What Is Welcome to Night Vale?

Welcome to Night Vale is a podcast about a fictional sleepy desert town under a vague yet menacing totalitarian government rule. Though everyday life ranges from bizarre and ridiculous to ominous and horrifying by our standards, its citizens take everything in stride. Said events are recounted with a sense of drab mundanity by the community’s local radio host and citizens who call in. Yeah, confused utahraptors popped out of a void at the school gym in the middle of a PTA meeting and proceeded to viciously attack anyone wearing glasses—but it’s not like anyone died.

Welcome to Night Vale is loosely based on the style of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, but replaces the sense of abject horror in his work with a feeling of unremarkable absurdity. If you are into dry humour interwoven with sociopolitical commentary, this might be the show for you.

Night Vale’s Librarians

Out of all the various creatures and beings to inhabit the strange little town, none are more feared by the populace than the dreaded librarians. Kept behind the triple-thick walls of the library, these creatures with long talons and many round black eyes are feared even by the fearless. For librarians dare deal in the most dangerous thing in Night Vale: free access to information. Their lair includes a children’s section with a knife pit and a computer lab with empty tables which has a speaker shouting “Technology ruins lives!” at patrons.

After listening to a few episodes of the podcast, you’ll be happy your librarians are of a more tame variety! (Rawr.)

Where to Find It

If you are interested in checking this podcast out you can find it for free on their official YouTube Channel as well as in most podcast apps and sites, such as Podbay, Apple Podcasts, RadioPublic, Google Play, and Spotify. If you'd like to download each episode in mp3 format individually, you can do that here.

They also have a handy Starter’s Guide with info like suggestions of episodes to start on if you don’t want to start from Episode 1 that you can find here.