Season Two: Trailer
In this season two teaser, Joshua and Cressida catch you up on their antics over the last six months, and introduce the new episodes you'll be hearing soon. Season two starts October 13 2026 and runs through World Sleep Day in March 2027! Episodes air on a Tuesday, every two weeks.
Transcript:
Cressida: 00:16
Hello and welcome to season two (<<drumroll>>) of Sleep is the New Sex.
Joshua: 00:22
Hello, it's great to be back.
Cressida: 00:25
We had a good time making season one, and some of you seemed to like it. I guess that implies that some of you didn't, but anyway, you're not listening anymore. So we're back with a sequel! Our last episode aired in February 2026, and we've spent the summer putting together some fabulous new material that you'll get to hear starting in the fall. What have you been doing since February, Joshua?
Joshua: 00:49
February was the month when my firstborn child, my daughter, was... born.
Cressida: 00:54
Arrived.
Joshua: 00:55
Arrived. Yeah. I was gonna say arose, but that's definitely the wrong word. Showed up on my doorstep with a stork. And that's also when my sleeping life took a radical turn. Yeah.
Cressida: 01:10
And at the beginning you were a bit smug, I have to say.
Joshua: 01:13
I was I was on cloud nine and I was sleeping well.
Cressida: 01:18
Steroids and whatever.
Joshua: 01:19
Absolutely. Just the adrenaline of parenting. And no, she was a very, very good sleeper. And uh yeah. I think our problem was we introduced her to some other babies, and they were probably talking and introduced to my daughter the concept of not sleeping. And ever since then, she hasn't slept quite as absurdly, and she's now sleeping more like a normal baby. So I blame peer pressure and I blame yeah, the other babies that she interacted with, but I still like her.
Cressida: 01:53
That's good. Yeah, that's good because people don't always... It's hard to describe to people who haven't been through it what it's like to be the caregiver for a newborn with their just willful, willful disregard for normal sleep.
Joshua: 02:11
Yeah, it is although I think my biggest takeaway like from having the new baby and the previous season is just how much of sleep is taught and how much of sleep is part of our like cultural education from the beginning. Yeah. Because that baby came into the world pretty ready to sleep. But then you know, after a few months, like very clearly, oh, like now I have to teach you how to sleep. Yeah. And like you don't know how to sleep. And I have to show you.
Cressida: 02:48
My my son very clearly had the attitude of, oh, this I'm in the world now and it's getting more and more interesting to me. And if I go to sleep, I might miss something. So I don't think I will.
Joshua: 02:58
No, it is it is very funny how transparent they're like, I would like to stay awake and experience this as. Yeah. Yeah.
Cressida: 03:07
Yeah.
Joshua: 03:08
So that's been what I've been up to. Yeah. How about yourself?
Cressida: 03:13
Oh, thanks for asking. I had some awesome jet lag. That was, you know, that's always a treat, isn't it?
Joshua: 03:20
Always, yeah. Always. It is when you're coming back from Italy. Yeah.
Cressida: 03:24
Yes. Going is is going what's the direction east is harder for most people, including me, than coming back, although coming back was also a bit a bit trippy. Um, and yeah, I've been on sabbatical, so I've been experimenting with the afternoon nap, which has been quite a positive experience, I would say. Excellent. And it has taken away this phenomenon of sort of getting really tired later in the evening, which is nice because I'd rather have late evening time than you know 2 to 3 p.m. Yes. Um, but there is also this what what we call in the sleep trade nap roulette phenomenon, where you lie down and you close your eyes and maybe you doze for 10 minutes and it's not really happening, or maybe you wake up three hours later.
Joshua: 04:10
Yeah.
Cressida: 04:11
You just can't tell. And so I'm sure the people we interview would have something to say about why that's the case, but I didn't ask them because I'm not sure I want to know. No, so that's what's been happening. So we decided to do a second season because we got such positive feedback. Thank you to everybody who gave us feedback about season one, and we felt like there were many stones unturned when it comes to the cultural politics of sleep. We have lists of tens of more things that we haven't talked about. So it felt like an opportunity. There's a little bit of difference in the second season. We're straying a little bit further from our central theme of the cultural politics of sleep, and we have more and more diverse guests. So there'll be a couple episodes where we speak to more than one person, and we're just moving out a little bit from our core sort of humanities worlds.
Joshua: 05:09
Yeah, I think as you've said, the premise for season two came about because people seem to like season one. It also emerged from during season one, you know, we would have these ideas and we would just kind of put a pin in them and be like maybe maybe season two in a like fantastic, sort of dreamy kind of way. And then eventually those pins like, you know, expanded to being a full season. So now this is the season of all of the sort of threads that came out of season one, too. What what are some of those topics?
Cressida: 05:46
Okay. Well, we have a strong start with a conversation in episode one about the sleep crisis. Is there one? What is it? And why might talking about the sleep crisis do something for us?
Joshua: 06:01
I've been told I'm not allowed to use the phrase "incitement to discourse." One of the main feedbacks that I received from people in the studio with me.
Cressida: 06:10
Me!
Joshua: 06:12
Yeah. That I wasn't allowed to use the phrase "incitement to discourse" anymore. But that's that is what's happening here.
Cressida: 06:18
Yeah, it puts people off.
Joshua: 06:20
Yeah. I think. Well, I confuse it's Yeah, you're right. It probably just shuts down.
Cressida: 06:24
Google it.
Joshua: 06:25
It's a.... It's a conversation ender for sure. Ironically, the citing the incitement to discourse is a opposite. Yeah, it's an end to discourse.
Cressida: 06:38
There's a popular book, really, really popular book that sort of you can find discounted at the airport called Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker. But our project, and this is the very short way of saying it, is why we talk about sleep.
Joshua: 06:54
That's a better way of saying it than what's an incitement to discourse. And and we're talking about different things on this season. A bit more about the experience of sleep, including the science. Then we've got some exciting topics. Do you want to do your introduction for sleep in space?
Cressida: 07:11
[In Muppet voice] Sleeeeeeep in spaaaaaace. Thank you.
Joshua: 07:15
Fatigue, sleep and houselessness, and extra-human sleep.
Cressida: 07:20
And several more. I don't want to list them all because we haven't produced them yet, so we're not completely convinced we can pull them off. There is that caveat. But there will be 10 full episodes airing as usual, bi-weekly on a Tuesday, starting in I'm going to say October.
Joshua: 07:38
Yes.
Cressida: 07:39
I should say we record our podcast in the basement of the Old Arts building in the Sound Studio, which is where we are now. And, those of you who hang around the University of Alberta may know that the Old Arts Building was closed for two and a half weeks due to flooding and damage to the electrical systems. So that was at came at a very crucial time for our recording. So we're still hoping that we can start in October.
Joshua: 08:03
And you can find updates on our schedule, importantly. Old and new episodes, transcripts, and show notes on our website, sleepisthenewsex.ca.
Cressida: 08:13
And if you're listening to this, then you are at least considering joining us for season two. A podcast exists for its listeners. And we're so grateful to you for joining us, for downloading, for listening all the way through to the episodes, to rating and reviewing us, and for giving us feedback on everything we've done. So come along for the ride of season two, and we look forward to spending time with you.