November 24, 2022
John is on the Holodeck, Alison is in the past, and Liz is at school.
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Content warnings this episode: COVID-19 (chapter 5)
November 10, 2022
John is logging in, Alison is getting emails, and Liz is collecting Pokémon.
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Content warnings this episode: War in Ukraine (chapter 5)
![69: Hugo Thunderdome]()
October 27, 2022
John is Chris Garcia, Alison is Chris Garcia, and Liz is Chris Garcia.
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Content warnings this episode: None
- Hugo statistics by Nicholas Whyte and Kat Jones
- Credits
- Cover art: What If…? by Alison Scott
- Alt text: Three figures with long brown hair and brown bears are central in the image. They look eerily like Chris Garcia. The left Chris Garcia is wearing John’s glasses and a Flintstones shirt with his arms folded; the central Chris Garcia is wearing Alison’s glasses and a black shirt with his (her?) arms outstretched and fingers doing horns; and the right Chris Garcia is wearing a stripy blue-and-white top and appears to be doing a wrestling move in a downward fashion. The left Chris Garcia has a speech bubble saying “WELCOME TO THE VERY 69TH EPISODE OF OCTOTHORPE. I’M CHRIS GARCIA”. The central Chris Garcia has a speech bubble saying “I’M CHRIS GARCIA”. The right Chris Garcia has a speech bubble saying “AND I’M CHRIS GARCIA. IN THIS EPISODE I REVEAL MY MULTITASKING TIPS”. The text “What if… all three of us were Chris Garcia? appears in a typeface reminiscent of classic Tintin covers in the top-centre of the artwork. The top-left corner has “Octothorpe 69 Nov 2022” written in the style of a comic cover; the top-right corner has “Rejected by the Comics Code Authority”. In the bottom-right hand corner the words “You can catch Chris Garcia every month in Journey Planet and the Drink Tank” appear. A barcode in the bottom-left hand corner is actually cunningly-disguised text that reads (ROT13 to avoid spoilers) “Lbh ner Puevf Tnepvn naq V pynvz zl svir cbhaqf”. The background is two shades of purple.
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
October 13, 2022
John is clever, Alison has lost her composure, and Liz is confused by WSFS.
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Content warnings this episode: None
- Letters of comment
- Kev McVeigh (on Octothorpe 63)
- Congratulations to Raj for catching up!
- [Do not listen from the beginning – John]
- [*It is also ok**ay to skip episodes *– Alison]
- Mark Plummer
- Chris Garcia
- Farah Mendlesohn
- British Fantasy Society Awards
- Glasgow 2024
- Join here!
- WSFS Memberships
- These have confused some people
- WSFS Memberships let you vote in the Hugo Awards and in Site Selection
- But not in the WSFS Business Meeting
- Cheryl Morgan at Salon Futura
- Picks:
- Credits
![67: Straight Back to Star Wars]()
September 29, 2022
John has hairspray, Alison has a tiara, and Liz has a necklace.
Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk and tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.
Content warnings this episode: Falling out of boats (chapter 8)
- Letters of comment
- Chris Garcia
- Facebook, Twitter, assorted other mentions
- Conventions
- Chicago
- Hugo Award statistics
- Picks:
- Credits
- Cover art: “Alison Phones It In” by Alison Scott
- Alt text: A commemorative plate with a blue rim which says “Octothorpe 67” and “Number #2 in an obviously infinite series” on it. Within that there is another commemorative plate with a purple rim edged in gold, and gold writing which says “Octothorpe 64” and the names of the hosts on that rim. In the centre, three figures; John on the left, giving a thumbs up in a yellow Star Trek uniform with ocular implants like Rutherford’s in Lower Decks; Alison in the centre wearing a red Star Trek uniform; and Liz on the right wearing a blue Star Trek uniform with blue-green skin and pointy ears. We each have a single command pip. In the top-right corner there is text reading “UNIQUE COMMEMORATIVE PLATE OF A COMMEMORATIVE PLATE”.
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
September 15, 2022
John is in the fanzine lounge, Alison is under a bison hat, and Liz is good, thank you.
Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk and tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.
Content warnings this episode: None
- We talked to the following people!
- Credits
- Cover art: “Hugo Reception”
- Alt text: A purple square with “OCTOTHORPE 66” written at the bottom and inset, a photograph of John, Alison, and Liz. John is wearing a grey suit with a Hugo Award finalist pin and a matching purple tie and mask; Alison is wearing a black mask, a burgundy dress, a tiara by Sara Felix, and has glitter on her temple; and Liz is wearing a green dress and matching mask, a necklace by Vanessa Applegate, and a yellow shrug. They are against a backdrop which has alternating Hugo Award logos and Chicon 8 logos.
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
September 1, 2022
John is a computer; Alison and Liz are talking to him very slowly.
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![64: Best Commemorative Plate]()
August 18, 2022
John is crying, Alison is lounging, and Liz is crocheting.
Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk and tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.
Content warnings this episode: climate change, death, abuse (chapter 3)
- Letters of comment
- Ang Rosin
- Caroline Mullan
- Mark Plummer
- Bill Higgins
- Chris Garcia
- Raj
- Hotel eggs
- Our Hugo Award ballots
- Worldcon schedules
- The following are us on the Chicon 8 guide: John, Alison, Liz
- Wait for a second for the data to come in to replace the “this user is not found” page rather than deciding it didn’t work before immediately closing the tab (see also: Alison)
- Worldcon miscellany
- Picks
- Star Wars games
- I could do links to Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch games with Star Wars in, but I feel like you can probably just do that yourselves, listeners. I know, the service here is terrible
- Credits
- Cover art: “Commemorative Plate” by Alison Scott
- Alt text: A commemorative plate with a purple rim edged in gold, and gold writing which says “Octothorpe 64” and the names of the hosts on that rim. In the centre, three figures; John on the left, giving a thumbs up in a yellow Star Trek uniform with ocular implants like Rutherford’s in Lower Decks; Alison in the centre wearing a red Star Trek uniform; and Liz on the right wearing a blue Star Trek uniform with blue-green skin and pointy ears. We each have a single command pip.
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
![63: Nonsense Divide]()
August 4, 2022
John has a button, Alison has a venue, and Liz once saw a computer that had been in Chris’s car.
Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk and tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.
Content warnings this episode: COVID (chapter 2), death at a young age (chapter 6).
- Letters of comment
- Chris Garcia
- Roman Orszanski
- Paul Weimer
- Bridget Bradshaw
- FantasyCon
- Arthur C Clarke Awards
- Conversation has a venue now!
- Chicon Fringe
- Picks
- Credits
- Cover art: “Assorted Jedi” by Alison Scott
- Alt text: Three humanoid figures hold lightsabers and stand against a futuristic cityscape reminiscent of Coruscant. The leftmost looks like John, but is clad in the clothes of Luke Skywalker. The middle figure looks like Alison, but she’s green and looks quite a lot like Yoda. The rightmost looks like Liz, clad in the clothes of Rey Skywalker. The words “Octothorpe 63” adorn the top of the image in the distinctive typeface of Star Wars.
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
![62: Do You Want to Talk About Lesbians?]()
July 21, 2022
John has superpowers, Alison is an alien in a human suit, and Liz likes cats.
Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.
Content warnings this episode: being stranded in space (chapter 1); sexism (chapter 2); Hell and murder (chapter 5).
- No letters of comment this week, normal service resumes next week!
- Books in the order they were discussed
- Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
- A Master of Djinn, by P. Djèlí Clark
- The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, by Becky Chambers
- She Who Became the Sun, by Shelley Parker-Chan
- Light From Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki
- A Desolation Called Peace, by Arkady Martine
- What book would we have put on the list instead?
- John: The Psychopath Club by Sandra Bond
- Alison: The Actual Star by Monica Byrne
- Liz: Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- John’s ranking:
- A Desolation Called Peace
- Light From Uncommon Stars
- The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
- A Master of Djinn
- She Who Became the Sun
- Project Hail Mary
- Alison’s ranking:
- A Desolation Called Peace
- Light From Uncommon Stars
- She Who Became the Sun
- The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
- A Master of Djinn
- Project Hail Mary
- Liz’s ranking:
- A Desolation Called Peace
- She Who Became the Sun
- A Master of Djinn
- Light From Uncommon Stars
- The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
- Project Hail Mary
- Consensus ranking:
- A Desolation Called Peace
- Light From Uncommon Stars
- She Who Became the Sun
- The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
- A Master of Djinn
- Project Hail Mary
- Credits
- Cover art: “Favourite Reading Positions” by Sue Mason
- Alt text: John is in the bottom-left, sitting in a chair, wearing a blue shirt and purple trousers, holding a can, and reading an ebook. Alison is in the upper-middle, lying down upside down, wearing a purple shirt and stripy trousers, and reading an ebook. Liz is in the bottom-right, wearing a pink shirt with green trousers, holding a mug of a hot beverage, and reading a physical book. They are surrounded by floating beer bottles, books, the Moon, a mug with a moose on it, and two cats. The words “Octothorpe 62” appear in scattered letters around the artwork, against a pinky-purple background.
- Theme music: ‘Fanfare for Space’ by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
