Moe: I usually set a timer, if I’m listening on my phone. I usually listen with sleep headphones, so I don’t keep my wife awake or put her to sleep in the wrong way. I’ll set a phone time for 30 minutes and I usually don’t last past that, these days.

Templeton: Have you had the opportunity to thank anyone for putting you to sleep with their voice? If so, how did they react to that?

Moe: Well, I have thanked Warren Zane for his Tom Petty book. It’s a delicate thing, because you don’t want them to think you are saying they’re boring. We are really not trying to be boring on “Sleeping with Celebrities,” but just maintain a very narrow strain of “interesting.” One of my favorite episodes, a very early one, was with Scott Thompson from the comedy group Kids in the Hall. He totally understood the assignment. When we reached out he said, “Oh! I have a lot to say about porridge!” Scott totally bought into it, and was able to go on at length about that topic, and it was wonderful.

Templeton: If you were a guest on your own show, what topic might you bring to “Sleeping with Celebrities”?

Moe: I could easily fill an hour talking about lesser-known quarterbacks for the Seattle Seahawks. I don’t think even Seahawks fans would stay awake, but I would have a lot to say on the subject.

Templeton: On the show, your first question for your guests is often to ask them to describe the best night of sleep they ever had. What have you learned about sleep from their responses?

Moe: A lot of people sleep best when they are in a new environment, when they are on vacation or something, staying in a cabin for the summer, or are just outside their normal zone. I’ve learned that a lot of people sleep on their sides. Almost nobody sleeps directly on their back anymore. I’ve learned mainly that there are a wide variety of ways people sleep, or don’t sleep, since some genuine insomniacs listen to the show, and I’ve been told it helps them.

Templeton: I can’t imagine listening to it at bedtime. I genuinely find it interesting and entertaining.

Moe: When do you listen to the show?

Templeton: Honestly, I tend to listen to it when I’m driving, and so far it’s yet to put me to sleep while I’m behind the wheel.

Moe: Well, good. I’m very glad to hear that. But yes, some of the shows just end up being really funny. We recorded with Jo Firestone a couple of weeks ago, about her 10 favorite candies, and she’s one of the funniest humans walking the Earth right now. I heard from a lot of people afterwards, saying, “I had to stay awake and listen to the whole thing.” But we aim to at least be relaxing. As I say in my intro, you can use this to sleep, or just to take a break from all the normal noise and commotion in your life. And simply having a chance to laugh or be entertained can do that, hopefully in a relaxing way.

Templeton: I want to talk about you “sleepy voice.” I’ve noticed that your guests vary a lot in their commitment to matching your hushed tones and soft speaking voice when recording an episode. Some do it right along with you, and others stick to their normal tone of voice and volume.

Moe: We don’t enforce that a lot. If they stay in a higher register, or come in with a lot of energy, I’ll downshift t a lower register, or slow down a little more myself, just to counterbalance them a bit. But when they bring their own sleepy voice to the recording, that’s always fun to hear.

Templeton: Who are some of the best sleepy voices you’ve had so far? Of the women you’ve had on the show, I thought rapper Jean Grae really match you well, and I think Neil Gaiman understood the assignment pretty well with his own don’t-wake-the-baby voice.

Moe: Neil was great. And yes, Jean is a genius. She and Mike Eagle, the two rappers we’ve had on the show, they both had a really good vocal quality for what we are doing. I want to get more rappers, more singer, more vocalists on the show. They really understand the assignment.

Templeton: So, what’s next for the show or for you?

Moe: I’ve been doing a lot of off-mic work lately. I’ve produced a series for NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. They have a book out where their chief medical officer, Ken Duckworth, interviewed something like 120 people about their experience with mental disorders and with healing. I heard that he’d recorded all of those conversations on Zoom, so I said, “Let’s take 20 of them and turn them into a podcast.” That came out during the summer. I’ve found producing to be very rewarding. I’ve been having fun doing shows that are hosted by someone else. And I’ve got another on-mic thing I’m working on that I can’t announce yet, but there will be more of me on the market very soon.

David Templeton’s “Culture Junkie” runs once a month or so in the Argus-Courier. You can contact David at [email protected].