Sleeping with Celebrities

Benjamin Partridge is the host of Beef and Dairy Network podcast, which is a very funny comedy program described as "The number one podcast for those involved or just interested in the production of beef animals and dairy herds." It is a program here on the Maximum Fun network. Mr. Partridge is also a Welshman and would very much like for you to join him as he takes us on a tour of the smaller and...

The Holy Roman Empire is a huge topic, spanning at least one continent and nearly a thousand years. Fortunately, we’re here to cover the entire thing in about an hour while you doze off to a good night’s sleep with thoughts of complex treaty agreements dancing in your head. We’re guided on this journey by comedian, actor, and writer Guy Branum who knows more about the political and military intric...

Do you remember all the plays you were a part of in school? Chances are Gianmarco Soresi remembers more plays than you do because he was in just so many, all of which he will recount for you as you drift off to sleep. Learn how Gianmarco acted and acted and acted through everything from Twelfth Night to something called Fiddler on the Roof Jr. Learn also how he ultimately forsook the theatrical st...

Any biography of Stephen Tobolowsky must mention, and possibly right at the beginning, his performance as Ned Ryerson, the annoying insurance salesman in Groundhog Day. But that's far from the only big credit in Stephen's IMDb page, which also includes films like Memento and Thelma & Louise. Long before he was the hugely successful actor he is today, Stephen was just another guy trying to get by i...

Maybe the old method of counting sheep works for you as a sleep aid. But maybe you need your animals to be a little more varied. That’s where comedy writers Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold come in with an exhaustive rundown of the various non-humans who have inhabited the White House. And we’re not just talking about dogs. Not by a longshot. We mean alligators and goats and possums.  Ben and Rebec...

You know what might make you all tuckered out and ready for sleep? A walking tour of Paris. And who better to provide you with a friendly and funny walkabout than Negin Farsad, the comedian/director/writer and former resident of the City of Light? Negin pays particular attention to all the outdoor options of Paris, everything from the touristy hotspots to the lesser-known local haunts, so your imp...

Ordinarily, you wouldn’t want to visit a whole bunch of hipster coffee shops across the U.S. before bedtime. It would be time-consuming and expensive plus all that coffee would make you all jittery. But if you’re being softly guided through these places by the gentle voice of the hilarious Aparna Nancherla, it makes for a perfect bedtime journey. Aparna has a new book, Unreliable Narrator: Me, Mys...

You might know Phoebe Judge as the host of the podcast Criminal, now celebrating its tenth year. Depending on where you live, you might also know her for her clamshell driveway because she has one of those. It’s an indication of how very much she loves clams and how much she loves clamming, which is the term for going out to the ocean and digging up clams. Phoebe talks us through the different kin...

If you have access to what’s called the internet, you probably have experienced the work of Felicia Day. She is the creator and star of the web series The Guild, the author and star of the new audiobook Third Eye, and she’s been featured in about one billion web videos. Rarely has her work featured frank discussions of her own gut health and personal biome. Until today, that is. With her signature...

Cameron Esposito is a very popular and very funny comedian and the host of the Queery podcast right here on the Maximum Fun network. She has also been to a lot of concerts and while concerts can be noisy, talking about them doesn’t have to be. In this soothing episode, Cameron fills us in on five memorable shows and her five memorable dates for those shows. Is Neil Diamond on the list? Yes. Taylor...

You may know Steven Page from his solo musical work or his tenure as one of the founders and leaders of the band Barenaked Ladies. Of course, if you were around the Toronto suburbs some years ago and you knew Steven, it’s also possible you know him from his Bar Mitzvah. It was a lovely event and young (yet a man) Steven received many thoughtful gifts, which he is happy to enumerate for you, the dr...

Julie and Brandy are best friends, comedy partners, and co-hosts of the podcast Dumb Gay Politics , which, according to Wikipedia, “recaps politics and reality TV.” They also hosted the Bravo TV program The People’s Couch. In between their busy schedules, they find plenty of time to eat just so very many vitamins. Brandy eats more than Julie but it’s hard to eat more vitamins than Brandy does. Hea...

You might recall Zak Orth as “J.J.” from the very funny film Wet Hot American Summer or perhaps you might recall him as “Aaron” from the drama series Revolution. If you haven’t seen those, well, don’t worry because he has an IMDb list of credits as long as your arm, even if you have a very long arm. On our program, Zak shares his rather extensive thoughts on laundry: how it should be sorted, wheth...

You may know the very funny Frank Conniff from his run as “TV’s Frank” on the legendary comedy program Mystery Science Theater 3000. But before he became a star there, Frank kept a more modest profile as an employee at Arby’s in Minneapolis. The job, which came about after his application at White Castle was rejected, helped Frank get his life together and helped keep him on the straight and narro...

The life of a touring rock n’ roll musician can be very exciting. Fortunately, we leave the exciting parts out in our conversation with the deeply hilarious Kristin Hersh, from the bands Throwing Muses and 50-Foot Wave and a prolific solo career. Kristin, who has a brand new album out on Friday called Clear Pond Blue, takes us through the rock star life but focusing on sedate topics like trying to...

We wouldn’t advise you to have candy before bedtime. That’s certainly not going to be helpful for your sleep efforts. But having the hilarious and delightful Jo Firestone run down her ten favorite candies of all time? Why that’s just the thing to send you off to dreamland. You might know Jo from the Dr. Gameshow podcast or television programs like Joe Pera Talks With You, What We Do in the Shadows...

On the HBO show Barry, for which comedian Emily Heller is a writer, there is a great deal of suspense, gunfire, and overall tension, which would make it hard for those characters to ever get any sleep. And come to think of it, we never see them do so. Fortunately, in real life, Emily has interests that are much more pastoral. She enrolled in a program by which she replaced her lawn with a variety...

Dave Hill is many things. He’s a musician, an actor, a podcast host, and an author. So four things. But it’s five things if you count his role as hockey sweater collector. Dave has a lifelong obsession with the hockey sweater, or jersey as one might call it in the States, and he recounts many of his favorites in this dreamily unfocused conversation that also includes discussions of Norway, Pantera...

Jack Reacher, lead character in the Reacher series, is tall, imposing, and a noticeable presence in every town he rolls into. But just about anybody would be noticeable rolling into the town where Andrew Child, one of the writers of the series, lives. That’s because there’s almost no one in Tie Siding, Wyoming, a town listed as “uninhabited” by the U.S. Census Bureau. Still, according to Andrew, t...

Halle Kiefer and Alison Leiby are obsessed with crows, and not simply because they both host the horror podcast Ruined. Horror buff Halle knows that crows feature prominently in the genre–and our nightmares–for a reason: they’re crazy smart and are known to hold grudges. In fact, all birds in the Corvus family, like ravens and magpies, are intelligent. They even hold funerals when a fellow bird fl...

John Ross Bowie, who pronounces his last name like Maui and not like David Bowie, is perhaps best known for his recurring role as Kripke on The Big Bang Theory. That show is, of course, a high-energy comedic romp with jokes dropping every few seconds. And that show is not this show. John Ross Bowie, without his funny voice from BBT, joins Sleeping with Celebrities to walk us all through the step-b...

The actor, writer, comedian, and bon vivant Michael Ian Black is an enthusiast of the word game Scrabble and, in particular, the very short two-letter words that can make all the difference in a competitive game. Sure, lots of players want to use long words of seven or even more letters but a well-placed QI or a sly ZA can rack up more points than one might have ever thought possible, and Michael...

THIS IS THE SLEEP SAFE VERSION OF THIS EPISODE. THERE IS NO JARRING INTERRUPTION IN THIS VERSION. Beloved actors, comedy people, and podcast bon vivants Janie Haddad Tompkins and Paul F. Tompkins once took a vacation to the beautiful nation of Iceland and they took a lot of photos. So many photos. And they would like to share them with you in this episode. But wait, you say, isn’t this an AUDIO po...

THIS IS THE SUDDEN, JARRING NOISE VERSION OF THIS EPISODE. DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS VERSION IF YOU ARE TRYING TO SLEEP Get ready for thrills, you not-so-sleepyheads. Because entertainment superstars Paul F. Tompkins and Janie Haddad Tompkins are here to blow your minds with audio descriptions of photographs of their 2016 trip to Iceland! And as if that isn’t enough to distract you into relaxation or...

Chris Gethard is an actor, writer, comedian, and podcast host. He was the host of the aptly name Chris Gethard Show on various forms of cable television for many years and hosts the also aptly named podcast, Beautiful Anonymous, which is a beautiful show where Chris interviews anonymous people. Like a shaken-up bottle of soda, Chris Gethard is ready to explode with knowledge about the various smal...