So… do you guys listen to Radiolab? I've been addicted to it for a while now — you can get their free podcasts at ITunes and the Radiolab webpage. The show is described as being about curiosity, with each episode an "investigation — a patchwork of people, sounds, stories all centered around one big idea." It's one of the few unique and shining examples of story-telling, science and entertainment all coming together to produce a feeling of wonder and wow in listeners. Topics that have been covered include: Memory, Laughter, Music, and Sperm (who knew they could be so interesting). I love it.

And how does this relate to babies and sleep you might ask. A while back they had an episode about Sleep — there's a short version and a longer episode. If you have some time (oh, like maybe during the 3rd feeding session of the night), pop this into your ipod or listen to it on your computer. It starts off with the producer, Hannah Palin, documenting in intimate detail, the sleep deprivation she faced with her 18-month old. It really drives the point home about how hard it is to parent and function generally on no sleep and how brain dead we can become from the months of never. ever. sleeping. The baby's cries alone on this recording sends me right back to my own personal hell of sleep deprivation. And then there's some cool science talk that's just plain fascinating about the importance of sleep for memory, learning, and so on.

If you get a chance to listen, let me know what you think…