If you’re working the night shift, or otherwise up when you don’t want to be, a voice in the night can feel like a life line; a reminder that you’re not alone, that the world is, in fact, still spinning. A lot of people find comfort in podcasts in the middle of the night – listening to stories, or conversations, they’re comforted by the voices ...…

Katie Nelson is a journalist based in Kenya, where she covers human rights and global health issues. Her work puts her in dangerous and challenging situations, far from home. But not that long ago, Katie could barely get out of bed. Whereas most people have distinct and regular periods of wakefulness and fatigue – usually divided into day and n ...…

Here Be Monsters is a gorgeous podcast that explores the dark corners of the human mind, fear and the unknown. It’s transporting and surprising and you should definitely subscribe. This episode is a re-airing of Here Be Monsters' Breath Holder , produced by Bethany Denton. Here Be Monsters is part of KCRW.…

There are two main definitions of The Blue Time – the first is the time just before sunrise when everything in the world has a blue tinge to it. The farther north you go, the longer the blue time in the winter. The second definition is that time when you’re depressed, time moves slowly, you feel like you’re in a daze, and like you’re just broke ...…

Poetry and the night are some of the last remaining domains of “unknowing”; places where it’s acceptable to digest the world slowly and without conclusion, and where one can linger in, and traverse, experiences like solitude, impermanence, and wonder. Poets Cecily Parks and Tom Harding are both drawn to explore the intersection between the quie ...…

*Please note that this episode contains explicit language* What makes a place home? Is it a place that feels like a refuge? Is it somewhere you sleep really, really well? Does it matter if it’s a place you’re not technically allowed to be? What if the place that feels like home lives only in your memory, like a perpetually interrupted dream? Mi ...…

*Please note that this episode contains explicit language* This crazy thing happens in NYC as night approaches – as rush hour picks up and the streets get evermore hectic than normal, delivery men on bikes start racing through the streets to get people their restaurant food while it’s still hot. Many New Yorkers expect this service that is intr ...…

A message from Nocturne’s producer, Vanessa Lowe: There will be a new episode of Nocturne on Tuesday, November 13th. In the mean time, I want to fill you in on the big news I alluded to in the last episode - I am thrilled to let you know that from here on Nocturne will be distributed by KCRW, and joining their roster of strange and beautiful po ...…

Sometimes it takes losing your way in the dark, to realize that you were already lost. Read more ? The post I Don’t Get Lost appeared first on Nocturne.

Something is happening to the animals. Can we all coexist on a crowded planet? Read more ? The post Ubiquitous Terrifying Force appeared first on Nocturne.

The shift into the darkness of night triggers our bodies to relax. Perhaps this is why so many babies begin their journey into the world at night. That adds a whole new dimension when they're born at home. Read more ? The post Into the World appeared first on Nocturne.

Traveling at night as a passenger is an act of trust. As the sensations of movement lull you to the edge of sleep or beyond, you surrender to dislocation; disconnecting from place and time. The only constant is motion. As your consciousness bobs up into the present moment, in the darkness you could be anywhere, or nowhere at all. Read more ? Th ...…

There has never been a world without tragedy and heartache and injustice. But there has also never before been a time when human beings have had constant access to the breadth of human suffering. Our technology bathes us in this information, and it can be a challenge to not dissolve into a mass of emotion, or just go numb. Julia Scott found her ...…

Research in 2013 found a connection between night owls and those with a sinister constellation of personality traits, ominously labeled, “The Dark Triad”. The study got a lot of attention in the media, with headlines claiming that night owls are more likely to be psychopaths and narcissists. There was just one problem. Read more ? The post The ...…

Malcolm Saunders is a fisherman in Cornwall, on the southern tip of the UK. While most of the old fishing ports have transformed into tourist attractions, there are still some working fishing boats, manned by seasoned weathered fisherman. They’re holding onto to an almost forgotten way of life – one that ties their livelihood to nature, with al ...…

Hospitals are amazing places. They’re emblems of the modern medical technology that saves and improves our lives in countless ways every day. But if you’ve ever roamed the halls of a hospital in the middle of the night, with its shiny echoey surfaces, background hum of anxiety, and distant monitors chiming like beacons of peril, you’re in no ru ...…

One of the things that changes instantly when you have a baby is your relationship to sleep. It usually becomes scarce and precious, and everyone has advice. Much less talked about is the continuing nighttime struggle between parents and their young kids. Because by the time your child is a year or two old, any competent parent has it under con ...…

Our relationship to the darkness can shift over time. One of the main ways that this happens is by walking into the dark, both literally and metaphorically. By walking toward the thing that scares us the most, or causes the most pain, we have the potential to almost magically transform it into something completely different. Read more ? The pos ...…

There’s a funny thing about Christmas in New York: In a city where most of the living trees are clumped together in just a few areas, right around Thanksgiving new clumps of trees start popping up all over this mostly concrete and asphalt setting. The tree stands sprinkled throughout the city create a festive air, but there’s another dimension ...…

Beverly D’Urso is a lucid dreaming celebrity. She was a subject of Stephen LaBerge’s research at the Stanford Sleep Lab in the 1980’s, has written numerous articles and given classes on lucid dreaming, and has been featured in multiple television programs and magazine articles. She’s done pretty much everything you can do in your dreams. But sh ...…

The built environment consists of structures that humans make - including spaces where people live, work and play. For the most part, these places are inhabited during the day. But at night, new aspects of the built environment are revealed. Some people are drawn to explore these spaces, not to vandalize or create mischief - just to see and to ...…

The Sleepless project is two things: It's a voicemail that people can call when they can't sleep, so they can talk about what's on their mind and hopefully get back to sleep. It’s also an art project where the creator of the project makes short videos to accompany the voice messages. She came to the project through her own sleepless nights. Rea ...…

On a beautiful day in April, Matthew Bryce went out to surf by himself off a remote beach in Scotland. Usually he goes out for 3 or 4 hours, and then goes about his life. This time was different. Read more ? The post Shortboard appeared first on Nocturne.

In January I left my home for 6 months of wandering, and of course one of the main things I explored were the infinite shades of night in each new place. What I noticed more than ever is that every night is a finger print - each is unique, with no one the same as another. The sounds tell the stories. Read more ? The post A Catalogue of Nights a ...…

Have you every woken up in the wee hours of the night to find that you’re gripped by fears and anxieties that just didn’t exist in the light of day? You can lie there awake in bed, in your comfortable home, maybe even next to a loved one, and find your thoughts circling like persistent vultures. And then the morning rolls around, and it’s almos ...…

Lots of museums have regular evening hours or events, often lasting until 8 or 9pm. But I wonder - what do these worlds become in the wee hours, when the last visitor has heeded the call to leave, and the doors are locked? What transformations take place when no one is watching? Read more ? The post They’re All Asleep appeared first on Nocturne.…

In that place where darkness and isolation meet, fear can take hold in a particularly visceral way. When you’re alone in the dark, every sense works overtime. It can feel like the darkness and the fear are interchangeable. One comes to represent the other. The darkness can paralyze you. Or you can walk straight into it. Read more ? The post The ...…

In September 2015 the full moon crossed into the Earth’s shadow and turned redish gold. It was the first blood moon, or total lunar eclipse of a super moon, in over 30 years, and it wouldn’t happen again for almost twenty more. The moon was old and strange, and we were seeing it in a form that occurs only very rarely. It was something we had to ...…

The night can be a desperate and lonely place. Fortunately, there’s a group of people who make it their mission to bring comfort and hope to people in the night. Read more ? The post A Word of Hope appeared first on Nocturne.

The ethos of randonneuring emphasizes personal challenge and comraderie. Randonneurs share the goal of having everyone make it to the finish line. They take care of each other, because what they’re doing is kind of crazy and a little dangerous. Read more ? The post The Kindness of Others appeared first on Nocturne.…

Picture it. You’re biking along a winding country road, 30 miles from the nearest town. The air is cool, there’s a slight wind, maybe a gentle mist. It’s three o’clock in the morning. You’ve been awake for 23 hours. Read more ? The post Proof of Passage appeared first on Nocturne.

The police play an important role in civil society. Their first mandate is to serve and protect - the ultimate goal being the maintenance of social order. Often this is accomplished with out undue assaults on individual liberty. But many factors come into play in the tension between freedom and order. It can be a fine balancing act, without cle ...…

Some surveys suggest that up to a quarter of couples sleep in separate beds. Dave and Sue have both experienced the need to sleep alone, and while they miss things about sharing a bed all night, the arrangement seems tolerable to both of them. This is not the case for another couple I spoke to. Brooke and Bob have been struggling for years to f ...…

The night bus rolls through the city like a small enclosed world. You never know who you’ll meet or what you’ll see. One night, Helen Zaltzman’s bus ride home from the movies took a dark turn. Read more ? The post A Luminous Bubble appeared first on Nocturne.

Jade Walker hates the daylight so much that most of her neighbors have rarely seen her. The sun is a personal affront to her. But she’s not disconnected from life. In fact, she sees it all. And because of her, so do we. Read more ? The post The Vampire Beat appeared first on Nocturne.

The stars are always there in the sky, even when we can’t see them. Why should we look? Why should we care? Paul Salazar cares, and he has compelling reasons why you should, too. Read more ? The post Look Up! appeared first on Nocturne.

Our dreams can allow us to experience things that are – impossible. Yeah, some dreams take us where we’d rather not go. But others invite us into a world filled with joy, and ease, and wonder. They connect us to a forgotten part of ourselves. It feels realer than real, this realm we can only inhabit when we’re sleeping. Read more ? The post I W ...…

Sometimes the world of our dreams can be unsettling; even terrifying. The fear can be like an echo or a shadow of true emotion; or it can be utterly real, even justified. At times the fearful experiences we have at night can introduce questions into the nature of reality, itself. Many explanations have been offered for some of the most terrifyi ...…

Picture it – It’s dusk. We’re on a small neighborhood corner, with a faint moon starting to peak through branches of trees overhead. Kent and I are sitting behind a large battered folding table, and there’s a jar on top of it. Stop by on this beautiful evening, throw some change in the jar, and enjoy “Johnny Bear”, a new piece… Read more ? The ...…

Lynne Cox has spent her life swimming vast distances and pushing herself to the edges of possibility. Since the beginning, she has thrived on exploring uncharted territories, including the ocean at night. Read more ? The post To a Distant Continent appeared first on Nocturne.

The night can be like the great frontier to a kid; a forbidden zone; the perfect place to explore autonomy and independence. At first it might be tempting for parents to just lay down the law. But they're up against a lot. They're up against the best feeling in the world. Read more ? The post Best Feeling in the World appeared first on Nocturne.…

Sleep can serve as both refuge and captor. That’s the case for Monica, who’s blessed with the enviable ability to consistently sleep through the night, almost without fail, no matter what’s going on. During one of the most difficult times of her life, this gift became a painful liability. Read more ? The post Letting Go appeared first on Nocturne.…

The moon, the stars and the tides are through-lines connecting us to the beginning of life on our planet. These lines can flicker in and out of awareness in the glare of modern culture. But there are ancient creatures living among us, for whom every breath is a reflection of the moon on the water. One in a thousand hatchling sea turtles survive ...…

Things happen sometimes that don’t make sense, that we can’t explain. And would we really want to if we could? Read more ? The post Triumph’s Ring appeared first on Nocturne.

The blurred edges of the night can inspire excitement and transformation. The shroud of darkness emboldens some to reveal hidden aspects of their personality, sometimes with gleeful abandon. Read more ? The post Playground Rules appeared first on Nocturne.

Sometimes the best way out of the darkness is to walk through it. A woman transforms her life through motion. Read more ? The post Forward Momentum appeared first on Nocturne.

The darkness of night offers rich opportunities to mine and explore our fears. When you choose to walk straight into the darkness you don’t know what you’ll find; both outside in the shadows, and deep inside yourself. Read more ? The post Into, Under, Through appeared first on Nocturne.

The stars are disappearing. We're losing natural darkness. It's happened rapidly, but just slowly enough that it's hard to notice. But once your eyes open to the vanishing dark, you see it everywhere. Can we bring back the night sky? Read more ? The post The Vanishing Dark appeared first on Nocturne.…

A man, a bird, and a hose. The sounds of night can delight or enrage, in equal parts; and lack of sleep can lead to desperate measures, in some. Read more ? The post (This is Not) A Love Song appeared first on Nocturne.

Al Wilkinson drove a big rig through the night for 28 years, and it was a new experience each time. The runs offered beautiful scenery and time to think, but one dark rainy night this peaceful solitude fell out from under him. Read more ? The post A Hole in the Night appeared first on Nocturne.