Who’s a Good Boy?: Welcome to Night Vale Episodes, Vol. 4

The world of Welcome to Night Vale is hilarious, weird, and intriguing all at once. Set at the community radio station of a desert town where government surveillance is normal, a glowing all-powerful cloud runs the school board, and visitors are always greeted with cries of “interloper!”, this podcast is as irreverent as it is inventive.

Who’s a Good Boy? collects the scripts for all of season 4’s episodes (as well as the script for the touring show “The Investigators”). It also offers insights into what inspired certain episodes, highlights callbacks to previous ones and foreshadowing of later events, and includes thematic discussions, production details, and interviews with the ever-expanding voice cast of the show.

The collection does a marvelous job of chronicling how the show grew braver and more adventurous in the fourth season, introducing more horror (even if the ensuing episodes were less comedic, they were still enjoyable) and experimenting with different storytelling techniques, like in its heist episode. The horror elements themselves ranged from the silly to the profoundly unsettling. and they made Night Vale feel simultaneously more real and more supernatural. It was a bold endeavor, one that brought new life and possibilities to the show.

Although nothing can replace the podcast, this collection is a wonderful companion piece and introduction to one of audio’s greatest universes.