From the minds behind the Vale
Night Vale Presents
(formerly Commonplace Books) is an independent Podcast network headed by Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink, the creators of Welcome to Night Vale. Borne out of the publishing enterprise Commonplace books, Night Vale ended up being such a hit, it inspired other creators to make their own work with Fink and Cranor, causing a rebrand in 2016. Apart from hosting Night Vale and other works of Web Original Fiction by Cranor and Fink, the network aims to be a platform for other indie podcast creators. The network provides a wide and diverse variety of content, both fiction and non-fiction. Its stable of podcasts include:- Welcome to Night Vale: their first and most famous podcast from which the network takes its name, a work of Surreal Horror and a Parody of community radio shows, set in a small town where all things paranormal are treated as completely mundane business as usual.
- Alice Isn't Dead: a Surreal Horror tale of the audio diaries of a greenhorn long-haul trucker, who's using the job as a way to search for her wayward wife Alice, as she stumbles upon traces of The Conspiracy Alice was involved in, and has paranormal encounters along the way.
- Within the Wires: a Speculative Fiction work in the form of found audio (relaxation cassettes, museum audio tours, answering machines messages, etc.) in a Dystopian Alternate Universe.
- The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air): a Surreal Humour work revolving around a janitor at the Eiffel Tower who aspires to perform in a strange radio variety show that broadcasts from the tower's top.
- Conversations With People Who Hate Me: a non-fiction podcast by Night Vale cast member Dylan Marron, wherein he attempts cordial phone conversations with his internet trolls.
- It Makes A Sound: the story of Deirdre Gardner, a nostalgic childhood fan, waxing rhapsodic over the life and work of Wim Faros, her favorite musician, on her amateur radio show in the podunk town of Rosemary Hills. Left the network for Season 2.
- I Only Listen To The Mountain Goats: a non-fiction podcast wherein Joseph Fink, the Mountain Goats' John Darnielle and various guests talk about songwriting, music and the making of art.
- Pounded In The Butt By My Own Podcast: a podcast hosted by niche erotica author Chuck Tingle wherein various guest authors do dramatic readings of Tingle's work.
- Dreamboy: a story about a musician uncovering mysteries at the zoo where he works.
- Adventures In New America: the first sci-fi, political satire, Afrofuturistic buddy comedy, serialized for New Americans in a new and desperate time.
- Start With This: A talk show hosted by Fink and Cranor giving tips and advice for upcoming writers. They discuss a theme, and offer two assignments at the end: something to consume and something to create.
- Our Plague Year: A non-fiction podcast featuring poems, essays, and thoughts from the Night Vale creators and friends in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Sleep With Me: A health and wellness podcast run by Drew "Scooter" Ackerman, designed to help people fall asleep with a bedtime story. Joined the network in 2018.
- Harry Potter And The Sacred Text: Hosted by Vanessa Zoltan and Casper Ter Kuile, a commentary cast described as "Bible study for Harry Potter fans." Different techniques and themes are analyzed as they discuss each book chapter-by-chapter. Joined the network in 2018.
Tropes
- Alternate Universe: Within the Wires features one that split off around World War II where nationalism and free will were done away with.
- Amputative Sentencing: In Adventures In New America, the "amputation laws" are alluded to several times. In the finale it's finally clarified that they made the removal of limbs a criminal penalty.
- Big Bad:
- Welcome to Night Vale: The Tiny City, Strex Corp, Hiram McDaniels and The Faceless Old Woman, and the Beagle.
- Alice Isn't Dead: The Thistle Men, Bay and Creek.
- Within the Wires: The Institute
- Body Horror: A common theme between Welcome to Night Vale, Alice Isn't Dead and Within the Wires
- Cast Full of Gay: Their shows tend to include LGBT people in prominent roles:
- In Welcome to Night Vale, the narrating character, Cecil, dates and later marries another man. Other, supporting characters also have same-sex partners.
- Alice Isn't Dead is about a female trucker searching for her wife.
- Various characters in Within the Wires takes place in an Alternate Universe where queerness became generally socially accepted earlier than it was in real life, and plenty of characters are mentioned to be gay or bisexual. The third season's main character was a trans man.
- The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air) has Julian, who was confirmed by the showrunners to be "not straight".
- The main character of Dreamboy, Dane, is a compulsive Grindr user who eventually forms a lasting, if unusual, relationship with another man.
- Channel Hop: Sleep with Me and Harry Potter and the Sacred Text both migrated to the Night Vale Presents network after having separate affiliations beforehand.
- Character Narrator: Cecil, the trucker/Keisha, as well as Alice herself, Hester, Roimata Mangakāhia, Micheal, and Julian's Narrator as well as Julian himself.
- The Conspiracy: Night Vale has many, Alice is all about uncovering one, and Wires is about the people affected by one.
- Creator's Oddball: Our Plague Year is a rather depressing time capsule of COVID-19 times made as a coping mechanism. Its format is detached from the rest of the podcasts.
- Darker and Edgier: Alice Isn't Dead and Within the Wires compared to Welcome to Night Vale and The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air).
- Eldritch Abomination: The Hooded Figures, Station Management, the Subway System, Librarians, The Smiling God, the Beagle, and the Thistle Man.
- Eldritch Location: Night Vale, Desert Bluffs, the Dog Park, Charleton, and the Institute.
- Lighter and Softer: Welcome to Night Vale and The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air) compared to Alice Isn't Dead and Within the Wires.
- Live Episode: Condos, The Debate, The Librarian, The Investigators, Ghost Stories, All Hail, The Spy in the Desert, and The Haunting of Night Vale for Welcome to Night Vale.
- Alice Isn't Dead did a live episode once.
- Talk Show: Conversations with People Who Hate Me and Start With This.
- Thematic Series: The series share a connection of being audio stories featuring Surreal Humour and Surreal Horror, but that is about it.
