#39 The Life of a Shopping Trolley

Episode thirty-nine of The World's Most Boring Podcast - Bore Me to Sleep is here, and it is about shopping trolleys. Or shopping carts, if you prefer. Either way, it is exactly as uneventful as it sounds, and that is entirely the point. If you are looking for a sleep podcast to help you drift off, a monotone bedtime story for adults, or simply something so thoroughly uninteresting that your brain has no choice but to give up and go to sleep, you have found it. This episode takes you through the full, unhurried life of a shopping trolley - from its invention by Sylvan Goldman in Oklahoma in nineteen thirty-seven, through the factory, the shipping container, the car park, the supermarket aisle, the coin mechanism, the wobbly wheels, the trolley collector, and finally the quiet retirement and recycling of a wire frame that spent a decade carrying other people's groceries without ever once being thanked. Along the way there are gentle digressions into Dutch stroopwafels, Edinburgh supermarkets, canals in Birmingham, the word trundler, the shimmy effect, supermarket music and its effect on walking speed, a sculpture by Bill Woodrow, the film Withnail and I, and a short story about a sad trolley that was never finished. The episode ends in a long, dreamlike sequence that slowly dissolves into something warm and surreal and deeply, deeply soporific. This podcast is ideal for people dealing with insomnia, those who find it hard to switch off at night, people who use sleep podcasts or sleep radio to fall asleep, fans of ASMR-adjacent content, and anyone who enjoys bedtime podcasts, white noise alternatives, or simply having someone talk at them in a calm and slightly meandering way until consciousness becomes optional. It is also perfectly suited to people who have no particular sleep difficulties but simply enjoy falling asleep to monotone talking and do not mind missing the ending, because the ending, like everything else here, is not going anywhere in a hurry. The World's Most Boring Podcast is proudly, defiantly, and consistently dull. We are not exciting. We are not engaging. We are the podcast equivalent of a slightly warm room and a very unremarkable Tuesday afternoon, and we consider that a compliment of the highest order. We currently have fifty-nine subscribers, which is a prime number and therefore indivisible, and we are very fond of all of them. If you would like to suggest a topic for a future episode, ask a question, or simply send a message that you feel belongs somewhere quiet and unhurried, you can reach us at [email protected]. No suggestion is too dull. In fact, the duller the better. Subscribe, settle in, and let the trolley roll.