The popular podcast Welcome to Night Vale is a twice-monthly podcast that takes the form of community radio updates from "a friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful and mysterious lights pass overhead as we all pretend to sleep." It's free and available on multiple platforms, including YouTube and PodBay.
It's not a community radio like you would be used to, unless, of course, there are hooded figures in your town's forbidden dog park, secret police that everyone knows about, and your town's mayoral candidates are a literal five-headed dragon and The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your House. "Night Vale," for all its oddities -- in fact, largely because of them -- has proven to be very popular and is entering its fifth year of episodes. I've been listening to "Night Vale" for just over a year and in that time I have learned a lot from this very, very weird show.
1. It's OK to be different
This one isn't as much directly from the show as it is from the show's creators, Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. They weren't afraid to take the bizarre podcast idea that they had and turn it into a reality. And it turned out to be a huge success for them -- after all, "Night Vale" has been running for four years and has a pretty large following, a good turnout at the live shows, and they were able to produce more "Night Vale Presents" podcasts, "Alice Isn't Dead" and "Within the Wires." Clearly being different (and weird at last) worked for them.
2. It's OK to get excited about the things that you like
Cecil, the narrator of "Night Vale," has been known to get extremely excited over things like Khoshekh, the cat who hovers about 4 feet off the ground in the men's bathroom at Night Vale Community Radio, or Carlos, his scientist boyfriend. And even though he's on air, he's never ashamed of his interests or excitement.
3. "A scientist is always fine"
This is a direct quote from Carlos, Cecil's boyfriend, who ends up trapped in a desert other-world for a while. Being a (forensic) science major, it's nice to have the reminder.
4. Love will always prevail
As previously mentioned, Carlos gets trapped in a desert other-world for a large number of episodes (I think it's around 20, although I don't remember exactly when he gets there). However, Cecil never gives up on him, talking both to and about him frequently on the show -- and he's even willing to give up Night Vale, his home, to go join Carlos.
5. Forced happiness is dangerous
One story arc in the show is that of StrexCorp, a corporation that takes over everything, and Desert Bluffs, Night Vale's neighboring town. Desert Bluffs had been under StrexCorp's control for a long time, but we don't really know anything about the corporation until it makes it to Night Vale as well. For a while Lauren, the vice president of StrexCorp, and Kevin, the radio host of Desert Bluff's community radio, take over Night Vale, resulting in several episodes that aren't about Night Vale, per se, but about the Greater Desert Bluffs Metropolitan Area. Kevin and Lauren are constantly upbeat, even about things that they shouldn't be happy about, and everyone in Night Vale is expected to be the same. However, this takes away everything that makes Night Vale what it is -- the dark and creepy are an integral part of the town.
6. Reassuring words on fear and regret (and toast)
"Fear is consciousness plus life. Regret is an attempt to avoid what has already happened. Toast is bread held under direct heat until crisp. The present tense of regret is indecision. The future tense of fear is either comedy or tragedy. The past tense of toast is toasted."
Some last thoughts:
