The Sleeping World: Rolling Under the Milky Way with a Dung Beetle

by Mumble Media, Cynthia Kimola (Narrator), Audible Sleep

Wind down by escaping into nature. Part soundscape and part bedtime story, The Sleeping World is an intimate journey through ecologies around the world.

Dung beetles might sound dirty, but the ancient Egyptians believed their god took the form of a dung beetle to roll the morning sun across the sky every day. In this episode, we roll with dung beetles around the world as they push their precious dung—often in balls many times larger than they are—over Florida pastures, Armenian highlands, and the vast South African savanna.

This is the world in its natural state, defined by seasons, routines, and cycles. As we roll with these glittering beetles, we can imagine a giant dung beetle slowly rolling our planet through the solar system, rotating us gently into each coming night, and safely into each new day.

Produced by Audible and Mumble Media
Written by Cara Ehlenfeldt and Jake Young
Narrated by Cynthia Kimola
Executive Producers for Mumble Cara Ehlenfeldt and Jake Young
Executive Producer for Anna Stitt
Sound Design and Mumble Media
The Mumble Media team is Jaymeson Catsouphes, Cara Ehlenfeldt, Chester Gwazda, Liz Mak, Lee Mengistu, Renée Vargas, and Jake Young
Dung Beetle Rachel Stone
Andrea López-Cruzado
Head of Creative Development at Kate Navin
Chief Content Officer at Rachel Ghiazza

Available in Dolby Atmos on Audible.

Genres: Animals, Nonfiction

Audible Audio

Published March 27, 2025

Reviews

[Katrine Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another delightful addition to this Sleeping World series. Love the narrator/voice actor choice, and all of the very druid-friendly topics for my nature loving anxious heart.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another in The Sleeping World and one that I kept putting off because - well, dung beetles. But in the end, not so ick. Dung beetles are on every continent of the world save Antarctica and this episode doesn't just follow one beetle along the path with their ball of dung but three of them. One in South Africa and we can hear the purring of a lioness as it watches the water buffalo, one in Turkey using sheep pellets and Florida which uses cows which we can hear lowing in the background.

The interesting part is all three use the Milky Way as a compass for their intended pathway in search of a location to burrow, settle and digest their precious ball that they managed to keep away from other beetles and insects. And their paths are always backwards, leaning a bit to the left or right to rotate the ball, keeping the weight evenly distributed and the spherical shape.

The narrator starts with the ancient Egyptian belief that the god Khepri, the sacred scarab, would roll the sun across the sky just as common beetles would roll the dung. Perhaps not so appealing in today's sanitized Western society but certainly an appealing and rather different idea of how the sun moved for the ancient and primitive peoples.

2025-040

[AttackGirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having been in the Middle East and seeing this first hand the story of ‘florida’ is absurd but who knows. The scarab beetle is also a sign of good fortune and today I have them around the house in my purse etc. I’m listening to all of “The sleeping World…” series. Some need help!

And,

I would recommend laying down relaxing as you listen to the stories.

[Rafa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is interesting and the audiobook performance is great, this was not a bed time story for me :)

[Jaime Lyerly · Rating 3 out of 5]

More than I ever wanted to know about the habits of dung beetles. Don't listen while eating.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another interesting nature sleepcast. I find myself staying awake until these are done because they are so interesting.

[Justine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oddly relaxing meditation audiobook with oddly interesting fun facts throughout. :)

[bimri · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beetle rolling around inspiring the great Egyptians is no small feat. It is its sense of direction that is impressive to me!