Welcome To Night Vale—The Desert Community That Doesn't Exist

If HP Lovecraft and Stephen King had written a new season of The Twilight Zone, this is exactly what it would sound like.

Welcome To Night Vale might be one of the most interesting and entertaining podcasts I've ever come upon. It comes in the fashion of community updates (weather, traffic, sheriff's announcements, cultural events, warnings of a faceless old woman who secretly lives in your home, along with other local news)—all of these from the tiny desert town of Night Vale.

"We didn't want to make a podcast that sounded like all the other podcasts we were listening to," explained Joseph Fink co-writer of the show. 

Not only did they masterly create a new format for podcasts, but they invented a town that is so realistic it's hard to believe it does not exist—UFOs and all.

"As a place, Night Vale is terrifying," says Fink. "There are a lot of things that don't make sense and people are dying constantly. But the thing about real life is that it's terrifying and there are lots of things that don't make sense and people are dying constantly too. In Night Vale, it's aliens. In real life, it's cancer … but it's still the same thing. Cecil is giving you an example of dealing with the terrifyingness of life. I think that's partly what people are connecting to."

The show is addictive and obscurely hilarious. Whether if you like sci-fi or not, Welcome To Night Vale is a must-hear.