Octothorpe

169: The Helsinki Problem

Octothorpe

Show Notes

John parties, Alison queues, and Liz betrays. An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [email protected], 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)

More from Octothorpe

Oct 22, 2026

John is at Fantasycon, Alison is wrong, and Liz is right. An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [email protected], 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: None

Oct 8, 2026

John, Alison and Liz are live from Octocon! An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [email protected], join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on X or on Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media. Content warnings this episode: It’s a live recording!

Sep 10, 2026

John is tired, Alison is listening to music, and Liz is catsitting. An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [email protected], 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: Clowns (Chapter 1), Hugo Award statistics (Chapter 3)

Aug 27, 2026

John, Alison, and Liz fix the Hugo Awards once and for all. An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [email protected], 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:

Aug 14, 2026

John, Alison, and Liz have stopped talking about it now. An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [email protected], join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

See all episodes →