PODCAST | ‘Welcome to Night Vale’
‘Welcome to Night Vale’ has quickly become an empire created by a simple idea since its original podcast release in June 2012. Now 103 episodes in and three books later, along with several live shows across the globe and hundreds of thousands of fans, the podcast is a force to be reckoned with.
The podcast was created and written by Joseph Finks and Jeffrey Cranor, with breathtaking voice acting by Cecil Baldwin. Together, the three men very quickly managed to take over the podcast world with this outstanding and inventive production.
‘Welcome to Night Vale’ is a live radio show set in the fictional desert town of Night Vale. The show is hosted by Cecil, who recounts with glorious imagination the horrific, creepy, dark and unbelievable goings on of the town. He also returns to his crush on scientist Carlos - for added humour.
The first few episodes will leave you confused and amused, but by the third you will inevitably be hooked. Just a warning though: this is not a podcast to listen to late at night, for it is known to evoke nightmares!
If you’re expecting to simply listen passively to this audio masterpiece, you are tremendously wrong. Listeners will be required to hand over their imagination, make sense out of nonsense, and be the major force keeping order among the episodes. And for such responsibility, you’ll then be treated to the weather.
Afterwards, listeners will bask in the brilliance of (both) Cecil’s deliveries: the sense of chaos and calamity a news broadcast can bring, and the world building achieved explicitly through audio.
You will become fascinated and invested in characters’ stories with only small glimpses over the course of episodes. You will worship good writing, creativity and the willingness to experiment with story-telling, excellent production, eventually becoming one in a community of dedicated thousands.
Further to that, with its over 100 million downloads, the creators have even managed to knock long-running favourite ‘This American Life’ off its #1 pedestal on iTunes!
So if you haven’t already jumped on the ‘Night Vale’ bandwagon, then all 103 episodes are awaiting your keen ears and vivid imagination on iTunes now.
