing with someone else. I don't like falling asleep with earbuds in, so when I need to listen to a podcast to fall asleep, I'll turn the sleep timer on and stick my phone near my pillow with my sleep podcast or white noise app of my choice. (Sleep with Me for podcasts, and White Rain on the mynoise app for white noise.)
posted by yasaman at 8:30 PM on October 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Internet radio, not a podcast, but Mission Control on SomaFM is sometimes just perfect.

Ambient music with the voices of Apollo astronauts talking to Houston about Moon crater vistas and the readings on various equipment.
Their pleasant unflappable drone about the texture of space rocks has put my Earthly life stresses into perspective a few times.

Since this has turned into an AskMe, I highly recommend the Sleepphones wireless bluetooth headband.
posted by tula at 11:44 PM on October 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

Ug, my sleep phones weren't charged last night and I didn't sleep as well as I would have otherwise 😮‍💨
posted by rebent at 7:45 AM on October 6, 2023

Mod note: [btw, this post has been added to the sidebar and Best Of blog]
posted by taz (staff) at 2:54 AM on October 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

Since reading this post last week, I've been putting on an episode of Northwoods Baseball whenever I need help falling asleep or falling back asleep. I don't think I've managed yet to stay awake past the player introductions. I've never understood being into ASMR--and have in the past been generally creeped out listening to ASMR videos or sleep stories--but this? This worked perfectly for me. I would genuinely like to hear what actually happens in one of these games, but I think I like being able to sleep even better.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 10:35 AM on October 10, 2023

You can't mention weird recap podcasts without mentioning Meet My Friends the Friends, which is finally back for a new season.

I can not begin to express how excited how excited I was to suddenly see this pop up again in my feed. Not sure I could fall asleep to it, though, with the hairtrigger maniacal bumpers.

Not gonna lie, I fall asleep to Adventure Zone all the time lately.
posted by Mchelly at 12:22 PM on October 10, 2023

Does that mean you aren't enjoying this season of The Adventure Zone? Also, does the closing music not wake you back up?
posted by Night_owl at 8:44 AM on October 11, 2023

Yeah I’m not loving it as much as some of the earlier ones. The end music does wake me up though. Not sure if that’s a plus in this context :)
posted by Mchelly at 8:48 AM on October 11, 2023

It doesn't have me rapt like some of the other seasons, but Justin getting to stretch his different voices has been so fun for me.
posted by Night_owl at 11:40 AM on October 11, 2023

Nothing Much Happens is my favorite falling asleep podcast. The stories have just enough action that there is something to listen to but the activities are so low stakes that there is no reason to stay awake to find out what happens next. Here is the summary of last week's episode: it’s a story about a day spent in a meadow beside a cabin in the woods. It’s also about a task made easier by a neighbor, dogs running together through dry leaves, the glory of the mountains and the generosity of trees.

For slightly more interesting listening, I loved Answer Me This. Helen and Ollie answer random low stakes reader question. The questions get more interesting after the first few seasons, and Helen and Ollie will actually do some research so you learn something you didn't know. It was in production for about a decade - No new episodes but really no reason not to listen to the old ones - some of the pop culture references will be out of date but that never bothered me.

Warning: I found Everything is Alive got creepy with stories of bad things happening to the athromorphized characters. Not every episode but when it did happen it was disturbing enough that I had to quit listening.
posted by metahawk at 5:06 PM on October 13, 2023

This post kind of turned into a convo about sleep podcasts but really it's about weird podcasts, which sleep podcasts are because it takes skill in weird thinking to tell a story that puts you to sleep.
posted by rebent at 8:20 PM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

A nice podcast is the bilbcast, which is composed mostly of one specific cat purring. There's only five episodes, but it's not like Bilbo has a huge vocabulary.
posted by JHarris at 10:05 PM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

(It turns out there's more than five episodes, but the feed I saw only have five of them. There's like nine... that are all of Bilbo purring. Viva variety!)
posted by JHarris at 5:47 AM on October 15, 2023 [1 favorite]