Tell us more about Mysteries at Midnight – where did the idea come from?

I’ve hosted the world’s number-one sleep podcast, Sleep Cove, for a few years. We help listeners fall asleep with Sleep Meditations, Hypnosis, and bedtime stories. I’ve read a few mysteries on the show, including detective stories featuring Father Brown, Sherlock Holmes, and famous stories from Edgar Allen Poe and HG Wells.

These stories were very popular, and I realised that people who liked the mysteries wanted to hear more of them and I kept getting requests for more mystery short stories, However, the show’s content is more focused on meditation, hypnosis and traditional bedtime stories like myths and fairytales so there is not much room on the podcast to run lots more mysteries than we usually do. Also, I have to be careful about what mysteries to run on Sleep Cove, as if they are too “upsetting,” they may cause stress to listeners rather than relaxing them, especially if I am introducing the story to the listener.

So the idea was to launch a podcast focused solely on these stories where we could do a range of stories, where people can get their murder and intrigue fix. So Mysteries at Midnight was born.

Does your work as a clinical hypnotherapist influence the show?

I use a “calm” voice when recording, which I have used for hypnotherapy. I tell new listeners that I read the stories in the style of a bedtime story, which is very similar to the calm, deep voice I use in hypnotherapy.

What’s been your favourite story to read so far in this series?

My favourite story so far was reading the complete novella of Dr. Jerkle and Mr. Hyde for Halloween. Like many, I knew the book’s premise but never read the entire story, so reading this classic was a joy. It’s surprising how well-written and impactful the “twists/reveals” are at the end of the story, even though you know what is coming next.

I’ve also narrated a really good story recently that is worth a mention. It’s called Father Brown and The Secret Garden. It’s a locked-room-style diner party scenario, along with a garden, of course. I did not predict the murderer at all, and I think people will enjoy that one as it’s pretty shocking.

For listeners coming into the series for the first time, where should they start?

You can not beat a Sherlock Holmes or a Father Brown story. Some seminal stories from Sherlock Holmes are part of literary culture and are so interesting to hear for the first time as they have influenced many other stories and media throughout the years.

Lastly – how does it feel to know that your voice sends people to sleep??

I am honoured that so many listen to my podcast at bedtime, even though I’m still not used to how popular the podcasts have become.

Helping people sleep was always the goal, but I never predicted my voice would have been played 90 million times across all media. To visualise tens of thousands of people every night listening to me is still hard to do!

Listen to Mysteries At Midnight on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps >>

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The post Mysteries at Midnight: Doze off to murder and intrigue appeared first on POD BIBLE.

While Reni’s recommendation was for Blacticulate’s eponymous podcast, it was Stories That Stick that caught our attention. We at Pod Bible love a programme that offers something new not only in topic but in production. We were immediately drawn to the structure of founder Ade’s show, which invites guests to tell their own story and share stories that have impacted them. 

Each episode begins at the end. The guest is first asked to speak about death, which may seem an odd place to start but perfectly establishes a person’s thought process for how they live their life. If we know how someone imagines, copes with, or theorizes death, we better understand the parameters they exist within today. From there, our host asks that his interviewee breaks their life into decade-long chapters, beginning with their first ten years.

Not only does this make for an easily digestible podcast, but it creates a shared nostalgia when paired with story recommendations from the episode’s guest, spotlighting a different book in each “chapter” of their own story. It’s hard not to fall into one’s own reminiscences during the first chapter, often peppered by beloved children’s books or familiar stories from religious texts.

When exploring shows that are new to us as listeners, creating a structure that we can easily latch on to helps to ease us into unfamiliar territories. Structures based in Q&A sessions, particularly those that remain consistent from episode to episode, create an excitement as we begin to imagine our own answers and build a sense of familiarity and camaraderie with the guests – their answers ebbing and flowing with our own.

An excellent podcast structure is reliant on its host. A quality host creates consistency for their listeners, while still remaining flexible for their guest. Ade’s soft-spoken guidance feels gentle, steering the conversation expertly without editorializing someone else’s experience. In episode 15, with Christina Moore of Don’t Skip Media, his guest off-handedly mentions the experience of growing up as the child of immigrant parents. Ade thoughtfully encourages her to explore that experience, and she opens up beautifully, allowing the listener a much deeper insight regarding her childhood. The deft way with which he supports her examination of what, moments earlier, seemed like an off-handed reference to something many listeners may not have experience with shows us how seriously Ade takes his work. It is always easy to allow a guest to move beyond something – especially something they have a shared understanding of, or something the guest may have explained in a pre-interview – but it does not serve the audience to allow those moments to pass us by.

We suggest you also don’t let Stories That Stick to pass you by, either. You can explore the podcast’s page on the Blacticulate website, on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

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