my insomniac journey through old time radio

some notes

For years I’ve listened to true crime podcasts to fall asleep.¹ My favorite of these podcasts is the Australian show Casefile, which is, by and large, an extremely dry recitation of The Facts. Earlier this year, however, I found that I kind of hit a wall and these podcasts were not really working for me anymore. So I gave them up. I like true crime books for themselves but my interest in the podcasts is purely about sleeping. But I still needed something as part of my extremely elaborate distraction ritual.

I tried powering off my computer and phone a few hours before bedtime and putting on lectures from The Teaching Company that I had on CD. Those were unfortunately kind of too interesting. I tried a James Herriot audiobook. Those were too full of somebody’s beloved elderly dog being put down. True crime still wasn’t working. Then I decided to try some “Old Time Radio” podcasts, that is, podcasts of old radio shows. (“Old Time Radio” is the name used by enthusiasts.)