42: I‘m Up for Running Controlcon

John used to have a different face, Alison is going to Smofcon, and Liz is in disguise.

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 discussion (chapter 2)

• We’re doing Octothorpe Live at Novacon on 1pm at Sunday!
• Letters of comment
  • COVID: Jonathan Baddeley, Ali Baker, Bill Burns, Chris Garcia, Ang Rosin
    • Dragonmeet’s COVID policy
  • High-school movie round-up: people on Facebook, Bridget Bradshaw, Farah Mendlesohn
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    • Election
    • The Faculty
    • Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion
  • Karen Schaffer
• Smofcon Europe
  • Cheap flights by Fascinating Aida
• Douglas Adams content!
  • Chris Garcia
  • Alex Holden
  • Everyone else
  • Liz had these covers
  • The BBC Big Read
• Dublin 2029 was announced at Octocon
  • File 770
  • Ed Fortune’s Tweet
• Sara Felix is bidding Texas (in 2031?)
• The Science Fiction Encyclopedia
  • Edited by friend of the show Dave Langford and John Clute, with Graham Sleight as managing editor and remembering the late Peter Nicholls as founding editor
  • The new fourth edition is now self-published, having moved on from Gollancz and SF Gateway
• Octothorpe Live will be at Novacon
  • How to get from Thailand to London by train
• Picks
  • John: Lovecraft Country (on Now)
  • Alison: Foundation (on Apple TV+)
    • Women
  • Liz: Children of Ruin (epub, Kindle, paperback)
    • Arrival (on Netflix)
    • Embassytown (epub, Kindle, paperback)
    • The Embedding (epub, Kindle, paperback)
    • Native Tongue (epub, Kindle, paperback)
• Music credits
  • Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 4.0 license