Sleeping with Celebrities

Look, this world can be spinny and chaotic and upsetting, enough to cost you some valuable sleep time. Aisha Harris from NPR’s Pop Culture Hour has a way of making sense of the world and it’s her habit of memorizing the birth and death years of famous pop culture figures of the last hundred years or so. Did you know that Shaq, Ben Affleck, Eminem, and Gwyneth Paltrow were all born in 1972? Aisha did. And she knew that 1922 was the year the world received Judy Garland, Betty White, and Carl Reiner. Does any of it matter a lot? Of course not. Is it sufficient data to occupy your mind and keep it from swirling anxiety thoughts? We think so.

Aisha is the fourth of four Pop Culture Happy Hour hosts to appear on our program, which means if there was a universe-killing glove that required all four hosts, we would now own it. But we’d never give it to Thanos. Don’t worry.

Still Awake? The Other PCHH Host Episodes Are:
Linda Holmes (Beverly Hills, 90210)
Glen Weldon (The Silmarillion)
Stephen Thompson (Tiny Desk Concert Bric-a-Brac)

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Meredith is just a character that Kate Flannery played on The Office for many years. In real life, she’s completely stable, sober, and responsible. And quite charming. (Meredith was also charming but in a “will she accidentally injure herself or others?” kind of way.) In her post-Office life (not her post office life), Kate has been touring around doing theater appearances with Jane Lynch and she’ll share all her best tips on how to pack for travel such that you don’t have to check a bag. She’ll also tell us all about her new memoir, Overserved: The Lucky Life of the Office Drunk. And if you’re still awake at the very end of the episode, she reads Seamus Heaney’s poem “Good-Night” out loud.

Would you like to read it here? Okay.

A latch lifting, an edged den of light
Opens across the yard.
Out of the low door
They stoop into the honeyed corridor,
Then walk straight through the wall of the dark.
A puddle, cobble-stones, jambs and doorstep
Are set steady in a block of brightness.
Till she strides in again beyond her shadows
And cancels everything behind her.

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Kurt Andersen has a lot of wonderful stories to tell, like when he worked at Spy Magazine and sent Donald Trump a check for thriteen cents to see if he would cash it (of course he did). And he tells some of those stories, sure, but pretty soon we get into detailed information about how he manages his Type 1 diabetes. It was the topic that most often puts his wife to sleep, so she advised him that maybe this would be a great idea for our show. Typing about it now, a few days after the interview, we can’t actually remember much of what he said and in trying to remember we’re actually getting kind of sleeee......zzzxzxzxxzz What? Where were we? Ah yes, we also offer Kurt the names of some American vice-presidents (dead ones only) and he tells us which ones he would like to have over for a dinner party. We would have done presidents but, you know, exciting. Kurt’s latest novel is The Breakup, about life in America after the next Civil War.

Hey Sleepy Heads, is there anyone whose voice you’d like to drift off to, or do you have suggestions on things we could do to aid your slumber?

Email us at: [email protected].

Follow the Show on:

Instagram @sleepwcelebs

Bluesky @sleepwithcelebs

TikTok @SleepWithCelebs

John is on Bluesky @JohnMoe

John’s acclaimed, best-selling memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinsleeping

When people have been married as long as Minnesota crop art icon Jill Moe and Sleeping with Celebrities host John Moe have been, they understand and accept that a loving couple need not share all interests. A topic that fascinates one spouse may completely bore and put to sleep spouse number two. Such are the Moes with John’s abiding interest in the consequence-free world of fantasy football and Jill’s years-long involvement in making art out of native Minnesota plants. Truth be told, John finds crop art at least a little interesting but Jill routinely flees the room and/or dozes off when John starts in on which running back to start on his imaginary football squad. The two also share a wonderfully cruel way to respond to respond to someone telling a dull story at the dinner table. It involves a napkin repurposed as a blanket and you can learn it yourself in order to amuse and possibly infuriate your dining companions.

Hey Sleepy Heads, is there anyone whose voice you’d like to drift off to, or do you have suggestions on things we could do to aid your slumber?

Email us at: [email protected].

Follow the Show on:

Instagram @sleepwcelebs

Bluesky @sleepwithcelebs

TikTok @SleepWithCelebs

John is on Bluesky @JohnMoe

John’s acclaimed, best-selling memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinsleeping

Stephen Thompson is one of the co-hosts of NPR’s delightful Pop Culture Happy Hour, along with former Sleeping with Celebrities guests Linda Holmes and Glen Weldon and future guest Aisha Harris. Aside from being a culturally smarty, he’s one of the founders of the Tiny Desk Concerts, which has played host to some of the biggest names in music playing in a very small corner of an office floor of cubicles. Stephen fills us in on what’s back there now, what has always been there from the start, and what used to be there but got eaten by rats during covid, forcing some policy adjustments. He also tells us whether important historical artifacts would do well as Tiny Desk tchotchkes (the Dead Sea Scrolls would require some creative layout). And he explains once and for all whether these are tiny concerts held at a desk or concerts held at a tiny desk. He says all the guests are super nice, except for Dua Lipa and Post Malone, who were really incredibly extra special nice.

Hey Sleepy Heads, is there anyone whose voice you’d like to drift off to, or do you have suggestions on things we could do to aid your slumber?

Email us at: [email protected].

Follow the Show on:

Instagram @sleepwcelebs

Bluesky @sleepwithcelebs

TikTok @SleepWithCelebs

John is on Bluesky @JohnMoe

John’s acclaimed, best-selling memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinsleeping

In talking about Susan Orlean, many people give her well-deserved credit as being the author of acclaimed best-sellers like The Orchid Thief, Rin Tin Tin, and The Library Book. They don’t mention perhaps her most impressive accomplishment of all: she knows how to get animals to like her. All kinds. Zebras are a bit tricky because, as Susan explains, they are the asshole of the animal kingdom. Susan explains how you can be an animal pal too and she offers John Moe advice on winning over his recalcitrant foster rescue dog Kenny Rogers.

Hey Sleepy Heads, is there anyone whose voice you’d like to drift off to, or do you have suggestions on things we could do to aid your slumber?

Email us at: [email protected].

Follow the Show on:

Instagram @sleepwcelebs

Bluesky @sleepwithcelebs

TikTok @SleepWithCelebs

John is on Bluesky @JohnMoe

John’s acclaimed, best-selling memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinsleeping

The life of a touring musician can involve a considerable amount of down time. There’s travel, checking into the hotel, sound check, the show, and some schmoozing, but that leaves many hours in the day for maddeningly difficult hobbies. Hamilton Leithauser of the Walkmen and an acclaimed solo career has poured a lot of time into learning chess and, while not on the road, building his own boards. He goes into great detail on both pursuits in order to lull you to sleeptime. Hamilton also fills us in on how various musicians and philosophers would do as chess competitors but if you want to hear his appraisal of Andrew Bird and Sartre versus the hardcore speed chess guys in Washington Square.

Hey Sleepy Heads, is there anyone whose voice you’d like to drift off to, or do you have suggestions on things we could do to aid your slumber?

Email us at: [email protected].

Follow the Show on:

Instagram @sleepwcelebs

Bluesky @sleepwithcelebs

TikTok @SleepWithCelebs

John is on Bluesky @JohnMoe

John’s acclaimed, best-selling memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback.

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinsleeping

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinsleeping

Like, so much. As in, he knows the name of Peter Cetera’s brother. He remembers most of the set list from a concert BY Chicago IN Chicago in 1981. Jimmy, of course, is the host of Never Not Funny, an absolutely essential comedy podcast now celebrating its 20th anniversary, which is about 19 years, eleven months, and three weeks longer than most podcasts make it. Now, Chicago, the band, is not known for a lot of pyrotechnics, onstage stunts and debauchery, or members whose names you remember if you’re someone other than Jimmy Pardo. So there’s nothing that’s going to get you fired up. It will be like a Saturday in the park. It will be hard to say I’m sorry for putting this episode out because we’re not. If you leave the episode now, well, that’s fine too.

Hey Sleepy Heads, is there anyone whose voice you’d like to drift off to, or do you have suggestions on things we could do to aid your slumber?

Email us at: [email protected].

Follow the Show on:

Instagram @sleepwcelebs

Bluesky @sleepwithcelebs

TikTok @SleepWithCelebs

John is on Bluesky @JohnMoe

John’s acclaimed, best-selling memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback.

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinsleeping

Wil Wheaton knows a thing or twelve about deeply loving a television series. He is part of the Star Trek universe after all, as Wesley Crusher, first appearing on Start Trek: The Next Generation, reappearing in various Trek iterations ever since, and that’s a show that has its passionate fans. Same with The Big Bang Theory, where Wil played a kind of alternate universe version of himself. For Wil, there is a special strong appreciation for The Prisoner, the 1960s British series created by and starring Patrick McGoohan as a former(?) spy trapped in a mysterious community where everyone has a number instead of a name and people want answers he doesn’t have. Wil walks us through the various enumerated characters, including the rotating position of Number Two, and even explains what kind of Number Two Patrick Stewart would play. Jonathan Frakes could never be Number Two, of course. Because he’s Number One.

Hey Sleepy Heads, is there anyone whose voice you’d like to drift off to, or do you have suggestions on things we could do to aid your slumber?

Email us at: [email protected].

Follow the Show on:

Instagram @sleepwcelebs

Bluesky @sleepwithcelebs

TikTok @SleepWithCelebs

John is on Bluesky @JohnMoe

John’s acclaimed, best-selling memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback.

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinsleeping

We all know Tom Bergeron from various television games and competitions he has hosted over many decades. He was at the helm for Hollywood Squares, emceed Dancing With the Stars, and showed us a great many of America’s Funniest Home Videos (which, oh yes, absolutely was a competition). And he’s still busy with contests today, this time as an expert in the game app Angry Birds Friends, which he plays a lot, leading the titular birds in their ongoing efforts to defeat the green pigs for... some reason. Tom walks us through the various birds, vectors, and strategies he employs to accomplish his iPad-based goals. He also tells us about Finding Happy, a documentary about the rescue and rehabilitation of a sparrow who was, never, in fact, angry at all. You’ll fall asleep just like Tom’s visiting niece did during the interview overhearing him from the next room.

Hey Sleepy Heads, is there anyone whose voice you’d like to drift off to, or do you have suggestions on things we could do to aid your slumber?

Email us at: [email protected].

Follow the Show on:

Instagram @sleepwcelebs

Bluesky @sleepwithcelebs

TikTok @SleepWithCelebs

John is on Bluesky @JohnMoe

John’s acclaimed, best-selling memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback.

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinsleeping