Extremely enjoyable & brilliant bedtime stories! I definitely recommend any MrBallen podcasts!

Sounds like a AI YouTube video. Awful

I’m a huge fan of the strange dark and mysterious. I’ve been listening for about two or three years now and it’s awesome. And this is great. It keeps me up at night not gonna lie because it kind of sort of maybe scares me just a little bit. But that’s the whole point. So I’m love this podcast just as much as the others on Ballen studios.

This is the best thing I’ve ever heard I listen to this at night but sometimes it keeps me awake but it means I don’t miss anything I also listen to medical mystery’s all on podcasts and sometimes YouTube but mostly podcasts Ballen studios is the best

The stories are more based on mystery than horror and aren’t really that scary and I wouldn’t suggest the medical mysteries for you because some of the episodes are actually horrifying

Been listening to bedtime stories for about a year now, and I can never stop listening to these episodes. I love the narrators voice, and I just love how I can just start listening and just fall asleep. The best time to listen in my opinion is driving in the dark on a New Hampshire back road. Keep up the great work.

Spooky

Been listening since Bedtime Stories started on youtube. Recent addition of voice actors has greatly reduced the poscast quality in terms of length, quality and overall listening experience.

Pass

Im not sure what it is exactly but the narrator just doesn't do it for me. I dont know if its because he's monotone or the inflection or even english accent, but his voice is better suited for a history documentary, not paranormal stories. Wish Mr Ballen was narrator.

Ive been listening for almost 4 years now on youtube and applepod. I love the artwork, the presenter, the varying viewpoints they give on paranormal events, and the general story telling process.

Wow, I couldn’t disagree more with other people’s comments about the monotone voice. Honestly, it’s the best part of this podcast. It’s great to listen to when dozing off to sleep and sometimes the stories do keep me awake listening but generally the way you talk and read in a monotoned sing-song way is very relaxing. I love listening to it.

Updated review: I checked back in today. I am so, so happy to hear you speaking in a normal voice! The episode I listened to today was absolutely professional and so well done. Thank you so much for taking everyone’s comments into account. I have a lot of respect for someone who can take constructive criticism. Well done! Obsolete Review: I have heard you speak when you were not narrating the story, and your speaking voice is fine. Easy to listen to. But then, like a bunch of other people have said, the way you narrate is completely monotone, and then suddenly emphasize some syllable that has nothing to do with the importance of that syllable, it makes this almost impossible to listen to. If you would just read this in your normal voice, you could have a great podcast. But right now you’re doing a lot of good work to research and write, and you’re ruining it with the delivery. How do you not hear this in editing?

I love this podcast and have listened to every episode I believe. It’s immersive, intriguing, and distinguished among podcasts that cover oddities and strange, often nefarious, happenstances. The narrators are excellent and it feels authentic. The production quality is high, the stories are well researched, formatted, and portrayed. The only thing that’s off-putting is the addition of the voice actors that seem to have started with the January 29, 2025 episode. The voice actors have short phrases, less than five words usually, which pulls the ear out of the environment and nuances of the story with the abrupt tonal shifts, that are laughable in their briefness. It would make more sense if the voice actors told a bit of story, rather than just short transitional statements. I love this podcast, but hope the voice actor’s insertions are either expanded or cut, as one direction or the other seems the clear route. I will continue to listen, and particularly enjoyed the staff’s experience episodes.

I have loved the original Mr. Ballen podcast for years. Whenever I venture into other premiering True Crime podcasts, I eventually get bored or irritated, and - with much relief - return to the ever reliable narrating of Mr. Ballen. Of course I have listened to Medical Mysteries and Bedtime Stories with discerning skepticism. Rarely do second and third productions live up to the success of the first. But Ballen Studios continue to strike gold. There is also just a quality to his tone that makes each episode utterly listenable, and Lord knows, in this world of uncertainty, we need to find elements of trust and comfort wherever they emerge.

So I listened to this podcast once at night because I thought it wasn’t going to be kind of scary but when I listened to it I thought I was going to have nightmares but because of my dream catcher I didn’t have nightmares :/

My daughter passed 10 years ago. Thank you for your podcast. And yes we have those chocolates.

I’m thrilled to have found this podcast. I mainly listen at night to go to sleep as I have insomnia. I found that this podcast has a mix of everything my subconscious is apparently needing to relax because by the end of the episode I’m drifting into a sleep. There are some obnoxious ads that abruptly pop up but I just fast forward through them. I’ve tried other podcasts with a similar structure and I often can’t stand the narrator’s voice. The voice behind bedtime stories is so soothing and relaxing, I am immediately comforted as I nestle into bed. The stories are interesting and well structured. I love this podcast!

I've been watching "mr.ballen" since he first popped onto YouTube I follow most of his shows on here and listen to most of them and this one is my favorite followed by run fool lol I didn't expect my favorite shows to not have him in them, I still LOVE his shows but I'm so grateful that he introduced me to these new shows and people 😊 ✌🏽🖤 Edit* The personal stories episode..... the narrator speaking about his brother who passed....oh my heart. This is one of the best episodes just because of how emotional and real it is

The stories are interesting but not too interesting; and the narrator’s soothing British accent is perfect for relaxing. But as you start to drift off, SUPER LOUD ads jolt you awake—which kind of defeats the whole purpose of a bedtime story. I understand why they have ads, but why are they so much louder than the rest of the show?

Listen to this all the time but the ads a constant

I love everything about this podcast except for the obnoxious, sleep shattering ads. I am drifting off to sleep as the brilliant story teller with his lovely accent lulls me to dreamland and thing BANG, loud, high-pitched ad in the middle. Awful. I get the necessity of ads, but them all in the beginning!

And I do love the English accent😉

Oh my lord, love Mr Ballen and his friends podcast. Love the stories!!! Keep it up

Scares me but in a fun way I love it, please keep making them

Love the narrator’s voice for these podcasts. I usually end up listening twice - once while I’m falling asleep and agin the next day so I can hear the whole stories.

Their stories are not unique but their narration and tone are top tier. Their story teller is so good that no visuals are needed to enjoy an episode. I find myself listening to longer episodes, 45 minutes to an hour, something I never do with other channels. Found them here from watching their youtube channel, except podcasts are better for...bedtime. I wish they would transfer more of their videos over to podcast format as youtube can be extremely disruptive by injecting too many loud commercials at the wrong time. On a side note, I also their like WarTime Stories Channel, also good and more of the stories are original.

Great podcast, awesome stories but they need a new narrator. This guy has a strange cadence to his voice and it just doesn’t hold my attention.

Can’t get past the narrator’s cadence. There is no doubting that this puts some people right to sleep, but I find myself annoyed with the repetitive tones and lack of flow.

Sorry, I love Mr Ballen’s Strange Dark and Mysterious and the Medical Mysteries podcasts, but I can’t abide this dry, detached from the action narration. (And I usually love British narrators).

Horrible voice and cadence in narration. Sat up in bed just write this review so pretty counterproductive lol

The hosts voice is so soothing. Never fails to knock me out when i need slumber.

This narrator is awful. He follows this weird cadence that ends up being so repetitive that it gets annoying. I’m not really sure how someone with the ability to tell a story like Mr. Ballen signed off on this.

I fall asleep to these stories every night! Love them and listen to them over and over. If you show people are fast forwarding, it’s only to repeat listen to the rest from falling asleep the night before!

The narration is impossible to sleep to. I like the content, but the voice isn’t making feel relaxed at all. I with the narrator was more like the one for Run, Fool

I have been listening to this podcast since almost the beginning. And my opinion is it is one of the best out there Tony is a laid back every day person like us and he lets the people tell their stories without interference. And he doesn’t judge anybody that had a experience no matter what thanks Tony for y’all’s awesome content

Bedtime stories are what you read to your kid to put them to sleep. This does exactly that for me as an adult. Like its interesting but i gotta agree with some of these posts on here that the delivery of the content kinda bores me to sleep and it works everytime! I usually start with Wartime stories then go over to a Mr Ballen podcast and then finish off with Bedtime stories cause I know for sure it will put me to bed.

I love the Skinwalker Ranch stories I’m from the Uintah basin and knew that something was wrong around the Bottle Hollow area. Bedtime stories does a good job covering this area of high strangeness The scariest one is Skinwalker Ranch part 2

*Please read the whole thing* I am not trying to be mean or rude. I’m offering my honest feedback because I appreciate this show and know it can be better. I’d like this podcast 1,000% more if the speaker would STOP forcing his voice into an artificial and unnatural cadence. Not sure what he’s trying to accomplish by making his voice the way it is, but it’s not working. It is smothering the quality content this show is capable of offering! The reason I know that he’s “trying” to do something with his voice is because he is not talking how real human beings speak! The normal cadence of a person’s voice contains variations. What makes a storyteller compelling is the unpredictability of their pauses, speed, intonation, and emphasis. When a person rigidly follows the same rhythmic formula for every. single. sentence. the listener might as well plug their headphones into a metronome. Metronomes are boring and put people to sleep. This narrator’s uncanny imitation of a metronome is making these interesting stories seem boring. ¡PLEASE, heed what people are saying in these comments! If you do nothing, and eventually comments like mine stop rolling in, that is not a good sign. All that means is people have given up on trying to improve this show and just stopped listening.

I like it, I really do, but there is something a bit off putting with the delivery. I have a hard time putting my finger on it but after reading some reviews I must agree, the accent is fine but the unusual cadence of the story telling bores me.

Good stories terrible narration. I can picture the narrator falling asleep while reading the script. No energy behind the story telling

Very entertaining, good storytelling, good stories, overalls a pretty awesome podcast in my opinion, I see some negative comments that have nothing to do with the content and the entertainment value, things like “the voice” “the narrative” if you don’t like his voice that doesn’t mean the actual content of the podcast is bad!

I love the stories, but I just can not get past the horrible narration. Script reading with no real energy behind the delivery. If your like me you started with Mrballen and his unique way of drawing you in with gripping story telling. Overall needs a new narrator

Not a fan of the delivery…. Just reading a script, only adding emphasis on the last word of the sentence.

It’s a fun podcast. I listen to it to fall asleep or when walking my dog. I like the narrators voice and style but the stories sometimes feel rushed. The latest one about a haunting went from a kid climbing up a wall to flies to foot steps to a shadow being all within 5 minutes. Dragging it out with a bit more detail would make this podcast perfect.

So, I actually use these as bedtime stories to put me to sleep. They’re perfect for my anxiety - interesting enough to distract me from anxious thoughts, not so active of narration that it keeps me awake. I’ve slept through each episode multiple times - don’t think I’ve ever heard a full one. And for me, that’s exactly what I was looking for.

I love how the throngs of illegal aliens crossing the boarder are being called “migrants”.makes it seem like they are just on a journey to cross the boader just minding their own business when they shouldn’t be there at all.

Growing up in Md, we have 2 legends that would be great topics for this podcast. One is The Goatman of Prince George’s county. He apparently is the product of experiments gone aary at the Beltsville agricultural installation. He eats small pets and terrifies teenagers out parking in the woods. The second is the Legend of the Blue Dog in Port Tobacco Md, I understand this is the oldest ghost story in the US. Legend has it that on Feb 8 each year you can hear him howling. Check it out.

I really want to listen to this but I can’t get past the narrators voice

I think the name of the podcast suits it to a T because I feel like the narrator is trying to put me to sleep. If someone else read these tales and actually put some inflection and emotion into it, then I think I would really enjoy it. However, this guy sounds like he’s just reading straight from a page like a kid who has to read out loud in school.