169: The Helsinki Problem

John parties, Alison queues, and Liz betrays.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk, join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode:

• Letters of comment
  • Andrew January (email)
  • Chris Garcia (emails)
  • DC (Bluesky)
  • Ed Morland (Bluesky)
  • Henry Balen (Facebook)
  • Kevin Anderson (Bluesky)
  • Malcolm Hutchison (Facebook)
  • Steve (email)
  • Trish Matson (email)
  • We also heard from Bridget Bradshaw, Farah Mendlesohn, Ivan Sinha, Jake Casella Brookins, Kev McVeigh, Kin-Ming Looi, Mike Scott, Paul Weimer, Roseanna Pendlebury, Scott Edelman, Shi Lala, and Tammy Coxen
• Octocon 2026: Cork and online
  • Octocon Programme
• Bristolcon 2026
  • Left Handed Giant
• The University of Liverpool’s Science Fiction Collection has been awarded Designated status by Arts Council England
  • Special Collections & Archives: Science Fiction Hub
  • Cameron Kunzelman in the Ancillary Review of Books on Joanna Russ and archives
  • “Archiving the Future: Preserving African Speculative Fiction” at LAcon V
• Worldcon 2026: LAcon V
• <plokta.con> 4
• Picks
  • John: Pandemic Legacy: Season 1
  • Alison: The Bayeux Tapestry
    • Alison writes about queues
    • The copy held at Reading Museum
  • Liz: Foreigner by CJ Cherryh
    • Humble Bundle
• Swimcast
• Credits
  • Cover art: SKULK! by Sabrina L. Nelson, used under a CC BY-ND licence (original here)
    • Alt text: A photograph of various fans at LAcon V cosplaying foxes to varying degrees, including John wearing some fox ears and his wife España Sheriff wearing a fox mask. Above, orange text on a white background reads “Octothorpe 169” and below it reads “Foxes skulk at LAcon V”. For some reason, Adobe Photoshop is convinced I’ve used an AI-generated image, but given it’s a photograph and some text Adobe Photoshop can get in the sea.
  • Theme music: “Surf Shimmy” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)