The best description I ever saw for Night Vale is that it’s sort of the opposite of Lovecraft. Where Lovecraft’s fiction describes cosmic horrors that blow the mind and defy explanation. Night Vale presents a world full of cosmic horrors, which are really rather banal.
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I’d have to say American Hysteria is a favorite. It talks about moral panics and other things of that nature as well as showing the effects it has in American culture/psychology.
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I see Welcome to Nightvale, My Brother My Brother and Me, and My Favorite Murder have already been named. Yay! 
So I’ll happily add Wonderful! A podcast by Griffin McElroy (from MBMBAM) and his lovely wife Rachel. They each pick things that they think are wonderful - anything from specific poems or foods to musical artists or genres of media - and talk about them! It’s really uplifting and positive, plus the two of them are funny and adorable.
For the morbidly curious, I’d suggest Death in the Afternoon with Caitlin Doughty. She’s a mortician to answers questions about death and discusses the history of death practices. It’s fascinating! She has a youtube channel as well (AskAMortician).
And finally, for those who love a good creepy ghost or faerie story, Mabel is an excellent choice. A home health caretaker for a secretive old woman tries to get in touch with her client’s estranged granddaughter. But she and and house are not what they seem…
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Interviews with a Mortician, Let me Google That, and Turncoats (a rather incredible horror-dnd campaign). All excellent, all very much worth binging to hecc.
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For true crime my favorites are Criminal and All Crime No Cattle (all Texas based crimes).
For spookier podcasts, The Black Tapes and Ghosts in the Burbs. Oh, and Limetown!
Probably my favorite podcast of all time is Reply All.
And I’m currently listening to (and loving) Ghostpuncher Corps, and actual play podcast that uses D&D 5th edition, but is set in present day
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I listened to quite a bit of Limetown but never finished it. I did like it enough to buy the book, though, which I still haven’t read yet because tbr pile is big.
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I’ve tried both Welcome to Night Vale and Wolf 359, but never really got into them. However, I found a unique combination of the two called SAYER. The narrator is an AI helping employees learn the ropes of their new, exciting, oftentimes dangerous job with Ærolith Dynamics. Imagine GLaDOS getting reprogrammed with brutal honesty to guide people as they adjust to living in space.
SAYER is ongoing, with several AIs to meet along the way.
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Ah, hey lake!
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Yesss Sayer is so good! I thought it had ended though.
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Wolf 359 takes a sharp turn in style 15 or 20 episodes in. If you had a hard time with the early episodes but can tough them out, you might enjoy the majority of the podcast.
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Hey, CJ! It’s great to see everyone again, too! ^^
Oh, it definitely hasn’t ended, Sella~ There was a point when the creator said it was ending, but the fans wanted more. Personally, Season 5 is the weakest – it really deviates from the beaten path, and not in a good way IMO. It takes place in the past and doesn’t explicitly state that, so you’re thrown from one heck of a cliffhanger into super mundane stuff that does not mesh with what you’ve come to know. It’s still good; it just felt un-SAYER-y. Fortunately, Season 6 just started and picks up where Season 4 left off, so it’s a great time to catch up if you don’t have too many duties! 
Really, Psychopomp? :o Thank you for letting me know! I’ll see if I can’t get through the first parts, then!
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I had a hard time with the early episodes too, actually checked it out, listened to one or two, and dropped it, then I heard that it stopped being the silly slapstick that it started out as. Characters gained a lot of depth over the course of the series, and the story gets fascinating.
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I’m way behind but I definitely agree with Welcome to Nightvale. My current listen is The Magnus Archives, which has 3/4 seasons and I love it. I’ll have to check out some of the ones everyone suggested.
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Don’t know if it’s been mentioned all ready but I’ve been almost exclusively listening to Hey Riddle Riddle. It’s a podcast dedicated to sharing different types of riddles and puzzles… At least it would be, but since all three hosts are improv comedians the methods that they take to solve the riddles are somewhat unorthodoxed. It’s hilarious all the same, and for those who watch Hello from the Magic Tavern, one of the hosts for HRR is Adal Rifai otherwise known as Chunt.
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I actually listened to Nightvale as a continual marathon when I was extremely sick. It was great because you could drift in and out to it, though I had to commit to relistening to it all one day 
But I’d still recommend that, especially if it’s an illness where screens are too much. It won’t feel like you’re constantly missing stuff (it’s all very wacky, though there totally is a slow narrative build). Also his voice is very soothing. I can take the weirdness when I was sick but it’s too weird for going to sleep normally, haha! I really liked the 60% I was awake for!
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I’ve been listening to Sawbones a lot lately. It’s a married couple (the wife is a medical doctor, the husband has cursory knowledge at best), recounting the weirdest parts of medical history. Things like bloodletting, hysteria, “snake oil”, and the like. It’s hilarious, and I feel like I’m learning things.
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Oh wow that sounds fascinating!
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Super duper geeky, but my favourite “podcast” (I use quotes because he actually records his sessions live and interacts with listeners) is Mythgard Academy - scholarly seminars of speculative literature. The books are selected by donors and cover the whole gamut from Tolkien to Boethius to Asimov.
The same person is also doing a “podcast”/LOTRO game crossover in Exploring the Lord of the Rings. He’s doing a DEEP (rarely more than a few paragraphs a week) exploration of the text for about 40 minutes to an hour, then spending another hour or so in-game guiding a field trip (yes, more audience participation!) through an area. I don’t play, and I listen to it as a podcast rather than watching on Twitch, so I usually skip the field trip, but the ones I have heard sounds like a lot of fun for players.
I also very much enjoy Ologies, a science podcast where the host interviews various “Ologists”. The tag is “Ask smart people stupid questions.” Hysterical AND informative!
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Oooo I’ll have to give them a listen as they sound so cool!
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I’m loving all the suggestions that I’ve gotten through this topic !
My current listening fav is Lore, It’s appropriately spooky enough for me because the stories he presents are typically real. I also enjoy the attention brought to folklore !
But ! Girl In Space is Amazing and I’m not fully caught up yet, but the whole concept is brilliant and well thought out!
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