Sleeping with Celebrities

He’s also pretty enamored of George Carlin, Mel Brooks, Helen Hunt, and his new comedy special,  Life, Death & Rice Pudding .  The veteran actor and comedian is just as charming and funny as ever as he regales us with his philosophy on travel and, especially, packing for travel. Let him lull you to sleep with his wonderful stories and knowledge on how to pack underwear. Watch the movie The Problem...

Andrew Ti is a big fan of poker and says the whole thing about everyone having a “tell” is a little overstated. To win at the game, even for the comparatively small amounts he favors, it is less about scrutinizing someone’s behavior than it is about memorizing probability charts enough to know what is most likely to happen in a given scenario. Andrew has a pleasant time playing poker and while he’...

We hope the search engines, constantly hunting for yet more Taylor Swift content to satisfy users, appreciate our optimization just as much as veteran comedian Matt Braunger appreciates the T-Swizzle albums Evermore and Folklore . Matt finds these releases, which are far less poppy and boppy than her other works, to be a perfect accompaniment for a long road trip or just being pensive and sensitiv...

If you’ve ever been lucky enough to experience the Australian musical comedy group The Wiggles (perhaps you are in preschool or have hung out with someone who is), you know that they bring loads of high-spirited energy to every performance. Lachy Gillespie, the one in purple, shifts to a much, much lower gear for our conversation about his favorite hobby, tennis. You won’t break a sweat listening...

If you love movies, especially if you love movies that tried their hardest but were comically unsuccessful, you may already know Dan McCoy as one of the hosts of Maximum Fun’s podcast,  The Flop House . Besides being a film buff, Dan’s a former writer on  The Daily Show with Jon Stewart , and an enthusiastic fan of Disney’s Uncle Scrooge McDuck, the wealthiest duck in the world. Dan shares his wel...

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of CD binders, then you are either too young to have ever used them or, perhaps, far too old. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of Lennon Parham, then you are just not a person who enjoys television and entertainment. She has been featured in Veep , Arrested Development , Mad Men , and a variety of other shows you already enjoy, so quit acting like you d...

You might have seen veteran comedic actor Kyle Bornheimer as Teddy, the ex-boyfriend who loves pilsners on Brooklyn Nine-Nine . In real life, Kyle has equally powerful thoughts about salads, including that all salads should be chopped salads. Let him guide you through important salad thoughts as you drift off to sleep. Hey Sleepy Heads, is there anyone whose voice you’d like to drift off to, or do...

You remember Mara Wilson as a young girl starring in films such as Matilda , Mrs. Doubtfire , and Miracle on 34th Street . You probably don’t remember her in Idyllwild Arts Academy, because that was not a film but an arts-based boarding school in California and you probably didn’t go there with her. In this languid and relaxing interview, Mara shares her stories and experiences at a school where,...

You may know Griffin Newman from his roles as Arthur on  The Tick , Orko on  Masters of the Universe Revelations , Watto on  The George Lucas Talk Show , or as Kevin Costner’s surprisingly fiery intern in  Draft Day . Or maybe you know him from the message boards talking up the Palisades Toys Muppet action figures of the early to mid-aughts, where he had quite a lot to say about the intricacies in...

You might know actor Jessica St. Clair from the television comedies  Review  and  Space Force,  her new audiobook, The Art of Small Talk (co-written with Casey Wilson), or from any bookstore that has a special section of books where a woman throws away her American life and runs away to the French countryside. Turns out, there are A LOT of such books and Jessica’s read well over 40 of them. She ge...

Matt Young, Adal Rifai, and Arnie Niekamp are well-known to fans of their podcast  Hello from the Magic Tavern as Usidore the Wizard, Chunt the Badger, and, well, Arnie Niekamp. They step out of character to join John Moe for a broad ranging, fairly vague, and very entertaining journey through movies that they all saw a long time ago but don’t remember all that well. Was Jessica Tandy in all movie...

Of course you know Allison Rosen because she’s your best friend. How could you not know the host of the podcast Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend ? Alison spent her childhood being friends to a great number of birds, including baby chicks that grew into chickens, baby ducklings that grew into ducks, and a quail named Robert who pretty much just stayed a quail named Robert. Everyone involved in...

Music fans know Rhett Miller as the lead singer of Old 97’s , a beloved band that has released 13 studio bang-up albums over the last 30 years, including 2024’s American Primitive. Disc golf players, of which Rhett is a dedicated one, think of him as a disc golfer, which he is, as I just said. Besides, they’re too busy getting annoyed at people calling it Frisbee golf. In this soothing, beddy-bye...

Here’s the truth, if you’re ready for it: airline miles programs are a convenient way to earn upgrades and passage to exclusive pre-flight lounges but they do require some degree of careful record keeping. So that information doesn’t so much blow you away as blow you gently whilst you stay in place. Todd Barry has been a comedy icon for decades as well as an actor in, for instance,  The Wrestler ...

Is this a feat that the beloved author, actor, and host of Maximum Fun’s Judge John Hodgman can actually pull off? Well, no, probably not. There are over 4,600 such islands and he’s only one mortal human. Come on. But will he make a pretty game attempt for a little while and invite you to join his efforts as you drift off to sleep? Oh yes. Oh absolutely yes. And together, we’ll learn about geodesi...

In that he, Josh, the notable comedian and all-around nice guy, GETS his dog, Bizzy. Josh understands Bizzy. Which is important because Bizzy, a pug, is seventeen dang years old. Which is really very old for a dog. As of the taping of this interview and, we hope, the airing of this podcast, Bizzy is still alive and we certainly hope that remains the case for as long as, well, we just like this dog...

Laura Merli is an acclaimed comedian and TikTok celebrity. Sarah Hester Ross is a comedic musician who has appeared on America’s Got Talent , because she’s from America and has talent. Like so many of us, they are older now than they have ever been but they do remember how things used to be before. Back when they were younger. Travel with them to dreamland on a boat made of memories of clunky home...

Twice the number of guests means twice the opportunity to fall twice as asleep in half the time. Or something. Michelle Biloon is a Philadelphia-based standup comedian who has appeared on many late night shows and released two comedy albums. Kevin Avery is a comedian in LA and the former head writer on Totally Biased with K. Kamau Bell . John Moe, the host of our podcast, is in Saint Paul, meaning...

You might know the very funny Helen Hong from TV’s Silicon Valley, the film Inside Llewyn Davis, NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me , or Maximum Fun’s quiz podcast Go Fact Yourself . If you live in South Central L.A., you might know her as the lady with four chickens in her backyard and a really disappointing crop of snap peas. Helen tells us all about her chickens Fifi, Coco, Athena, and Ditsy, includ...

This week, we travel all the way inside the Moe household as host John interviews his wife Jill. She is a bona fide celebrity within the narrow, odd, and passionate world of crop art. It’s what it sounds like: art made out of seeds, leaves, anything that grows. The world capital of crop art is in Saint Paul, home of the Minnesota State Fair and home of the Moe family. Jill describes some of her fa...

Look, we’ll admit right now that this week’s episode is interesting. We’ll stipulate that. David Plotz, CEO of  CityCast.fm  and longtime contributor to Slate’s  Political Gabfest  is fascinated by the measures taken around the nation’s capital to prevent a Confederate invasion that could tilt the balance of the war. He details all the forts that were constructed - many out of earthen materials -...

If you’ve watched Conan O’Brien’s shows or  Late Night with Stephen Colbert , you’ve probably seen Brian Stack playing a wide range of characters, including Frankenstein and one of the Slip Nuts. He’s been a writer and performer for both shows, which has meant running across a huge number of famous people. Here, Brian counts down his top five celebrity encounters to lull you to sleep. Doze off to...

What do standup comedy, golf, and skateboarding have in common beside high degrees of difficulty and opportunities to humiliate yourself in public? Well, they have veteran standup comedian Chris Fairbanks, who walks us through the experiences of all three ventures. Chris, one of the hosts of the podcast  Do You Need a Ride?! , joins us from his hometown of Missoula, Montana where he first learned...

Humorist Jenny Lawson collects many things, including: devoted readers of her numerous essay anthologies, acclaim for her brilliant and hilarious writing, taxidermic mishaps, and also dolls, dolls, dolls. We concentrate on the dolls in this episode with more information than you ever sought about Blythe dolls, Pullip dolls, and ball joint dolls. Find out which dolls are spooky and which are flat o...

You may have seen Rachel Feinstein perform her comedy on late night shows, on YouTube , and on Netflix for her latest special, Rachel Feinstein: Big Guy . If you’re a firefighter in Queens, you may have seen her in her own home while you were stopping by to attempt some home repair at the behest of her husband, also a member of the FDNY. She walks us through her life as the spouse of firefighter....