Drew Ackerman holds the dubious – but unofficial – title of often being called the world’s most boring man.
However, this 50-year-old American has made a lot of money out of boredom with his podcast.
Ackerman is well aware of how boring his podcast is, because it’s on purpose.
Which seems odd since the vast majority of people choose to listen to podcasts for entertainment, but Ackerman insists this is no ordinary podcast, it actually saves lives around the world. .
Drew “Scooter” Ackerman
Loss of consciousness after a few minutes
Ackerman started airing her podcast, Sleep with Me, in 2013 and her Twitter fame began. Now, a decade later, hundreds of thousands of people rely on Ackerman to send them off to dreamland with their boredom.
Ackerman’s podcast can be so boring that people who listen to it usually pass out mere minutes after its monotonous, convoluted ramblings.
It is believed that three million people, all over the world, rely on Ackerman to lull them to sleep each night, and for example, according to recent figures from Australia, over 150,000 Australians listen to the podcast each night.
Suffered from insomnia since childhood
He has said in interviews that as children he and his brothers suffered from insomnia. So he started telling his brothers long stories and adventures that usually made them start snoring before long.
Years later, as an adult, Ackerman still suffered from insomnia, which tormented him greatly. He tried all sorts of ways to improve the situation, to no avail.
Among other things, he searched through a number of podcasts but found nothing that gave him the peace he was looking for.
He then worked as a librarian and at his workplace, his colleagues chatted quietly, naturally. He found it soothing to have a quiet, low-key conversation and thought that might be the right way to offer something similar.
Lullabies About Sponsors
He himself describes his storytelling tradition as “good in a weird way, but not scary”. He always states that he has no education or knowledge of sleep psychology or science, he mostly relies on his years of experience in falling asleep (out of boredom). He keeps in touch with his listeners on social media, where he has a huge following, and takes advice to be even more boring.
He calls himself “Scooter” on his podcast and after a long intro welcoming listeners, he gradually lists all the show’s sponsors, but sometimes he goes further.
Then his friend, musician Jonathan Mann, sings a lullaby – in several stanzas – that Mann wrote for a lucky patron.
Multi-awarded for boredom
After that, Ackerman continues his rambling introduction before finally getting to the point of the episode. We can add that his voice is particularly soothing.
After the story of the evening, but it is usually some kind of fairy tale, written by himself, or childhood memories, he thanks the listeners who donated money to follow the show or aroused his interest on social networks. He thanks everyone by name and the list is often long.
But by then, most listeners are actually asleep, as each episode is 60-90 minutes long.
It can be added that “the most boring man in the world” has won many awards. For example, he won the 2016 People’s Choice Podcast Award for Best Health Podcast, his podcast almost consistently ranks in the top 10 best sleep podcasts, and in the top 50 most popular podcasts in the United States.
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