Sleeping with Celebrities

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...

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...

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...

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 co...

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...

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 ev...

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 stra...

The National Football League, with all its attendant huddles and wide receiving and roughings of the passer, is about to begin a new season. And although the touchdowns will make the highlight reels, we here at the show are big fans of the little moments when things don’t work out so well. We like when the punter comes out. So we’re bringing back an episode from a recent Super Bowl with veteran punter Chris Kluwe.

How much goes into punting? Turns out A LOT. Chris, who is a published author and game designer as well, guid...

This episode originally ran July 19, 2023

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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 shares, in a lulling monotone, many more two-letterers that the uncareful player might have never considered. We...

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...

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...

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 televis...

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...

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 opti...

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. J...

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...

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 i...

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...

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 s...

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 carri...

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...

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...

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 t...

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 d...

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...

It’s MaxFunDrive 2026! Listen to the full Bonus Content episode (as well as all of the BoCo in Max Fun history) by going to www.MaximumFun.org/joinsleeping. It’s our one-stop portal to become a member and support Sleeping with Celebrities.

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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 s...

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.

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...

It’s MaxFunDrive 2026! Listen to the full Bonus Content episode (as well as all of the BoCo in Max Fun history) by going to www.MaximumFun.org/joinsleeping. It’s our one-stop portal to become a member and support Sleeping with Celebrities.

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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...

Doesn’t that sound pleasant? Join host John Moe as he strolls his Saint Paul neighborhood with his dogs. There’s Sally, a black lab mix and senior resident dog, Maisy, an all-over mutt and resident dog who doesn’t like putting on harnesses but does like walks, and Weenie, a foster pug puppy who keeps up with the ladies but not in a straight line. On this walk... Weenie is slightly too big for a cat-sized harness, Harry Hamlin(e) and Sam Shepard, and John declines to flip off a Cybertruck.

Become a Max Fun member and su...

It's MaxFunDrive 2026! Listen to the full Bonus Content episode (as well as all of the BoCo in Max Fun history) by going to www.MaximumFun.org/joinsleeping. It's our one-stop portal to become a member and support Sleeping with Celebrities.

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It would be very difficult to get all those celebrities booked for one episode of Sleeping with Celebrities, especially if you also add in Christopher Walken, Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Stewart, an Dame Judi Dench, and then you included Werner Herzog, Holly Hunter, Billy Bob Thornton, Paul McCartney, Thomas Pynchon, and En...

Rob Huebel, a friendly and hilarious person, has appeared in movies and tv shows like The Other Guys, The League, and The Sex Lives of College Girls, plus numerous things that don’t have “The” in the title. His new comedy horror film is Grind and he stars in the upcoming There's a Batman Film Starring Gary Busey Buried in the Desert and I'm Going to Find It, which won the special "Sleeping with Celebrities Oscar for Best Title." He’s here to tell you about some rock-solid, can’t-go-wrong business ideas from which you can try to make millions o...

Doesn’t that sound pleasant? Join host John Moe as he strolls his Saint Paul neighborhood with his dogs. There’s Sally, a black lab mix and senior resident dog, Maisy, an all-over mutt and resident dog who doesn’t like putting on harnesses but does like walks, and Weenie, a foster pug puppy who keeps up with the ladies but not in a straight line. On this walk... John muses on Guy Branum's description of spring, the accuracy of the Colossal Cafe's description as "colossal," the snobbiness of his dogs, and the linguistic uses of the words "kitten" and "p...

It's MaxFunDrive. And here, for the first time, we give you an exclusive look (well, listen) at the craft of podcasting: presenting Casters on Casters.

In this episode, John Moe (Sleeping with Celebrities & Depresh Mode with John Moe) talks about his double life, as a person who speaks in a normal voice, and the host he becomes for Sleeping with Celebrities. And Brenda Snell (Secret Histories of Nerd Mysteries) tells us about what she's learned from her listeners, including what actor/basketball star Shaquille O'Neal is like in real life.

If this glamorous, in-depth journey...

Out of all the podcasts in the world, and there are dozens, Song Exploder is one of the best and totally unique. Hrishikesh Hirway, well, more deconstructs rather than explodes songs and is joined by the musicians who created the song in the first place. And the guests! How about Madonna! U2! Sabrina Carpenter! And so many more. Hrishi is a musician as well with a new album, In The Last Hour of Light, dropping on April 24th. He’s here to talk about music, sure, but also paper. As a former graphic designer, he has many thoughts and de...

You might know Martha Kelly from her role Emmy-nominated role as the drug lord Laurie on the HBO series Euphoria or for her part as Martha, the deadpan hilarious Costco insurance agent and best friend of Zach Galifianakis’s character in Baskets. You don’t know her from her part in the Alvin & the Chipmunks series of films because she wasn’t in those. Still, her knowledge of those movies runs very deep, stemming from watching them over and over with her niece. Martha Kelly has a love for Alvin and his brothers Simon and Theodore that is sincere and ex...

If you listen to audio programming, and of course you do, you already know Sam Sanders’ voice from show’s like NPR’s It’s Been a Minute, The NPR Politics Podcast, and The Sam Sanders Show on KCRW, for which he was a natural choice to host, given his name. Sam has a great voice and he works incredibly hard on the somewhat interesting but not ultimately fascinating task of putting together an audio program, whether that’s on podcast or radio. Or video, which still has audio in it. Sam Sanders talks with fellow audio programming veteran John Moe a...

Jennifer Hale is voice actor royalty, having vocally appeared as Jean Grey in X-Men ‘97, Cinderella in Disney’s House of Mouse and Ralph Breaks the Internet, Captain "FemShep" Shepard in the Mass Effect games, and Black Cat in Spider-Man: The Animated Series. So, look, you’re in good hands with this voice. This voice knows what it's doing. And it’s ready to send you off to sleep with tales of horse drives. That’s when a whole bunch of horses need to move from one location to another location and they do so with the aid of vehicles, people, and...

Being a professional actor, even a very successful one like Damian Young, comes with a fair amount of time left to your own devices. One could use that time to learn Finnish, master close-up street magic, or you could be like Damian and become extremely well dressed. You may have seen him as Lisa Kudrow’s husband in the brilliant comedy series The Comeback (which comes back for a third season on March 22, 20 years after season 1) or on shows like Ozark and Sex & the City. Now listen as he offers detailed prolonged tips on how to look sharp once yo...

We’ve never had occasion to use the phrase “titular basterd” on our show before but here it is, possible and even necessary in writing about Paul Rust and the film Inglourious Basterds. We’re not misspelling “basterd” or “inglourious”, mind you, that was director Quentin Tarantino’s artistic choice. Q was also the one who cast Paul Rust, veteran comedy performer in movies and TV, as part of the ensemble of heroes, albeit one with no lines. Paul figures Tarantino thought he looked the part and seemed like an easy guy to hang out with. We think so too! Paul tells us...