Sleeping with Celebrities

Епизоде

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  The Daily Show’s Zhubin Parang Feels Less Miserable Watching Les Misérables 19.08.2026 58мин

  Zhubin Parang, who has been with The Daily Show since the first time around with Jon Stewart, fully recognizes that among the many characters in the musical Les Misérables, only Javert really has an actual character arc. Only he goes somewhere over the course of the story. The rest kind of hold their ground, face grim adversity, and sing sing sing. That’s all good with Zhubin, he loves the crap out of Les Mis and has seen it many times and, in order to put you to sleep, Zhubin is hear to tell you EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS IN LES MIS. I mean, that ought to do it, right? Les Mis without the singing or the acting or the sets and costumes? Just... plot points? We’re dreaming a dream of you dreaming, Sleepyheads.
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  What’s the Deal with How Much Francisco Ramos Likes Seinfeld? The Show, I Mean. 12.08.2026 39мин

  The title of hilarious comedian Francisco Ramos’s new standup special, Still Learning, is not about his constant absorption of new information about episodes of the classic sitcom Seinfeld but it could apply. The special’s title refers to learning about marriage. Francisco is now divorced. But his relationship with Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer is still going strong. Francisco walks us through his favorite episodes of the show, describing every plot point and character detail as you drift off to a sleep that’s about nothing. We even play a game of In The Cart Or On The Shelf to cast a Seinfeld reboot. Will a very special actress who appeared in 101 of the show’s 180 episodes make the cut? Do you know this woman’s name? It’s Ruth Cohen. She was the cashier at the diner. I didn’t want you to stay up wondering.
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  Lauren Weedman, From Hacks, Loves Rocks, May Be Sisyphus 05.08.2026 44мин

  As the slightly unhinged, or maybe more than slightly, mayor of Las Vegas, Jo Pezzimenti on HBO’s Hacks, Lauren Weedman leaves a hilarious and unforgettable impression, so much so that she’s a nominee for Best Supporting Actress at the upcoming Emmy Awards. Audiences might also know her as Melissa’s sister, Kristin Marie Schemmenti on Abbott Elementary. Frankly, we don’t know what’s up with those character names rhyming but it’s a little unsettling. Lauren has also been seen in the series Looking, Hung, and the New Girl. Also, and this has nothing to do with television, she sometimes picks up lots of heavy rocks in her home state of Indiana and carries them all way back home to Santa Monica where she paints them and gives them of gifts to friends. She’s no geologist, rocks are just rocks, and she collects and distributes them. She’s going to tell you all about this. Lauren also happens to be a long-ago friend of our host John Moe from back in the 1990’s Seattle theater scene when many important bands were making it big and Lauren and John weren’t in any of those bands. You know what does have bands? That’s right. Rocks.
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  Exploring the Washington Wizards, the NBA’s Most Ambien Team, with Jamel Johnson 29.07.2026 50мин

  Jamel Johnson is a DC native and has been following the Wizards his whole life. He’s seen the rise and fall of Gilbert Arenas, the arrival and departure of John Wall, and everything from Gheorge Muresan to Muggsy Bogues, all without an NBA title in Jamel’s lifetime. Mid-Range is both the title of his new comedy album and the name of type of jump shot he hopes the team can nail as it heads into a new season with number one overall pick, AJ Dybantsa. Look, sports can be exciting and excitement doesn’t lend itself well to falling asleep. But again, we’re talking about the Washington Wizards, so you should be fine. Will you go on to have dreams of Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld? Well, look, we can’t be responsible for that.
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  Jesse Thorn Has More Thoughts On Menswear Formality Levels Than You Do, Probably 22.07.2026 56мин

  Maximum Fun, the network upon which you hear our program, was founded by one Jesse Thorn, who continues to host an improbable number of podcasts on the network. Three, in fact: Bullseye (an interview program with cultural figures, also on NPR), Jordan, Jesse, Go! (where he horses around with Jordan Morris), and Judge John Hodgman (where he is the bailiff to the titular judge. But Jesse’s interests expand yet further, all the way to men’s apparel, how it has evolved, and what you should, in fact, wear. Maybe a grey or blue suit is a better all-purpose option than black. Maybe a vintage t-shirt is okay once in a while. We even examine and judge by-gone fashions, including the dog-eared collar, which you can see in this episode’s tile and which will haunt our collective dreams forever. Maybe you’ll be asleep before you hear about that collar. We hope so.
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  Know Your Extraterrestrials with Elliott Kalan 15.07.2026 46мин

  The universe is full of all sorts of alien creatures, we just know it. Problem is, they’re far away and, like us, possibly too stupid to invent really cool spaceships in order to visit. That’s why the book Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials was written and illustrated, earning a devoted following that includes Elliott Kalan. The book is a massive compendium of all sorts of aliens culled from sci-fi. Elliott is a former head writer on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Mystery Science 3000 and one of the hosts of Max Fun’s podcast The Flop House. Join Elliott as he enumerates many of his favorite aliens and offers analysis from his toddler son as to which aliens are mean, which ones are nice, and which aliens are so nice that he went to their birthday parties held in treehouses. You may fall asleep even before learning that some aliens are just green smears.
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  Ryan Miller of the Band Guster Enjoys the Ordered Verticality of Lists 08.07.2026 49мин

  You are reading something that was written in paragraph format, with complete sentences, grammar, nouns, and verbs. That’s not how Ryan Miller of the beloved band Guster likes it. Ryan enjoys lists. Likes reading them, creating them, and relying on the whole idea of ordered verticality. He tells us about the extensive playlist of songs he always keeps handy for his kids, how this list has been around for many years, how it has seen some editing with certain artists losing favor and being dropped, and how there is no Guster on that list. Ryan also fills us in on which bands and artists are really nice people so you can listen to them with confidence. Ryan doesn’t tell us which bands and artists are real jerks (he says there are very few of them) because that might cause you to lose sleep. Take an ordered approach to dozing off with our Ryan Miller episode.
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  NPR’s Glen Weldon Talks The Silmarillion and That Ought To Put You To Sleep 01.07.2026 46мин

  You have to be a slight J.R.R. Tolkien nerd to watch the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings film series. They’re long, there’s three of them, and it helps to know your hobbits from your elves. You have to be even more of a fan to read the dense, lengthy Tolkien books. But then there’s Glen Weldon, co-host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour, who has read everything Tolkien many times over including The Silmarillion. That’s the book Tolkien died while writing with extensive arcana of the world of Middle Earth. Here’s the part in the description where I would give you examples but it’s so deep, so thickly layered, such extreme Tolkienness that I kind of zoned out just listening to Glen take this deepest of dives. “The book is structured as a history, with sections on the creation of the world, the gods (Valar), the history of the Elves and Men, and the downfall of Númenor, all centered around the conflict with the first Dark Lord, Morgoth, and the rebellion of the Elf Fëanor,” says Wikipedia, and who am I to disagree? The detail, combined with Glen’s avuncular NPR voice ought to conk you out before you can say, “Celebrimbor.”
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  Sondre Lerche Takes On A-ha and Soothingly Reads Fjord Names 24.06.2026 50мин

  When you’re a Norwegian musician, you get used to hearing a lot of the band A-ha, the biggest ever to come out of the Nordic country shaped like an arm from the elbow down. And that’s fine with Sondre Lerche, the most popular Norwegian solo musicians of all time. Sondre adored A-ha by rarely gets to share all his knowledge. Until this bedtime, that is. Sondre also reads the names of 15 fjords in their authentic pronunciations and also teaches our Norwegian-American host how to accurately pronounce his own middle name and the names of his parents, in both Bergen and Oslo dialects.
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  Is This Heaven? No, It’s Iowa and NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben Talking Field of Dreams 17.06.2026 38мин

  We have to imagine that the life of an NPR White House Correspondent does not consistently feel relaxed, homey, sentimental, and warm. But you know what does? Field of Dreams, the 1989 Kevin Costner movie about an Iowa farmer with a field overrun by baseball ghosts. Danielle Kurtzleben, a White House Correspondent for NPR, is from Titonka, Iowa (population 491) and has probably seen the movie eleventy squillion times. She can quote large portions of the dialogue and proved it in our interview by reciting James Earl Jones’ “They will come” monologue in her most sonorous NPR voice. You’ll be asleep soon. By the way, do baseball ghosts sleep? Are there bunk beds out in the corn fields? Am I overthinking this?
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  Let’s Go to Trader Joe’s with Dan Mintz. That Will Be Nice. 10.06.2026 54мин

  Dan Mintz is an actor, comedian, and writer with a new standup special, Well-Rounded Entertainer, premiering soon on YouTube. Dan is best known as Tina Belcher on the beloved animated TV comedy Bob’s Burgers, which has been on the air for 16 seasons. Where can you get burgers besides Bob’s? Trader Joe’s, that’s where. Dan likes to shop there for foods that will please his family and provide nutritious meals while not busting his budget. He enjoys bananas and other fruits, as he explains to you in a voice that is his, not Tina’s, but that carries enough of Tina’s endearing low-level neurosis that you’ll feel like you’re at the store with a beloved friend as you drift off to sleep. Also, Dan is mildly concerned that his dog is secretly a fugitive from a Mexican drug cartel but no need to lose any sleep over that.
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  Dulcé Sloan Knows Every Trope, Archetype, and Inevitable Plot Point of K-Dramas 03.06.2026 43мин

  Dulcé Sloan has been in your American television many times, appearing as correspondent and guest host of The Daily Show, doing stand up on Conan, and voice acting on The Great North. But she doesn’t have much time to watch her own shows because she’s too busy getting chin deep in Korean dramas, studying their patterns, delighting in the long built-up kisses, and talking about them on her new podcast Chasing K-Dramas. She tells us a great deal about these television programs, why they’re inherently predictable, and why she loves them so much regardless. Plus, Dulcé plays a round of In The Cart Or On The Shelf and evaluates some classic silent movie melodramas of the Nineteen-Teens.
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  Comedian Anjelah Johnson-Reyes Used to Garden and Remembers It Fondly and At Some Length 27.05.2026 39мин

  You may have seen the very funny Anjelah Johnson-Reyes in Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ugly Betty, Superstore, or even on the sidelines as an Oakland Raiders cheerleader. Perhaps you’ve seen her comedy specials, including the brand new Ugly Baby, which is about her experiences becoming a mom and, fear not, she is the titular ugly baby here. Or maybe, just maybe, you’ve seen Anjelah in her garden, carefully tending to her plants and vegetables, including tomatoes that she loves so much that she just calls them ‘matoes. All that gardening was at her old house but she remembers it as a wonderful and productive time and she still wonders what those ‘matoes are up to these days. We think she should add them on Instagram, very casual-like.
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  Rebecca Sugar: Creator of Steven Universe, Knower of Earthen Building Techniques 20.05.2026 47мин

  In the Venn diagram of “heart” and “animation”, the overlap is Rebecca Sugar. Her series, Steven Universe, was more than just the adventures of an unusual boy’s search for identity in a spectacularly imaginative spiritual/paranormal world, it was mind-expanding and profoundly human and humane literature for legions of adoring fans. Rebecca’s non-animation interests are decidedly and literally much more down to earth. She is fascinated by how to build things, especially wee small houses out earthen building materials, the advantages and disadvantages of both the ingredients and of living your life outside the construct of building codes. She talks about the controversy of whether to use the terms “dirt” or “earth”, the presence of the white-throated wood rat, and what cob is when no corn is involved. Also, she plays a historical round of In The Cart Or On The Shelf.
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  Live From SF Sketchfest with John DiMaggio, Moshe Kasher, and Meredith Edgar 13.05.2026 1ч 10мин

  A live in-person performance of Sleeping with Celebrities? At a real theater, the Bayfront Theater,  with lights and guests and an audience? At 5pm in the afternoon? Believe it because it happened. We ventured to the home of Rice-a-Roni, San Francisco to join comedy geniuses from all over at the SF Sketchfest. Hear actor John DiMaggio reveal the secrets of voiceover in a mellow voice that he’s not used to using. Catch a rundown of warm springs with actor, comic, and memoirist Moshe Kasher. Tune into beautiful tunes from musical guest Meredith Edgar, who even covers Metallica in a duet with our host John Moe. John’s daughter Margaret joins us onstage to try to fall asleep during the show - see if she succeeds. The show was taped in January and if you couldn’t be there, well, you’re here now.
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  A Lot of Work Goes Into Eliza Coupe’s Spiritual Practice, But Not If You’re Just Listening To It For Sleep Reasons 06.05.2026 41мин

  Eliza Coupe is an actor who has appeared regularly on shows like Scrubs, where she was Dr. Denise “Jo” Mahoney, and Happy Endings, where she starred as Jane Kerkovich-Williams. She’s also a person who lives much of the time in Joshua Tree, California, dedicating herself to a rather elaborate, daily, hours-long spiritual practice. We’re going to let her go through all that effort while you simply lie back and listen to her smooth professional actor voice tell you all about it. Hear about her sauna suit, her collection of dogs, her supportive husband who would rather not join in on all this business, and the ever-transforming power of snakes. And we play a round of In The Cart Or On The Shelf with actual coupes.
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  MaxFunDrive 2026 BoCo Preview: Soundscapes - Runyon Canyon Hiking Trail 30.04.2026 3мин

  Welcome to Maximum Fun's own BoCo Vault, Sleeping with Celebrities Wing. We bring you beautiful soundscapes for sleep, meditation, yoga, zoning out, or really whatever you like. Thank you for being a member. This is Soundscape #2 - The Runyon Canyon Hiking Trail in Sunny Los Angeles. Hope you brought your sunscreen.
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  Bonus Mini-Sode: Bigfoot Guys, Aliens Guys, and That’s the Two Types of Guys w/ Drea Clark 29.04.2026 33мин

  Drea Clark, one of the hosts of the popular and important Maximum Film! podcast has a theory: all middle-aged Guys think about the Roman Empire but from there, the Guys separate into Bigfoot Guys and Alien Guys. Sure, there are anomalies but you can mostly separate guys into those groups. Our host, John Moe, Bigfoot Guy, gets Drea’s opinion on where Rock History Guys, Computer Guys, and other Guys sort out into the Bigfoot and Aliens camps. Is it an airtight taxonomic argument? Not really. Is it an intriguing enough argument to let you conk out? Oh yes.
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  Sleeping with the U.S. Constitution featuring SO MANY STARS 29.04.2026 1ч 22мин

  Pretty big celebrity this week: the document that forms the spine of the United States. The one that members of the military pledge loyalty to instead of the President. The words that serves as a manual for law, justice, and government itself, meant to outlast any administration or trend. And we called in an avalanche of celebrities to read it to you. Peter Sagal, Paget Brewster, John Hodgman, Open Mike Eagle, Josh Gondelman, John Ross Bowie, Anna Sale, David Plotz, Ophira Eisenberg, and just a ridiculous number of Maximum Fun hosts. The idea here is to gather voices in support of that brilliant, flawed, intriguing, and persevering historical document as a foundation of our society at a time when so much of society feels awfully rickety. We hope you enjoy it and that it gives you comfort.
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  MaxFunDrive 2026 BoCo Preview: Ambient Soundscape by Daniel William Gonzalez - Vanishing Point 28.04.2026 5мин

  Welcome to Maximum Fun's own BoCo Vault, Sleeping with Celebrities Wing. We bring you beautiful soundscapes for sleep, meditation, yoga, zoning out, or really whatever you like. Thank you for being a member. This is Ambient Track 2: Vanishing Point by Daniel William Gonzalez of Gonzalez Work Station. Open your mind, Quaid.