Come to think of it, listening to the Levar Burton Reads podcast would probably work pretty good as well.

The App ‘Calm’ which is good for meditation also has sleep stories. There is a great one by Levar Burton describing the solar system.

youarenotsosmart.com psychology, sociology, & more. Sounds boring but is fascinating. His own description:

The central theme of You Are Not So Smart is that you are unaware of how unaware you are which leads you to becoming the unreliable narrator in the story of your life. You Are Not So Smart is a fun exploration of the ways you and everyone else tends to develop an undeserved confidence in human perception, motivation, and behavior. I hope you’ll rediscover a humility and reconnect with the stumbling, fumbling community of humans trying to make sense of things the best we can.

www.theskepticsguide.org Separating science from pseudoscience, medicine from quckery.

www.levarburtonpodcast.com. Each episode Levar reads a piece of short fiction.

Brilliant people are only brilliant at their area of expertise. They can be horribly, even dangerously stupid in other areas. What’s worse is that they often think they are brilliant at everything. (See Linus Pauling, vitamin c.)

Sanderson himself recommends ‘Tress of the Emerald Sea’ as a short work to get a feel for his style. I agee.

In regards to Ocean at the end of the lane. You could really broaden that out to anything by Neil Gaiman (Ocean, stardust, graveyard book, neverware, good omens, american gods, etc. Etc.)

And if you like Neil’s fairytale-esque stuff, then check out Spinning Silver and Uprooted by Naomi Novik as well.

If you’re looking for something longer, try Brandon Sanderson’s cosmere (start with either Mistborn or Stormlight Archives.)

Or perhaps Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files (hard-boiled detective who also happens to be a wizard.) First few books are a bit weak, but gets much better.

Some other ideas:

Murderbot Diaries, The Locked Tomb, Assasin’s Apprentice, Broken Earth, Kings of the Wyld.