The Guardians of Sleep

In this episode, Dr. Amy Shawanda, an Indigenous health scholar from McGill University, discusses Anishnaabe methods for working with dream knowledge and the concept of baawaajige—the space of dreaming. Dr. Shawanda describes the importance of integrating Indigenous knowledge systems into Western medicine and shares her methodology for incorporating dreams into research. Season 2 of Guardians of Sleep is written and hosted by Sharon Sliwinski and edited by Erin MacIndoe Sproule and Rebecca Nolan, with original music by Andrew Braun.

Have you ever wondered why—and when—dreams stopped being treated as an important source of knowledge in Western societies? In this episode, host Sharon Sliwinski speaks with Edward McGushin, Professor of Philosophy at Stonehill College, about how dreaming became devalued during the Age of Reason. McGushin discusses the influence of René Descartes’s philosophy as well as the French historian, Michel Foucault, who revived the importance of dream life in his own late work. Foucault returned to the ancient idea of dreaming as a privileged ethical disclosure that holds a special relation to truth. Season 2 of Guardians of Sleep is written and hosted by Sharon Sliwinski and edited by Erin MacIndoe Sproule, Mikayla Gallo, and Victoria Li, with music by Andrew Braun.

This episode features Abigail Echo-Hawk, an international leader in Indigenous public health research and the decolonization of data. In this episode, Echo-Hawk speaks with Dr. Sofia Locklear about how her trailblazing work on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls was inspired by a dream. A member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, Echo-Hawk is the Executive Vice President at Seattle Indian Health Board and the Director of the Urban Indian Health Institute. This season of Guardians of Sleep is written and hosted by Sharon Sliwinski and edited by Erin MacIndoe Sproule, Mikayla Gallo, and Victoria Li, with music by Andrew Braun.

Season 2 of Guardians of Sleep delves into the colonial history that devalued dream life and highlights contemporary Indigenous methods for attending the knowledge offered in these experiences. Guests include Abigail Echo-Hawk, Edward McGushin, Lewis Williams, Kite and Alisha B. Wormsley, among others. Guardians of Sleep is hosted by Sharon Sliwinski and edited by Erin MacIndoe Sproule, Mikayla Gallo, and Victoria Li, with music by Andrew Braun.

In this final episode of our first season, we present some of our concluding thoughts about how dreaming served as a mental resource during the Covid-19 pandemic. Topics include how dreams return us to early childhood memories, how they draw on shared cultural material, and symbolically shape new experiences. This episode is the last in a larger project investigating how the pandemic has affected the dream-life of people living in the British capital, which was developed in partnership with the Museum of London (UK) and the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. Hosted by Sharon Sliwinski and edited by Erin MacIndoe Sproule with music by Andrew Braun.

In this episode we hear from Ruby who dreams of aliens and tunnels as a way to represent her experience of the pandemic. The focus also turns to the interaction between Ruby and her interviewer: What kind of listening is required to attune to a stranger’s dream life? How is the skill of listening to the other intertwined with the ability to listen to oneself? And what new kinds of conversation can be made from this form of attunement? This episode is part of larger project investigating how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the dream-life of people living in the British capital, which was developed in partnership with the Museum of London (UK) and the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. Hosted by Sharon Sliwinski and edited by Erin MacIndoe Sproule with music by Andrew Braun.

In this episode we hear from Pinny, a documentary filmmaker, and her 9-year-old daughter, Iris. Mother and daughter share the ability to lucid dream. This episode is part of larger project investigating how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the dream-life of people living in the British capital, which was developed in partnership with the Museum of London (UK) and the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. Hosted by Sharon Sliwinski and edited by Erin MacIndoe Sproule with music by Andrew Braun.

In this episode we hear from Peter, a retired commodities trader who has an interest in the neuroscience of dreaming. This episode is part of larger project investigating how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the dream-life of people living in the British capital, which was developed in partnership with the Museum of London (UK) and the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. Hosted by Sharon Sliwinski and edited by Erin MacIndoe Sproule with music by Andrew Braun.

In this episode we hear from Kavita, a self-described free-spirit, born and raised in London. In one of her dreams, she visits a funeral for a Black man and spots Princess Diana in a garden. This episode is part of larger project investigating how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the dream-life of people living in the British capital, which was developed in partnership with the Museum of London (UK) and the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. Hosted by Sharon Sliwinski and edited by Erin MacIndoe Sproule with music by Andrew Braun

In this episode we hear from Dr. Ishani Rao, a London-based doctor who has been working on the COVID wards since March of 2020.   This episode is part of larger project investigating how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the dream-life of people living in the British capital, which was developed in partnership with the Museum of London (UK) and the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. Hosted by Sharon Sliwinski and edited by Erin MacIndoe Sproule with music by Andrew Braun

A teaser of the first season of The Guardians of Sleep, which investigates how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the dream life of people living in the British capital. Produced in partnership with the Museum of London (UK) and the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. Hosted by Sharon Sliwinski and edited by Erin MacIndoe Sproule, with music by Andrew Braun.