November 20, 2023 • 14 mins
This episode of Podversations features Kathryn Nicolai, host of the podcast Nothing Much Happens and iHeartPodcasts President, Will Pearson.
With years of experience as a yoga and meditation teacher, Kathryn has created the perfect podcast for falling asleep at night with Nothing Much Happens. Typically, podcasts are filled with epic sound design and cliffhangers to keep listeners engaged, but this one, nope, it’s filled with calmness that will send you into a state of tranquility. It's a unique concept - how often do we listen to a podcast designed for us to actually zone out while listening?
Kathryn joins Will to talk about how and why she came up with this podcast idea and where she sees it going in the future. With her calm voice and entire world of the Village of Nothing Much, adult bedtime stories have never been so calm and cool.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
iHeartRadio presents Conversations, a weekly discussion with the biggest names
and influencers in podcasting. I want to learn the secret
psycho rituals scrubstars Zach Braff and Donald Beson used before
Every Fake Doctor's Real Friends taping, how Vice News parachutes
into war zones to rescue journalists from life threatening situations.
For why Pan, Michael Ke of Blumhouse believe three D
(00:27):
audio is the future of storytelling. Whether you're a newbie
trying to break into the podcast game or an exec
trying to refine your playbook, Conversations is the easiest way
to keep your pulse on the industry.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Hello and welcome back to the iHeart Podcast Speakers series
on Will Pearson, President of iHeart Podcast, Always good to
be with you, as you know, each week we like
to have a conversation with one of our favorite creators,
a podcaster, a producer, and executive in the industry talk
about their podcast and the state of podcasting. And I
think we've talked about this a few times before, but
over the past few years we've seen an interesting shift
(01:09):
in what podcast listeners have been looking for, you know,
in a difficult time, whether it's through the pandemic or
other challenges. We saw listeners looking in a couple of
different directions. We saw listeners on the one hand looking
to comedy and pop culture and entertainment. It's sort of
an escape from the things that may be stressful in
the world around them. And then on the other hand,
(01:30):
we saw listeners looking for mental health help as they
think about, you know, addressing that head on. And so
we've seen huge growth in both the general health and
wellness space and the mental health space. And it was
an interesting conversation we had not too long ago with
the host of the Happiness Lab, doctor Lauriy Santos, and
we'd asked her, you know, what is the thing that
(01:50):
you feel is most underrated in people's mental health, not
just their physical health, and she said sleep. She said,
we don't think about it enough when we want to
address mental health issues and also just general health issues. Well,
today's conversation is going to help us address that. There's
this fantastic podcast, if you have not already been familiar
(02:11):
with it, called Nothing Much Happens, and the entire goal
of this podcast is to help us sleep better. And
to discuss this. We have the creator, the host of
this podcast. It's one of the top one percent of
all podcasts in the world that's had over one hundred
million downloads. But Catherine Nikolai, thanks for joining us today.
Thank you so much for having me so yeah, I mean,
this has become a hit, and I guess we shouldn't
(02:33):
be that surprised, because it's no secret that so many
of us struggle with our sleep, you know, day in
and day out, and are looking for ways to get
better at this and to address our overall health. But
maybe let's back up a little bit if you could
tell us a little bit about your background. I know
you spent years as a teacher of yoga and meditation
and many things in this space of mindfulness and health.
(02:55):
But tell us how you got to the idea of
creating this podcast.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yeah, there's kind of two parts of it. One is
my own experience, which is that I have my whole
life had this technique for falling asleep that really I
think I just figured out as a four year old
kid that I could close my eyes and tell myself
a story, go someplace really nice, and it would guide
me really gently to sleep. And I've used it my
whole life, and I always kind of wondered, how do
(03:19):
I explain this to somebody else, how do I help
them get there? Never really thought about doing this before.
And then yeah, I spent about twenty years professionally as
a full time yoga teacher and meditation teacher, and so
every day talking to people about their health, their well being,
their mental health, and hearing sort of the common complaints
and the problems that people were having so much with anxiety, insomnia.
And one night I was ironically up in the middle
(03:41):
of the night because I had a sick dog, and
I thought, oh, it's a podcast. It's a podcast, because
then I can, you know, use my voice. I can
use sort of the skills I'd built as a yoga teacher.
How do I use my voice to create a presence,
to create sort of an environment where people feel really
safe and comfortable. And then can I start to flex
(04:02):
these muscles as a writer and a storyteller, which was
something that I had been interested in for a long time.
And I remember like sitting on the floor in the
middle of the night ordering a microphone off Amazon, just
like it clicked for me so fast that it was
the right choice that I did not hesitate. I think
we launched about six weeks later.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Wow, And can you explain the concept when somebody encounters
it for the first time and listens to an episode,
tell us about that, what the goal of the episode is,
and then I'd love to talk a little bit about
how the episodes connect as well, but I'll let you
address Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
So there is, you know, like some very easy to
understand brain science behind this, which is basically that we're
shifting brain activity when we listen to a story. And
maybe you've had this experience where you're in bed reading
a book and maybe you're even in a really uncomfortable
position and you cannot keep your eyes open. You are
trying fighting to get to the next sentence and you
can't do it. And then you put your book down,
(04:53):
you turn off a light, you get as comfortable as
you could possibly be, and you can't sleep. Yeah, and
what's happening there? Yeah, your brain state has actually shifted
your brain activity. So in that moment, when your eyes
are moving across the page, or when you're listening to
me tell a story, you're in something called the task
positive mode, which means your brain has a simple job
to do, and when it's doing that, job, it's not
(05:14):
doing other things, and then when you put the job away,
you fall into what we call default mode network. And
default mode network is sort of the background static of
your brain. It's when your brain feels like it's spinning
and just random thoughts are coming up and it's really
hard to rein it in you're in default mode. So
what listening to a podcast like Mind does is it
helps guide you into that task positive network, and people
(05:36):
will often find within a few weeks of using it
it is kind of brain training. You get better the
more you do it. That they are falling asleep within
two or three minutes. They never even hear the story,
They just hear my introduction. I don't know why I
have multiple episodes like listen to the one. So that's
the general idea. And you know, it's the same thing
that happens when you're read to a child. You're giving
(05:56):
their mind a place to rest. Once the mind has
a place to rest, the body does what it naturally
needs to do. So that's the general idea. And then
I approach it because I have this background and mindfulness
and self care, I wanted to also just feel good.
I think that you know, when we think about the
stuff we know we should do around our sleep hygiene.
Sometimes we don't end up doing it because it doesn't
(06:17):
feel good. It's not that fun. It's like meditation, I
always say, is like flossing. You know you're supposed to
be doing it, but it often feels like a chore.
And to me, if I can make the things that
are naturally good for you feel good, they're going to
be so much easier to choose. If you have something
to look forward to, you will actually put your phone
down and turn off the light and listen in So
I write these stories that are full of sensory details
(06:40):
that keeps you in the present moment, and they just
sort of highlight every day nice things which we just
need to feel forward to fied by.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, and you're absolutely right. The first time somebody told
me about the podcast, it was before we started working together,
and they described that effect of being two or three
minutes in and already being fast asleep. I was like, well,
that's not going to work for me. That's not that way,
And without fail every time it's I really, I'm sure
they're lovely stories twenty minutes in, but like I never
(07:08):
get there, And obviously job well done on that front.
Tell us a little bit about how you see these
stories connecting to one another, you.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Know, A fun part of writing them. For me, I
often think of myself a little bit like a modern
day mister Rogers get to build the neighborhood. I get
to build the land of make believe that people.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Come in too.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
And pretty soon writing them, I realized that I was
thinking of them all existing in the same universe. I
call it the village of nothing much. So you know,
if you are awake to hear them, you'll notice that
each story is almost always voiced by a different narrator.
But then you might, oh, wait a minute, I think
that lady in the bakery is the same lady from
the story I heard last week, And oh, this has
(07:47):
already been mentioned. One time I hear had a story
about someone had lost a ring and there was an
article in the paper or a notice in the paper,
and somebody else found it. And that feeling of this
interconnectivity to people was just one thing that pulled them
into the world that made me sort of vibrant and
delightful to be a part of. And now I have
five years in some very well established characters that people
(08:11):
feel a strong sense of connection and ownership to, and
I think that's just lovely.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
How do you come up with the topics for the stories?
Is there anything based on your life or is it
all just coming up with things?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
It's almost none of it is about my life. And
sometimes people like to think that I am the narrator,
and I say, if that gives you comfort, please think that,
you know, I have a wonderful, sort of ridiculously charmed
life so that I could totally live in the village
of nothing much, but mostly I am. I think part
of my training as a yoga teacher was to just
be really a way of the present moment and to
(09:01):
find things continually to appreciate, to admire, to be grateful for.
So I have this running list, even you know, two
hundred plus episodes in, I still have like a list
of one hundred ideas and I add more every day
where I'm like, oh, did you see how beautiful that
gate was on the walk and the way that the
trumpet vine was growing up? But I think that trumpertally
got cut down last year and it grew all the
(09:21):
way back. Okay, I have another story. So I feel
like I have so many stories still to tell.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I love that, And I know you hear a lot
from your listeners because you know, I'm sure they're incredibly
appreciative because they've come to this podcast for a reason,
you know, and you're helping them with this. What do
you hear from listeners? Are they requesting certain things or
are they sharing certain things? What kinds of things do
you hear?
Speaker 3 (09:42):
There's such a big spectrum to the experience of interacting
with my listeners, and I really love it because, of
course I'm creating something which feels quite personal to me,
and it's so deeply intentioned as a form of wellbeing
for other people. But I do it in this little
dark room all by myself, and so when somebody else
reaches out and tells me their experience, I just really
appreciate having that connection. And some people are just simply
(10:05):
telling me I've been insomniac for ten years and now
I slept eight hours five nights in a row, and
it changed my life, which I think it absolutely would
change your life. But I also hear from people who say,
you know, I'm a survivor and I used to have
night terrors when I would get into bed at night,
and I would do all these things to avoid it
and be afraid of it. Now I look forward to
getting into bed. That's a different life. Are people who
(10:26):
tell me, you know, I have had this terrible loss
or I listen while I'm in chemo. I mean, I've
had the rare privilege that I take so seriously that
sometimes my voice is the last voice of person here
is in hospice, because it can be a really grounding,
safe feeling something to play while someone's in the last
hours or days of their life where they feel connected
(10:47):
to humans and cared for, and I get to be
that person. So it runs the spectrum of very lighthearted. Hey,
can we get another story about Marmalade the cat too.
I have had this incredible tragedy and I felt alone
at night, and your voice was there for me. And
I'm so humbled to be able to get to hold
people in that way. It's just incredibly satisfying.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Well, it sounds like you can't stop doing the podcast now, then,
because there are so many people are relying on you.
What's been most surprising for you or what's been unexpected
in terms of the response to the podcast?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
You know, I think when I started I thought that
this was a quite niche project. I thought, I don't
know how many people are really going to connect to this.
Of course, with some perspective, you realize every adult, at
some point in their adult life, even children, will experience
insomnia or anxiety. It is part of being human. So
it's actually not niche at all. So I think I've
just been surprised by how many people I've been able
(11:40):
to connect with and reach and read a story too.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
For me, what I've appreciated about is because I've always
considered myself not a super skilled sleeper. Is I got
to the point where I just for years would wait
to get in bed until I was just about to
collapse because otherwise, like it just wasn't going to work
for me. And so now with a podcast like this,
you have the option of knowing, my body's tired, my
(12:04):
body needs sleep, my brain is tired, but it's still
you know, sort of kind of running crazy. And so
now I can do this a little bit earlier and
go ahead and address this and allow myself to go
to sleep, which is pretty terrific. But I'm curious to
hear from you before we let you go, what is
next for you? Just given the response to this podcast,
what else are you thinking about?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Well, I think I'm thinking about a couple of things.
You know, a lot of people have told me how
much they love my stories, but they never get to
hear them because they are actually asleep, but they actually
really love the world. And you know, I've always loved
the first part of books, before the inciting incident, when
it's just somebody living their life, before a wrench gets
thrown into anything. And you know, I've been thinking about
(12:46):
how can I bring my stories to people in a
way that doesn't necessarily produce sleep, because people up and say, hey,
it would be great to hear these during the day
when I'm just feeling anxious or I had a long
day and I'm coming home on my commute and i
want to feel calm. And so I've been working on
a show called Stories from the Village of Nothing Much,
which we're releasing with iHeart in December, and it's basically
(13:08):
compiles three stories out of all of my many nothing
Much Happens stories. In each episode, we kind of compile
them by theme and then I read them more upbeat,
less soporific. We put in beautiful sound design and music.
So it feels like, you know, a grown up version
of getting to go to mister Rogers neighborhood and you
can listen while you're walking your dog or you know,
(13:28):
doing chores, and it's just a really nice way to
I always say it's like easy listening, but for fiction.
So that's next on my horizon and I'm really excited
about it.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
I love it, and I know that your listeners will
love this as well. But first of all, congratulations on
what you've built, but also on behalf of all of
us who listen. Thank you for doing what you do.
You know, this is not a hard mission to get behind,
and not a hard podcast for us here at iHeart
to get behind because you really are changing the lives
of so many people, and even for those that just
it helps them sleep a little bit better, that's also
(13:59):
really wonderful. But thank you for doing what you do, Catherine.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Thank you Will. I feel so lucky to get to
do it. I can't believe this is my job, so
thank you for helping me get it to more people.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
For those again that maybe have not listened before, nothing
much happens. It's a terrific podcast. Please check it out
and we'll be back again next week. Thanks so much
for joining us. Take Care.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Conversations is a production of iHeartRadio. You can find more
from the biggest names in podcasting on the iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts.
iHeartRadio presents Conversations, a weekly discussion with the biggest names
and influencers in podcasting. I want to learn the secret
psycho rituals scrubstars Zach Braff and Donald Beson used before
Every Fake Doctor's Real Friends taping, how Vice News parachutes
into war zones to rescue journalists from life threatening situations.
For why Pan, Michael Ke of Blumhouse believe three D
(00:27):
audio is the future of storytelling. Whether you're a newbie
trying to break into the podcast game or an exec
trying to refine your playbook, Conversations is the easiest way
to keep your pulse on the industry.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Hello and welcome back to the iHeart Podcast Speakers series
on Will Pearson, President of iHeart Podcast, Always good to
be with you, as you know, each week we like
to have a conversation with one of our favorite creators,
a podcaster, a producer, and executive in the industry talk
about their podcast and the state of podcasting. And I
think we've talked about this a few times before, but
over the past few years we've seen an interesting shift
(01:09):
in what podcast listeners have been looking for, you know,
in a difficult time, whether it's through the pandemic or
other challenges. We saw listeners looking in a couple of
different directions. We saw listeners on the one hand looking
to comedy and pop culture and entertainment. It's sort of
an escape from the things that may be stressful in
the world around them. And then on the other hand,
(01:30):
we saw listeners looking for mental health help as they
think about, you know, addressing that head on. And so
we've seen huge growth in both the general health and
wellness space and the mental health space. And it was
an interesting conversation we had not too long ago with
the host of the Happiness Lab, doctor Lauriy Santos, and
we'd asked her, you know, what is the thing that
(01:50):
you feel is most underrated in people's mental health, not
just their physical health, and she said sleep. She said,
we don't think about it enough when we want to
address mental health issues and also just general health issues. Well,
today's conversation is going to help us address that. There's
this fantastic podcast, if you have not already been familiar
(02:11):
with it, called Nothing Much Happens, and the entire goal
of this podcast is to help us sleep better. And
to discuss this. We have the creator, the host of
this podcast. It's one of the top one percent of
all podcasts in the world that's had over one hundred
million downloads. But Catherine Nikolai, thanks for joining us today.
Thank you so much for having me so yeah, I mean,
this has become a hit, and I guess we shouldn't
(02:33):
be that surprised, because it's no secret that so many
of us struggle with our sleep, you know, day in
and day out, and are looking for ways to get
better at this and to address our overall health. But
maybe let's back up a little bit if you could
tell us a little bit about your background. I know
you spent years as a teacher of yoga and meditation
and many things in this space of mindfulness and health.
(02:55):
But tell us how you got to the idea of
creating this podcast.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yeah, there's kind of two parts of it. One is
my own experience, which is that I have my whole
life had this technique for falling asleep that really I
think I just figured out as a four year old
kid that I could close my eyes and tell myself
a story, go someplace really nice, and it would guide
me really gently to sleep. And I've used it my
whole life, and I always kind of wondered, how do
(03:19):
I explain this to somebody else, how do I help
them get there? Never really thought about doing this before.
And then yeah, I spent about twenty years professionally as
a full time yoga teacher and meditation teacher, and so
every day talking to people about their health, their well being,
their mental health, and hearing sort of the common complaints
and the problems that people were having so much with anxiety, insomnia.
And one night I was ironically up in the middle
(03:41):
of the night because I had a sick dog, and
I thought, oh, it's a podcast. It's a podcast, because
then I can, you know, use my voice. I can
use sort of the skills I'd built as a yoga teacher.
How do I use my voice to create a presence,
to create sort of an environment where people feel really
safe and comfortable. And then can I start to flex
(04:02):
these muscles as a writer and a storyteller, which was
something that I had been interested in for a long time.
And I remember like sitting on the floor in the
middle of the night ordering a microphone off Amazon, just
like it clicked for me so fast that it was
the right choice that I did not hesitate. I think
we launched about six weeks later.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Wow, And can you explain the concept when somebody encounters
it for the first time and listens to an episode,
tell us about that, what the goal of the episode is,
and then I'd love to talk a little bit about
how the episodes connect as well, but I'll let you
address Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
So there is, you know, like some very easy to
understand brain science behind this, which is basically that we're
shifting brain activity when we listen to a story. And
maybe you've had this experience where you're in bed reading
a book and maybe you're even in a really uncomfortable
position and you cannot keep your eyes open. You are
trying fighting to get to the next sentence and you
can't do it. And then you put your book down,
(04:53):
you turn off a light, you get as comfortable as
you could possibly be, and you can't sleep. Yeah, and
what's happening there? Yeah, your brain state has actually shifted
your brain activity. So in that moment, when your eyes
are moving across the page, or when you're listening to
me tell a story, you're in something called the task
positive mode, which means your brain has a simple job
to do, and when it's doing that, job, it's not
(05:14):
doing other things, and then when you put the job away,
you fall into what we call default mode network. And
default mode network is sort of the background static of
your brain. It's when your brain feels like it's spinning
and just random thoughts are coming up and it's really
hard to rein it in you're in default mode. So
what listening to a podcast like Mind does is it
helps guide you into that task positive network, and people
(05:36):
will often find within a few weeks of using it
it is kind of brain training. You get better the
more you do it. That they are falling asleep within
two or three minutes. They never even hear the story,
They just hear my introduction. I don't know why I
have multiple episodes like listen to the one. So that's
the general idea. And you know, it's the same thing
that happens when you're read to a child. You're giving
(05:56):
their mind a place to rest. Once the mind has
a place to rest, the body does what it naturally
needs to do. So that's the general idea. And then
I approach it because I have this background and mindfulness
and self care, I wanted to also just feel good.
I think that you know, when we think about the
stuff we know we should do around our sleep hygiene.
Sometimes we don't end up doing it because it doesn't
(06:17):
feel good. It's not that fun. It's like meditation, I
always say, is like flossing. You know you're supposed to
be doing it, but it often feels like a chore.
And to me, if I can make the things that
are naturally good for you feel good, they're going to
be so much easier to choose. If you have something
to look forward to, you will actually put your phone
down and turn off the light and listen in So
I write these stories that are full of sensory details
(06:40):
that keeps you in the present moment, and they just
sort of highlight every day nice things which we just
need to feel forward to fied by.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, and you're absolutely right. The first time somebody told
me about the podcast, it was before we started working together,
and they described that effect of being two or three
minutes in and already being fast asleep. I was like, well,
that's not going to work for me. That's not that way,
And without fail every time it's I really, I'm sure
they're lovely stories twenty minutes in, but like I never
(07:08):
get there, And obviously job well done on that front.
Tell us a little bit about how you see these
stories connecting to one another, you.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Know, A fun part of writing them. For me, I
often think of myself a little bit like a modern
day mister Rogers get to build the neighborhood. I get
to build the land of make believe that people.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Come in too.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
And pretty soon writing them, I realized that I was
thinking of them all existing in the same universe. I
call it the village of nothing much. So you know,
if you are awake to hear them, you'll notice that
each story is almost always voiced by a different narrator.
But then you might, oh, wait a minute, I think
that lady in the bakery is the same lady from
the story I heard last week, And oh, this has
(07:47):
already been mentioned. One time I hear had a story
about someone had lost a ring and there was an
article in the paper or a notice in the paper,
and somebody else found it. And that feeling of this
interconnectivity to people was just one thing that pulled them
into the world that made me sort of vibrant and
delightful to be a part of. And now I have
five years in some very well established characters that people
(08:11):
feel a strong sense of connection and ownership to, and
I think that's just lovely.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
How do you come up with the topics for the stories?
Is there anything based on your life or is it
all just coming up with things?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
It's almost none of it is about my life. And
sometimes people like to think that I am the narrator,
and I say, if that gives you comfort, please think that,
you know, I have a wonderful, sort of ridiculously charmed
life so that I could totally live in the village
of nothing much, but mostly I am. I think part
of my training as a yoga teacher was to just
be really a way of the present moment and to
(09:01):
find things continually to appreciate, to admire, to be grateful for.
So I have this running list, even you know, two
hundred plus episodes in, I still have like a list
of one hundred ideas and I add more every day
where I'm like, oh, did you see how beautiful that
gate was on the walk and the way that the
trumpet vine was growing up? But I think that trumpertally
got cut down last year and it grew all the
(09:21):
way back. Okay, I have another story. So I feel
like I have so many stories still to tell.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I love that, And I know you hear a lot
from your listeners because you know, I'm sure they're incredibly
appreciative because they've come to this podcast for a reason,
you know, and you're helping them with this. What do
you hear from listeners? Are they requesting certain things or
are they sharing certain things? What kinds of things do
you hear?
Speaker 3 (09:42):
There's such a big spectrum to the experience of interacting
with my listeners, and I really love it because, of
course I'm creating something which feels quite personal to me,
and it's so deeply intentioned as a form of wellbeing
for other people. But I do it in this little
dark room all by myself, and so when somebody else
reaches out and tells me their experience, I just really
appreciate having that connection. And some people are just simply
(10:05):
telling me I've been insomniac for ten years and now
I slept eight hours five nights in a row, and
it changed my life, which I think it absolutely would
change your life. But I also hear from people who say,
you know, I'm a survivor and I used to have
night terrors when I would get into bed at night,
and I would do all these things to avoid it
and be afraid of it. Now I look forward to
getting into bed. That's a different life. Are people who
(10:26):
tell me, you know, I have had this terrible loss
or I listen while I'm in chemo. I mean, I've
had the rare privilege that I take so seriously that
sometimes my voice is the last voice of person here
is in hospice, because it can be a really grounding,
safe feeling something to play while someone's in the last
hours or days of their life where they feel connected
(10:47):
to humans and cared for, and I get to be
that person. So it runs the spectrum of very lighthearted. Hey,
can we get another story about Marmalade the cat too.
I have had this incredible tragedy and I felt alone
at night, and your voice was there for me. And
I'm so humbled to be able to get to hold
people in that way. It's just incredibly satisfying.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Well, it sounds like you can't stop doing the podcast now, then,
because there are so many people are relying on you.
What's been most surprising for you or what's been unexpected
in terms of the response to the podcast?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
You know, I think when I started I thought that
this was a quite niche project. I thought, I don't
know how many people are really going to connect to this.
Of course, with some perspective, you realize every adult, at
some point in their adult life, even children, will experience
insomnia or anxiety. It is part of being human. So
it's actually not niche at all. So I think I've
just been surprised by how many people I've been able
(11:40):
to connect with and reach and read a story too.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
For me, what I've appreciated about is because I've always
considered myself not a super skilled sleeper. Is I got
to the point where I just for years would wait
to get in bed until I was just about to
collapse because otherwise, like it just wasn't going to work
for me. And so now with a podcast like this,
you have the option of knowing, my body's tired, my
(12:04):
body needs sleep, my brain is tired, but it's still
you know, sort of kind of running crazy. And so
now I can do this a little bit earlier and
go ahead and address this and allow myself to go
to sleep, which is pretty terrific. But I'm curious to
hear from you before we let you go, what is
next for you? Just given the response to this podcast,
what else are you thinking about?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Well, I think I'm thinking about a couple of things.
You know, a lot of people have told me how
much they love my stories, but they never get to
hear them because they are actually asleep, but they actually
really love the world. And you know, I've always loved
the first part of books, before the inciting incident, when
it's just somebody living their life, before a wrench gets
thrown into anything. And you know, I've been thinking about
(12:46):
how can I bring my stories to people in a
way that doesn't necessarily produce sleep, because people up and say, hey,
it would be great to hear these during the day
when I'm just feeling anxious or I had a long
day and I'm coming home on my commute and i
want to feel calm. And so I've been working on
a show called Stories from the Village of Nothing Much,
which we're releasing with iHeart in December, and it's basically
(13:08):
compiles three stories out of all of my many nothing
Much Happens stories. In each episode, we kind of compile
them by theme and then I read them more upbeat,
less soporific. We put in beautiful sound design and music.
So it feels like, you know, a grown up version
of getting to go to mister Rogers neighborhood and you
can listen while you're walking your dog or you know,
(13:28):
doing chores, and it's just a really nice way to
I always say it's like easy listening, but for fiction.
So that's next on my horizon and I'm really excited
about it.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
I love it, and I know that your listeners will
love this as well. But first of all, congratulations on
what you've built, but also on behalf of all of
us who listen. Thank you for doing what you do.
You know, this is not a hard mission to get behind,
and not a hard podcast for us here at iHeart
to get behind because you really are changing the lives
of so many people, and even for those that just
it helps them sleep a little bit better, that's also
(13:59):
really wonderful. But thank you for doing what you do, Catherine.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Thank you Will. I feel so lucky to get to
do it. I can't believe this is my job, so
thank you for helping me get it to more people.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
For those again that maybe have not listened before, nothing
much happens. It's a terrific podcast. Please check it out
and we'll be back again next week. Thanks so much
for joining us. Take Care.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Conversations is a production of iHeartRadio. You can find more
from the biggest names in podcasting on the iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Conal Byrne
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