13 Books Based on or Inspired by Podcasts

Welcome to Night Vale, by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor
Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink’s podcast mega-hit resembles a small town news program, but Night Vale is no normal small town. It’s a place where the weird and the horrifying are neighbors—think of it like Stephen King’s Castle Rock, but stranger. That’s a brilliant concept for a podcast, and the this-week’s-news nature of the show also means it translates awfully well to the page—the co-authors simply need think up a story oddball enough to sustain a narrative and slot it into the Night Vale milieu. The first such adaptation was Welcome to Night Vale, released in 2015. It explores the town and fleshes out a few familiar characters from the show while offering an intriguing standalone mystery about the Man in the Tan jacket, who litters the town with scraps of paper that read “King City,” and the story of a teenage boy struggling with his ability to shape-shift after the onset of adolescence. The best podcast fiction offers a sense of a boundless universe to explore, and that certainly describes this novel, which received a followup in 2017, It Devours! (more Night Vale books are planned).

Alice Isn’t Dead, by Joseph Fink
Speaking of Joseph Fink, he is one of the most successful folks in the podcast-to-book game (and soon the podcast-to-book-to-television game). This story, based on the podcast of the same name, follows Keisha, a long-haul truck driver on a cross-country search for clues regarding the disappearance of her wife, who she refuses to believe is dead even after the funeral. The journey leads her into a complex web of dark conspiracies and stomach-churning terror. Fink was inspired by his experiences living in and out of his van while driving around the country performing live episodes of Welcome to Night Vale; taken as a travelogue of these weird United States, it’s by turns haunting, touching, and downright terrifying, with a particularly memorable villain—a slouching bag of distended flesh known as the Hungry Man—who will stalk your nightmares.

Earthcore, by Scott Sigler
Sigler was one of the first authors to see the potential in fiction podcasts. He originally released Earthcore as an early ebook, but when his publisher went belly-up, Sigler decided to try to find a new audience for it in the form of a podcast. It worked: the show eventually gathered an audience of about 10,000 weekly listeners, which he leveraged into a traditional print publication deal. The story unfolds around a massive platinum deposit discovered three miles underground in Utah. The material is worth a fortune, but retrieving it requires cutting-edge technology, and no small amount of courage. The team that sets out to claim the prize discovers much more than precious metals underground—there’s a reason it has gone unclaimed all these years. Something has been waiting in the heat and darkness. Sci-fi horror is a perfect fit for the intimate podcast experience, and genre readers love a good scare, so naturally, and Sigler’s debut was one of the earliest success stories for the podcast-to-print model.

Heaven, by Mur Lafferty
Mur Lafferty is a well-known podcaster in genre circles, a voice behind shows like Geek Fu Action Grip, I Should be Writing, and Escape Pod. Not only has she turned I Should be Writing into a book on the craft of writing, she’s also blazed the podcast-fiction trail with her Afterlife series, which began as a podcast and found its own afterlife in print. The premise is simple: two friends die, go to Christian heaven, and quickly get very bored. They set off to investigate the afterlives offered by other religions, species, and time periods, leading them into a mystery that makes them wonder if their search isn’t as random as they first thought. It also makes them wonder a little about that whole “free will” business.

Risk!: True Stories People Never Thought They’d Dare to Share, edited by Kevin Allison
Not all podcast books are fictional. Kevin Allison’s Risk! focuses on first-person stories with an element of, yes, risk—stories that involve personal danger, poor decisions, emotional courage, and unexpected consequences. With a mix of celebrities (Marc Maron, Aisha Tyler, and Paul F. Tompkins have contributed to the podcast, and share essays here) and the non-famous, the stories deal in sex, violence, and money, always with a scent of danger and the fundamental belief that all experiences, even bad ones, are worthwhile once examined. Surprisingly intimate and insightful, these true stories benefit from the editing and polishing that comes with print publication, turning them from affecting experiences into great literature.

The Moth Presents: All These Wonders, edited by Catherine Burns
The Moth dates back to 1997, when it began as a live storytelling event focused on unscripted, unadorned live performances. Recordings of shows were turned into a podcast in 2009, and later a syndicated radio show as well. A print collection followed in 2013, and this second one in 2017. It brings together 45 of the best stories from the group’s history while attempting to retain that spirit of intimate, in-person storytelling—and largely succeeds. Stories can be told in a variety of ways, after all. The range of subjects, emotional palates, and styles perfectly represents the wide variety offered by the live shows, making this something more than just a short fiction anthology.

Yes We (Still) Can, by Dan Pfeiffer
The podiverse is about more than storytelling. Pod Save America, hosted by Tommy Vietor, Jon Lovett, Jon Favreau and former White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, features the trio pontificating on the political goings-on in the new and often confusing reality of Washington, D.C. While Yes We (Still) Can isn’t a direct lift from the podcast, it shares a spirit of progressive determination to make sense of the current state of American government. As on the podcast, Pfeiffer draws heavily on his in-the-room-when-it-happened experiences working for Obama on the campaign trail and within the administration as he analyzes the ongoing fallout from the 2016 presidential election.

Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’ Hollywood, by Karina Longworth
Longworth’s podcast You Must Remember This has long been a delight for cinephiles eager to “explore the sometimes hidden, sometimes forgotten stories of Hollywood’s first century.” The intersection of money, fame, and patriarchy is always fascinating (in the way looking under a rock is fascinating), and in the current cultural moment, with the #MeToo movement still going strong, it’s a great time to educate ourselves on the sordid, sexist history of Tinsel Town. Longworth’s book is like an expanded episode of the podcast, digging into the story of movie mogul Howard Hughes as seen through the lens of the women he romanced, promoted, ogled, and abused. It’s a fascinating dig into the roots of male power and misogyny in Hollywood. Smart, well-written, and plain fun, this is both timeless pop history and an ideal book for today.

The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited!, by Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy, and Carey Pietsch
If you’ve ever laughed over a role-playing game with your friends, The Adventure Zone is for you. The podcast started out as a paternity leave filler episode of the brothers Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy’s comedy advice show My Brother, My Brother, and Me in which they played a game of Dungeons & Dragons with their dad Clint—and if that sounds weird, consider the fact that millions of folks watch other people play video games, so listening to smart, creative people play D&D—which is all about storytelling—is a treat. Hilarious and deeply immersed in this particular corner of geekdom, the podcast has inspired a fantastic graphic novel series co-written by the McElroys artist Carey Pietsch, which kicked off with the number one New York Times bestseller Here There be Gerblins and continues this summer with Murder on the Rockport Limited, following adventurers Taako, Magnus, and Merle in a locked train mystery caper that feels like an episode of Doctor Who in which the TARDIS’ safety features have all been disabled.

The Sawbones Book: The Horrifying Hilarious Road to Modern Medicine, by Sydnee McElroy and Justin McElroy
Another book birthed from the McElroy podcasting empire, Sawbones is an adaptation of the show Justin hosts with his wife, Dr. Sydnee McElroy. Each week on the show, the duo investigates (or rather,Syndney explains and Justin asks questions about) a weird facet of medical history, from trepanning as a headache cure to wearing radioactive underpants to increase virility. Needless to say, people have done a lot of misguided things in the pursuit of better health over the years, and the McElroys have the goods on all of them. The book feels like a natural extension of the podcast, presenting the best of the weirdest in medical history, brought to life via old-timey illustrations by Teylor Smirl.

Limetown, by Zack Akers, Skip Bronkie, with Cote Smith
Here’s a twist: Limetown the book is a prequel to the hit podcast of the same name, and might just represent the future of the thriller genre. The podcast is immensely popular, and this story drips with the same ominous atmosphere. Student journalist Lia Haddock lives in Limetown, Tennessee, a small place with a big problem—more than a hundred people, including Lia’s Uncle Emile, have disappeared. Lia digs into the mystery, and is amazed when her own parents refuse to help in any way. What she discovers on her own forces her to do a lot of growing up really, really quickly. It’s a great novel, and if it inspires you to check out the podcast, all the better.

Waiting for the Punch, by Marc Maron and Brendan McDonald
Even people who have no idea what a podcast is know Marc Maron, who has been slowly invading the wider pop culture by increments. This book isn’t simply a collection of transcripts from his intimate interview program WTF, in which he talks candidly with comedians and other influential figures from his garage studio; it’s a carefully edited compilation of comments, stories, and quotes from his former guests, organized into specific categories like “Addictions” or “Life Lessons.” Better than almost anyone, Maron can get people famous for specific things—acting, music, politics—to open up about a wide range of subjects beyond that thing, teasing out surprising admissions and startling revelations along the way. By organizing the rich material from the podcast just so, Maron and McDonald have made the ideal companion book.

Sadie, by Courtney Summers
In a plot twist, this is a book whose plot centers on a podcast and which also inspired a podcast, meaning it’s podcasts all the way down. Summers’ taut YA mystery is the story of May Beth Foster, who asks West McCray, a radio journalist, to help her track down a missing 19-year old girl named Sadie, who is determined to find the person who killed her little sister Mattie. McCray begins looking into the matter and details his journey in a true-crime podcast that alternates with the first-person account from Sadie herself. Part of the book’s promotion campaign was an actual podcast called The Girls, making this a rare case of a book that inspired a podcast.
What’s your favorite book/podcast pairing?