Radiolab - Insomnia Line

Episode Date: September 25, 2020

Coronasomnia is a not-so-surprising side-effect of the global pandemic. More and more of us are having trouble falling asleep. We wanted to find a way to get inside that nighttime world, to see why people are awake and what they are thinking about. So what’d Radiolab decide to do?  Open up the phone lines and talk to you. We created an insomnia hotline and on this week’s experimental episode, we stayed up all night, taking hundreds of calls, spilling secrets, and at long last, watching the sunrise peek through.   This episode was produced by Lulu Miller with Rachael Cusick, Tracie Hunte, Tobin Low, Sarah Qari, Molly Webster, Pat Walters, Shima Oliaee, and Jonny Moens. Want more Radiolab in your life? Sign up for our newsletter! We share our latest favorites: articles, tv shows, funny Youtube videos, chocolate chip cookie recipes, and more. Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.      

Wait, you're listening to Radio Lab from WNYC. Hey I'm Chad Abumarab, this is Radio Lab. I want to start off with some good news about the show. As most of you know, my longtime co-host, co-conspirator, pal, Robert Crowe, which left the show back in January and a few things are immediately clear.

One, he's irreplaceable, there's no other Robert. But simultaneously it was also clear that, you know, over the years, the show has grown to be way more than just the Robert Jad situation. I mean, we now have all of these reporters and producers who you hear on the show all the time. It's much more of a collective. And so in the spirit of doing something new rather than trying to recapture the old and in keeping with that chaotic more collective vibe that the show has now become, here's my news. Going forward, I'm still going to be hosting the show, of course, but I will be sharing this space on again, off again with two new coasts.

Hello everybody for the first time. Hi there. Who aren't actually new. Good to see you. Lots of Nasser and Lulu Miller. Jada, you having cold feet about welcoming us to the fire of the microphone? No, so excited. When we were planning this whole thing out.

I actually got them into the studio just to sort of talk about the emotional issues of being a radio lab host. What's that? It's a syndrome. Actually, it's a pathology. Stock home syndrome? Hold hosting.

Yeah, there you go. Welcome. Thanks. So, Lottif, of course, you've heard on the show over and over again, including most recently the series, the other Latif. On top of that, he just released a Netflix show called Connected, which is very cool. Go check it out.

And then Lulu actually started with me on the show like 15 some years ago when it was just a tiny little operation. And she is now back with us after having gone off, co-founded the podcast in Visibilia, written this incredible book, Why Fish Don't Exist that may be Cry. Now you will be hearing Lulu and Latif talking to me, bringing their own stories to the show as always, but also talking to our usual incredible lineup of producers and reporters. What I'm really excited about is getting to go along with all these different reporters.

Yeah, like I said, someone else has reported this story and then we get to like, excited about is getting to go along with all these different reporters. Yeah, like I said, someone else has reported this story and then we get to like circle and draw some arrows. Circles it air. That's we got that. That's our that's our only strength. So that's we could do that. Just try just just to human me introduce yourselves in this new role.

Let's see how it goes. I am Lulu Miller co-host of Radio Lab. Woo-woo. Yeah, I'm not sure how the words are gonna come out of the mouth here, but let me try them. All right, I'm Lathas Nasser, co-host of Radio Lab. How'd that feel? I'll tell you very acutely what it felt for me was like,

I hope I don't screw it up between the time I said that and the time this goes to air. Like anything can happen between them and I hope I don't mess it up. Lulu. Just, I mean, I was going like that, so you could see a little bit of your arm out. It feels very, very, very special. Don't make me put words to it.

All right. Fair enough. Let me just say that I can't even express in words how excited I am to be sharing this space with these two brilliant, strange, deep thinking, deep feeling humans. And having them with us as we head into this, the end of a very strange year

and take on whatever comes next, it just feels right to me and really exciting. Now at this moment in time, Latif is actually still finishing up his paternity leave. He had his second kid just recently. So he's hunkered down at home with a newborn. But Lulu actually jumped into the saddle with us here at Radio lab a few weeks ago.

And after hanging around and climbing into a bunch of conversations and arguments and meetings, she, um, well, she ended up bringing a little something for all of you today. It's an, it's an experiment sort of, definitely something we've never done before. So we're just gonna... Just gonna dive in. Okay, Lulu, welcome. This is the first time that you and I in our new relationship to one another. It's the first time we do this.

Yeah. Where do you wanna start? I think it was about a week ago. Things about a week and a half ago, where we all had a pitch meeting. It was like my second week, maybe here on the team, just trying to like get my bearings and step in. And I brought up how I'd been having trouble sleeping back in the spring.

And I noticed pretty quickly that I was one in this wave. There had been all these studies coming about coming out about how insomnia is on the rise. And it turned out a ton of people on the team had been thinking about similar stuff, this shadow epidemic of anxiety and sleeplessness, wishing there was a way to tap directly into that space. And within literally a couple minutes,

we hatched this idea of setting up an insomnia line. What people call in and we thought we just have the phones open from 2 a.m. to sunrise, Eastern Standard Time. Wow. Did you went all the way from 2 a.m. to sunrise? Yes. We chose a night, which was last Thursday night, September 17th. And you know, the night we picked at this point seems like a totally different world. It was the night before our BG died, and about a week before the Brianna Taylor ruling.

So this new wave of hardship wasn't in the area for us or our callers. But at 145 AM, we tweeted out the phone number and said, if you're awake, call us. What up, Radio Lab. I'm in Los Angeles, California. I have an thumbnail. And then, so then the voicemails started rolling in.

Ooh, like right away? Yeah, so like 2 AM struck. Hey, oh, Radio Lab, first time listener'Lab. First time listening to a long time. Long time listening, first time caller. They were like 40 right off the bat just waiting. Wow. And it was like this immediate cross-section. Here laying in my bed with my dog.

Of the country and even beyond. It's 1.41 in the morning, here in Mexico City. Of just like intensity. I mean, I think the thing we all realized really quick was that we were sticking out this antenna into like a really vulnerable time. Hi, my name is Tenta. I'm calling from Denver, Colorado.

And I can't sleep because I miss my mom. She passed away earlier this year and I miss her every single day. I'm up because I quit drinking a few weeks ago. I am currently walking circles around my apartment. I really want to drink again. I can hear the clock ticking. All the days are just wanting to gather right now. I can hear the fans spinning.

Just swimming through time, soup. You know, people were worried. They were worried about COVID. I'm a nurse in the time of COVID, and so I don't sleep anymore. About their jobs. I lost my job in March, like the COVID, I was teaching English as a foreign language. Today and tomorrow too, I have another job interview.

I don't have a job lined up. I don't tell anybody about this. You know, wake up every night like this. For the state of the country. With everything that is happening with the racism, as a woman, it's complicated. So I'm considering moving maybe to Costa Rica or Dominican Republic or even going back to Puerto Rico.

You know how you breathe out, then your lungs squeak a little bit? From the west coast, there was just tons about the Smoky Sky. My house has smelled like an ash tray for days. It's been really hazy and smoky and kind of always smelled like toast. As a person who's used to ventilator, I give you a chest distal for it. After being dropped to smoke for over a week. But there's a fun twist right now, which is, let me see if I can go outside, actually.

But some places it had rained? Now there's thunder and so then it's still rain. Wow, that was a bright flash. But you know, for all the worry, there was another side to the night. Hey, yo, radio lab. Man, name is Ricky, and I'm just vibing right now. You know, even though I'm tired,

I just wanna stay up just because all of the other hours, you know, worked for somebody else to work in. And I just want those one-for-two-three hours to be mine. I'm not totally sure why I'm awake, but I started drawing, and now I think I maybe don't want to go back to sleep. All these people just leaning into their weird thoughts. The big thing I'm thinking about today is that I learned that horse treadmill exists. Do you imagine you have a building which is mushrooming with mushrooms?

Literally, it's in the morning when you wake up instead of blocking your fruits from the garden, you're actually fucking mushrooming through your building. It's just great to think that maybe one day we can have a building which will give us food. Throughout the whole night that line between reality and fantasy was thin. I've been having early weird dreams. Yeah, I have nightmares, terrible dreams. There was a little baby fox that died and we were trying to have a cure for it. A few minutes ago I had to break up a fight between a couple of raccoons outside. There are monsters chasing me.

My cat is sitting on my neck. I'm on the planet Califrax, about 73 light years from Earth. Right now I'm looking at Mars from my backyard. I can see it just been looking at the sky. It's particularly red and I'm very much loved to fall asleep. You know I'll told they're over 200 calls and if anything came through loud and clear, it was that during those hours, people feel really alone. I'm alone and I'm scared. If you want to call me back, I'll miss anyone's. Feel free to give me a call back, the numbers. I'm going to give you a call back, eight plus.

I might be like, and a trip to the stars, radio lab will continue in a moment. Audi, this is Blake Krozer from Nashville, Tennessee. Radio lab is supported in part by the Alfred Peace Loan Foundation, enhancing public understanding of science and technology in the modern world. More information about Sloan at www.Sloan.org Science reporting on Radio Lab is supported in part by Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation initiative dedicated to engaging everyone with the process

of science. This is Radio Lab, we are back, I'm Chad Abumrod. And I am your co-host, Lula Miller. Yes. And interestingly enough. Hey, it's Luttheth calling in the bathroom. I'm actually calling in the bathroom because they don't want to wake the baby at 2.47 a.m. on the insomnia line. We got a call from our other co-host Latif Nasser. I wanted to, a P-class destroyer.

It's called the HMS Porcupine. And it broke into two pieces and then they named the pieces the HMS Porcup and the HMS Pine. Which was just incredible. Jesus has forgetttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt and 2 a.m. heads and there's voicemails. There's voicemails already. Okay, so we started calling people back. Alright. Here we go. Here we go. Who's that? On the phone here. Mere. Mere.

Shima Oliaii. Hello. Hey, this is Shima calling from Radio Lab. What's your name? My name is Quijo Adai. Um, where are you? I'm in New Haven, Connecticut. I'm on Bassett Street, and I have been commissioned

by the city to make the city's first black lives matter, mural. I'm sketching out the words, which are 22 by 277 feet in total. And then on Sunday, people are going to come and take some yellow paint and I'm going to orchestrate them to fill in the letters. Is there a reason that you have to do this mural at 3.30 in the morning? It's 3.30 where you are, right? It's 3.30 in the morning? It's 330 where you are, right? It's 330 in the morning, yeah.

So the city, even if you have a commission need to make this mural, but they only are closing the street from 6 a.m. on Saturday to 9 p.m. And I told them, this is a pavement mural. Like, you need to close the street so I can like sketch it out and Make sure that there's enough drying time after we paint or yeah And they're like well, we can't do that. So In your sketch are there like people in this mural or is it just the letters themselves?

Oh, it's just it's just the words black last matter in like yellow paint and You know this message is I was conflicted with this message because I would rather be like painting flowers or painting people. But like having to paint this is a it's been really tough. Why? It's tough to be reminded, and to have to remind others of your own humanity. That's difficult for me. Yeah. I don't know how much we're doing in terms of a city to make it so that I don't have to paint this mural again.

Hmm. again. Hi Alex, this is Sarah calling from Radio Lab. Next producer, Sarah Card. It seems like you made a call a while ago. I wake up at that time because that's when rodents tend to be most active. And I work in Boston, so there's plenty of rodents to be had. You're an exterminator? Yes, that's what most people call us.

We have that, too, and answer ourselves. And yeah, so I usually wake up at two, drive into the city city and start chasing rats All right take care have a good rest of your night. You do have a great morning. Thank you, too Is this Bobby? Yeah, then Molly Webster Bobby, it's Molly Webster from Radio Lab. How are you? I'm amazing. I mean, I'm looking out over at Brighton Beach Ocean.

I got I'm on my terrace with my trees and my plants. Can you tell me either why you're awake or if something's keeping you awake? I've always been an insomnia person since I was a little kid. You know, I sneak out of the house when I was a teenager, you know, like 13-14. I go wander out on the beach at night, the midnight, and sing to the ocean, you know. Let's see what I can see. I'm here on the 18th floor. Okay. Overlooking. Over there, let's see what I can see. I'm here on the 18th floor. Okay. Overlooking. Over there that's a rock away. Is that the ocean that I can hear in the background or like wind?

Well, I don't know. It might be traffic, but the ocean's out there. Anyway, it's a beautiful night. What a great life I have. I'm blessed we are. Hi. Hi, is this a zoole? Yeah, I'm a zoole. Hello. Tell me where you are at and why you're awake.

Yeah, so I am in Portland, Oregon, and I am awake because we are about to embark on a little road trip, although I too, I mean, I saw it, to get away from the smoke, from the fires. I hear that the sky still blue in other places, so I'm really excited. Like, what is it like to live without a sky? Oh and it's like pretty trippy it feels like it live either like in an instagram like there'd be a filter or something like that. Are there other ways in which the world looks or feels or sounds different because of the fires? feels or sounds different because of the fires? Friday was like one of the top of the days. All the birds just like stopped showing up or singing. Whoa. This is really quiet. Today I think was the first day of like actual fresh air so I've just been sitting outside and like breathing that in while it last.

Where am I reaching you right now? Where are you? Producer, Tobin Lowe? I am in the Bay Area in Northern California. I'm standing in my yard and just to come outside and be reminded that like there's still life out here, like to hear the crickets. It's really beautiful.

It's like gleeful and somnia. Can you take a deep breath for me and start to describe what that feels like, now that the air is clear. Mm-hmm. Ffff. It feels... freeing.

BEEP. Hello? Hi. Reporter Tracy Hunt. Hi. Hi. Hi. Speaking with a woman named Maya. I'm okay. I'm okay. Where are you? I'm calling from Westfuck, New York.

And where are you, Wake? I'm a college student right now. I'm homeworked till one active brain till four. Oh. This has been so much going on. It feels like I'm going to be a little bit more Um, both homework till one active brain till four. Hello. Um, it's just been so much going on. It feels like doom and gloom all day long.

There's no way to be in the tunnel. Have you ever thought about calling a friend when you're up this late? Another friend that you know might be having trouble sleeping? I don't know. Not actually. You know what I actually called you guys. Yeah. I know.

Well, that's kind of why I asked the question. Yeah. It's like something I always do during the day, but nevertheless, I think you do at night when I know we're all feeling this way. Yeah. Oh, Maya. Can I pass on a tip that I learned recently for falling asleep? I'm a buff one.

Okay. So why don't you try when you're lying in bed, try thinking of a letter and like an easy one, like an M or a B or something. And then think of every word you can make with that letter. And just see if you can bore yourself to sleep. Modern day is counting sheep. It's kind of like counting sheep. I'm going to give you a letter.

I'm going to think of the letter L. Sure, yeah. Really pad. I like. I like. Lab. Lab the doodle. I'm like, lab, lab of doodle, lamp,

lamp. And this was something we did do from time to time. That we knew we probably couldn't help much. We would give people little offerings that we hope might at least change their mindset. So okay, I'll just play you one last. Yeah, yeah. Hey, is this Tristan? Yeah, speaking. I'm sorry that sleep is alluding you. I'm sorry that sleep is alluding you. So yeah, can you just say again where you are and why you're awake? I'm in Detroit and I'm in my bed that is half the time has doubled dollars as a workspace and it's been really troubling

Separating work from personal life and a whole day's go by that are just one Configuous You know, it feels like just Trapped I guess well may I may we may offer you a sonic gift to maybe try a different thing Let's see if it helps. Okay. Can you stay on the phone, but can you turn, can you get all those screens away from you? Yeah, I can close that and move it a little way. All right, I'm going to pipe in a special guest, guest's multiple. Hey, can you hear us? Yeah, I can't. Hey, I'm

Christian. Nice to meet you. Hey, nice to meet you. Hi. Okay. Musicians West Swing and Kelly Libby from Virginia. And we've got a song to play here. The song is called Middle of the Night. And we've got a song to play here. The song is called Middle of the Night. Wow. Alright, here it goes. I'll look for you when the fog rolls through when the fog And they just called up and sang. How did they help them? I asked them if they would be willing to sit in a lullaby to someone who couldn't sleep.

And they gave me a window that they would like be a get up and do it. Oh, she. That was nice. I like that. Yeah. And to end this whole thing, this whole sleepless, anxious, nighttime experiment. I'm just tired. And I want to go back to sleep. I want to leave everyone with one more of these offerings.

Comes from producer Annie McEwen. Hello. Hi. I can just see the very top of your head. Uh-huh. It's on a second for me. Can you hear me? Yeah.

Good to meet you. And me you. First of all, I want you to introduce yourself. So tell me like what is your name? What's your name, Molly? What's your name is? Oh, Fletcher. Fletcher, such a good name.

What's your last name? So my whole name is Fletcher. Fletcher is such a good name. What's your last name? So my whole name is Fletcher Lee Johnson. We live in Cape Hill, Tennessee. How old are you? I'm five. I wanted to talk to you about sleep. Do you have trouble falling asleep? Yeah. Every night I take a long time until I get asleep. And why is that? What are you thinking when you're trying to fall asleep? I'm not thinking of anything. I just, like, I will have a lot of energy to stay up at night. Yeah, what would you rather do? What does your body want to do when you're trying to keep it still?

I like to have a dance party book when I we did that. You did? Yeah, I just like to have dance parties every night by a can. Oh, yeah. What do your pajamas look like? Glowing the dark PJs. Glowing the dark PJs?

That's cool. One of my old ones around was 4. I had like a glowing skeleton one that matches where my bones are. And now I buy the new one for a 5 year old. Yesterday on the phone, we talked a little bit about how you dream about monsters. Oh, I dream about monsters every night. What are these monsters? Tell me about them. So like a bubbly boxing monster. Okay. But there's a lot other ones out of race, Harry. Is that hard to fall asleep because of the monsters? Yeah, because they're way too scary, so I have to wake out. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I have that problem too.

It's hard to fall asleep and you're afraid of things. Mm-hmm. Flitcher, I want to ask your advice about something. So tonight, we're gonna have a lot of people call into our radio show, and they're gonna be people who can't fall asleep And they're trying and trying and trying but they just can't and they're so tired, but they can't fall asleep I want to know what did what advice do you have for them? What do you think they should do?

Okay, that's a good idea. Do you wanna read me your meditations? Do you wanna try doing that? Yeah, I guess so. And then we can play it tonight for the sleepy people that can't fall asleep. I can take my shoes off. I'll take my shoes off too.

I'll take my shoes off too. Last off in the space. First let's get way too relaxed. Lay down. Lower eyes. Get in an uncomfortable position. Make sense these breaths. Now imagine you're in space with the stars. Down below you see planet Earth. And you can see all the way to your backyard. The blackness of space is sparkle all the stars.

And make sure you want to lift off the planet Mars. On a wing you soak in of all of stars. And constellations. You pass the beddablers in the hurricanes and the liberals. Wow, those are really cold constellations! Wow those are really cool congratulations! While you are looking for the stars in constellations, you take free take in.

Where Mars is alone, way away. So you float into your spaceship and fall asleep on the floor and dream of all things you want to do tomorrow. And you blast off that cone and at the morning time you play a wine and you play baseball, soccer and fizz from Tennessee, you are amazing. I want you to talk to me every time. Lulu, wow. Thank you for taking us on that journey. Yeah, and also thanks to Anime Q&A Rachel Qsick who helped Lulu produce what you just heard and to the entire radio lab team the road shotgun with Lulu all night Screen calls talked to people who called in Tracy Hunt she moldy eye

Molly Webster anime Q&A star Cari to open low also Ali Webster, Animikun Sarkari, Tobin Low. Also, big thanks to Fletcher Lee Johnson and his mom, Elaine Boyd, and his six feet of separation, the publication Buy and Four Kids, where we found Fletcher's sleep meditation. Thanks to Chris Collin, Alice Wong, with our Burton musician Wes Swing, and Kelly Libby, Karen Kay Ho, for her great tips on how to fall asleep,

and to Jin Wang, who helped with reporting for this show. And finally, a big shout out to our friends at Reply All, who do a mean call and show. If you'd like this, we highly recommend you check out their episode called, Hello. I'm Chad Abumrod. And I am Lulumiller. Thanks for listening. Goodbye. This is Grace Colling from Chicago, Illinois. Radio Lab was created by Chad Abumrod and is edited by Thorne Wheeler.

Wulu Miller and Lottis Nasir are co-hosts. Dylan Chief is our director of sound design. Lucy Lektonberg is our executive producer. Our staff includes Simon Adler, Jeremy Bloom, Becca Bruffler, Rachel Pusik, David Gabel, Bethel Habtis, Tracy Hunt, Matt Kieltis, Tobin Low, Annie Oliai, Sarah Sandbach, and Johnny Moan. Our fact checker is Michelle Harris.