A podcast about science fiction and SF fandom from John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty.
Episodes
Thursday May 26, 2022
Thursday May 26, 2022
John has a paper cut, Alison feels seen, and Liz is cheating on her homework.
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: racism and sexism (chapter 6)
- Letters of comment
- Phil Dyson
- Chris Garcia
- Bradley Harris
- “I listened to some of your Octothorpe podcast which was cool in general just because I like to hear the British styles of speech. Also I agree with John that Detroit-style pizza is very good. I too have some food recommendations for Chicago so you may look forward to those (if you want to get a start, look up ‘Jibarito’), yum!”
- Mark Plummer
- Hugo Voter Packets
- DisCon III has translated their Souvenir Book into Chinese
- Chicon 8 programme participation
- Data in convention planning
- Picks
- Credits
- Cover art: Brad W Foster
- Image description: Illustration by Brad W Foster. Three aliens cluster around an old-style radio microphone in turquoise with a red speaker grille and green text saying “ON AIR”. The aliens from left to right are green, pink, and blue and look suspiciously like the hosts of Octothorpe. The title of the podcast is atop the artwork in orange.
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
- Cover art: Brad W Foster
Thursday May 12, 2022
Thursday May 12, 2022
John is a muppet bilby, Alison is actively drinking, and Liz MURDERS OWLS.
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: COVID (chapter 3), animal hunting (chapter 7)
- Letters of comment
- Malcolm Hutchison: ‘Listening to the sound John makes at start of this episode made me visualise John as a Muppet (in a good way)’
- Chris Garcia
- Roman Orszanski
- Jersey Gryphon: ‘The Hello Internet podcast did a vinyl edition episode before jumping the shark and doing a 4–5 minute wax cylinder episode.’
- Reclamation 2022
- 74 cases before tracing stopped,, all over the convention, lots of different fan networks
- ‘One-woman superspreader event Alison Scott has absolutely no regrets’ – Shona (Prufrax)
- Norwescon had case 3 and case 5 which will pass into fannish infamy
- A journal article discussing Omicron attack rates
- Fia Karlsson has won TAFF!
- Chicon 8
- We’re all going!
- Picks
- Credits
- Cover art: Alison Scott
- Theme music: ‘Fanfare for Space’ by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
Thursday Apr 28, 2022
Thursday Apr 28, 2022
John, Alison, and Liz are live from Reclamation, the 2022 Eastercon!
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: None
- Conversation 2023
- Levitation 2024
- Nicholas Whyte’s blog, From the Heart of Europe
- No merchandise (yet)
- This Never Happened
- Taste of Mold
- Victoria Line moquette sofa
- Picks
- Credits
- Cover art: Duncan MacGregor
- Theme music: Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
Thursday Apr 14, 2022
Thursday Apr 14, 2022
John is a Hugo Award finalist, Alison is a Hugo Award winner, and Liz’s mum got a folk award once.
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: classism (chapter 2)
- Hugo Awards
- We are a finalist for Best Fancast
- We are SO EXCITED
- John and Alison are almost certainly going to Chicon 8 (Liz is a “maybe”)
- We will be thrilled to lose to any of the other finalists (especially Hugo, Girl!)
- We are a finalist for Best Fancast
- Letters of comment:
- Ali Baker
- Malcolm Hutchison
- DC
- Duncan MacGregor
- Nick Gibbins
- Jonny Baddeley
- Eastercon
- We are live from Eastercon at 1:30pm on Monday!
- The fan funds are having “amazeballs” and a silent auction
- The Hugo Awards
- Do these all look Chinese?
- Liz has been listening to Lifewriting by Tananarive Due and Stephen Barnes
- Brandon Sanderson
- Alex Holden’s concertinas
- Brandon Sanderson’s YouTube channel
- The project on Kickstarter
- It made $41m!
- Sanderson’s blog post about the Kickstarter
- Including details about how he wanted to have an alternative platform away from Amazon dominance
- His team is so big he has an HR director, he’s splitting that cash quite a lot of ways
- Tolstoy on wax cylinder
- Picks
- Rossum’s Universal Robots on BBC Radio 4
- Liz: Base Notes by Lara Elena Donnelly (paperback, Kindle, John can’t find an alternative ebook vendor)
- John: Moon Knight vol. 7 (comiXology, Marvel)
- Credits
- Cover art: WSFS/The Hugo Awards (!)
- Theme music: Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
Thursday Mar 31, 2022
Thursday Mar 31, 2022
John is dancing, Alison is listening, and Liz is Batman.
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: COVID (chapter 1), war and human rights (chapter 2)
- Letters of comment:
- Chris Garcia
- Everyone liked Sue’s art and everyone wants John to get better soon
- Liz saw a cat
- Jonny Baddeley is giving John his old Netrunner stuff
- Jonny Baddeley has questions about discos in COVID times
- Lori really liked Six Wakes and is going to try to convince her cohosts to add it to her schedule eventually
- Chengdu 2022
- Human rights
- GoH Sergei Lukyanenko signed a letter on Ukraine
- Netflix distance from Cixin Liu
- Open letter to try and revoke the 2023 site selection
- Liz’s links to different indices for measuring this
- Membership rates
- Cheap and cheaper
- But they are selling one without WSFS voting rights
- To the WSFS constitution, Bat-Liz!
- If you simply define a single programme item that the non-WSFS members can’t attend you don’t break the rules – win!
- Human rights
- FAAn awards
- The Incompleat Register has the results
- Congratulations to the winners!
- Thanks to the people who voted for us anyway even after we told you not to
- Picks:
- Credits
- Cover art: Alison Scott
- Theme music: Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
Thursday Mar 17, 2022
Thursday Mar 17, 2022
John has COVID, Alison wanted to do a podcast, and Liz had no better offers.
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: None
Find a text version of our answers to Cora’s questions here!
Cover art: Sue Mason
Thursday Mar 03, 2022
Thursday Mar 03, 2022
John, Alison and Liz have been nominated for a BSFA Award! (Also, Liz is on holiday, naturally.)
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: None
- Letters of comment
- Chris Garcia
- Peter Sullivan
- Kin-Ming Looi
- Duncan MacGregor
- Lori Anderson
- Hugo deadline is March 15th
- Eastercon: What do you want from your bids?
- Liz:
- Who’s running it and why?
- Where and why?
- Are there significant drawbacks?
- Commitment to having code of conduct/access policies, even if they’re in progress
- Why will it be particularly fun?
- What bits of Eastercon tradition don’t you plan to implement (if any)?
- What are your plans for hybrid/virtual content?
- Do you have a good presentation that shows you have organisational nous?
- Alison:
- Expanding on who’s running the convention a little
- Are you running at Easter? (See Eastercon tradition)
- What about real ale?
- What are your provisions for children?
- John:
- How much will it cost?
- Liz:
- Picks
- The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri (paperback, epub, Kindle)
- Music credits
Thursday Feb 17, 2022
Thursday Feb 17, 2022
John is a spoilsport, Alison is promoting and Liz might come to Eastercon.
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: COVID-19 (chapter 2), Spider-Man: No Way Home casting spoilers (chapter 6)
- Letters of comment
- Chris Garcia
- Ali Baker
- Mark Plummer
- Geri Sullivan
- COVID-19
- Reclamation are requiring vaccination for all attendees
- Hotel bookings are open, and the booking code has gone out to members
- Podcast corner:
- DisCon III Tweet from Mary Robinette Kowal
- The proposal for Game Hugo is out!
- Jason Sanford is doing a survey on SF&F magazines and the pandemic to compare to his pre-pandemic data
- Picks
- Music credits
Thursday Feb 03, 2022
Thursday Feb 03, 2022
John is exchanging, Alison is rekindling her sensawunda, and Liz is watching the builders.
Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.
- We are fifty! That’s kind of unbelievable.
- Letters of comment
- Podcast corner:
- Liz has been listening to the Caribbean SF Podcast
- Brandon O’Brien Can You Sign My Tentacle?
- Karen Lord The Plague Doctors
- Liz has been listening to the Caribbean SF Podcast
- Convention corner:
- Redemption has been postponed by a year
- Corflu Pangloss has been postponed by six months
- The FAAn awards have not moved
- TAFF voting is here
- Alison says “Anders for TAFF!”
- John is pro-Dill Chips (Fia)
- Professor Esther MacCallum-Stewart’s inaugural lecture is on Dungeons and Dragons and is being streamed online
- The BSFA Awards Long List
- Thank you to whoever nominated us!
- The Vimes Boots index
- Picks
- Music credits
Thursday Jan 20, 2022
Thursday Jan 20, 2022
John is demanding, Alison joined a Discord, and Liz knows a lot about the WSFS Constitution.
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: Genocide and war (chapter 1), racism and capitalism (chapter 2), sexism (chapter 5)
- Letters of comment
- Liquid of comment from This Never Happens (Cornish branch)
- Jonathan Baddeley: “Tedious NPC” would make a great badge ribbon
- Ali Baker
- Dave Coxon
- Chris Garcia
- Kat Tanaka Okopnik says Nice is not bidding for 2026
- Crying movies
- Fran Dowd: Platoon
- Farah Mendlesohn: Fried Green Tomatoes
- Ang Rosin: Dead Poets Society
- Alison very much appreciated this sponsor read on Podside Picnic
- Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction edited by Otherwise Award-winning author Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
- The DisCon III Site Selection fiasco
- Chicon 8 says:
- “Hugo nominations will open later in January, and will run through mid-March. All members of DisCon III and anyone who joins Chicon 8 before the 31st of January 2022 will be eligible to nominate in this year’s Hugo Awards.”
- Section 3.7.1 of the WSFS constitution, fact fans
- Awards!
- Nicholas Whyte answers our questions
- Nerds of a Feather has recused itself from the 2022 Hugo Awards
- We listened to Hugo, Girl!, a fancast in which feminists read and discuss SF
- The FAAn Achievement Awards 2022
- The Incompleat Register 2021
- “A ‘fanzine’, for our purposes, is defined as an immutable artefact, once published not subject to revision or modification. The fanzine might not exist in a physical form. A PDF, for example, is an artefact.”
- “[A perzine is a] fanzine which typically has few, if any, contributors other than its editor(s).”
- Alison has joined the Hugo Award Study Committee which is a Discord server
- New Year’s resolutions
- John: Publish more fanzines and make an app
- Alison: Have at least one SFF book a month ready to talk about on Octothorpe.
- Liz: Read 80 books on Goodreads (maybe)
- Picks
- Alison: Sinopticon: A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction translated and edited by Xue Christine Ni (epub, Kindle)
- Liz: She Who Became The Sun by Shelly Parker-Chan (epub, Kindle, hardback, paperback pre-order)
- John: The Expanse (Amazon Prime)
- Music credits