Helen Sernett ’00 Created the Most Boring Podcast Ever Recorded
Sernett couldn’t find audio that would help her fall asleep — so she made it.By: Meghan Kita Friday, November 17, 2023 10:59 AM
Helen Sernett ’00 and her podcast logoThis story originally appeared in the Fall 2023 issue of Muhlenberg Magazine. See the complete digital edition here.
After working for 20 years in fundraising, Helen Sernett ’00 had a career she was incredibly proud of … and a bad case of burnout. One symptom of that burnout was increasing trouble with falling asleep. Medication would leave her groggy. The sleep apps out there, with their meditations and their sleep stories, would work for only a short time or wouldn’t work at all.
“I was like, ‘Well, what I think would help me a lot is if I could just listen to somebody counting,’” she says. “There is a subscription app that does a ‘counting backwards from a thousand’ [track] or something, but I couldn’t find anyone just offering their voice counting from one to 500 free of charge.”
That became the first episode of Sleep Lists, a podcast Sernett created to help others who struggle to get to sleep. Other episodes from the first season have included “Elements of the Periodic Table,” “Countries” and “Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United States.” In each episode, Sernett slowly recites a list of the episode’s subject matter while quiet, soothing sounds play in the background. The second season of Sleep Lists debuted October 7.
What didn’t work for you about the sleep content that already existed?
“Some stories and guided meditations I found useful, but I was reaching a point in my mental health where having somebody put any new ideas inside my head was not conducive to getting to sleep … It [also] has to do with how interested one’s brain is in what other people have to say. If you are the type of person who really does want to know what happens in a story, even if it’s boring, you’re probably not going to fall asleep to a story where somebody just keeps rambling on about nothing.”
What are your goals for this podcast project?
“I really want people who are struggling with sleep to talk about it and to bring it to light and to help each other. There was one study I was reading that said that, in some populations, as many as two out of every three people are struggling with not getting enough sleep at night. And there’s a lot of information out there to help your baby go to sleep, but we don't seem to be talking about all the different ways to help adults get to sleep … I don’t think as a culture we have enough tools to help ourselves rest.”
What has feedback been like so far?
“The episodes that are the most popular and that I’ve gotten the most comments on are ones where I was like, ‘Oh, I thought maybe that was a little too interesting for a sleep podcast.’ ‘Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United States’ is an example. People have said, ‘I was asleep by John Adams,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, great! Really early. My voice must be very boring. Good job, me.’”
