The Woman Who Puts America to Sleep
Via The Hustle
The Story
Kathryn Nicolai turned a dying friend's advice to chase her dreams into Nothing Much Happens, a bedtime story podcast that has grown to 200 million downloads and roughly 200,000 daily listeners.
A former yoga teacher and studio owner in Michigan, she released her first episode in April 2018 and watched it climb from 1,500 downloads in the first month to 10 million within a year.
Her calming voice and sensory rich stories set in a fictional village help anxious adults quiet their minds and fall asleep.
Nicolai eventually sold her yoga studio to focus on the podcast full time, secured a literary agent, and sold her book in about 35 countries while employing two staff members.
Her success rides a booming market in which Americans spent $67 billion on sleep aids in 2024, up from $41 billion in 2015, even as sleep deprivation costs the country roughly $400 billion a year in lost productivity.
With an app launching in January and a second book planned, Nicolai aims to expand the brand into children's books and television despite rising competition from apps like Calm.
A former yoga teacher and studio owner in Michigan, she released her first episode in April 2018 and watched it climb from 1,500 downloads in the first month to 10 million within a year.
Her calming voice and sensory rich stories set in a fictional village help anxious adults quiet their minds and fall asleep.
Nicolai eventually sold her yoga studio to focus on the podcast full time, secured a literary agent, and sold her book in about 35 countries while employing two staff members.
Her success rides a booming market in which Americans spent $67 billion on sleep aids in 2024, up from $41 billion in 2015, even as sleep deprivation costs the country roughly $400 billion a year in lost productivity.
With an app launching in January and a second book planned, Nicolai aims to expand the brand into children's books and television despite rising competition from apps like Calm.
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