122: Topical Pumpkin

John is on the periphery, Alison is carving, and Liz went to Japan.

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 X or on Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: con artistry, privilege, racism

• Letters of comment
  • Jake Casella Brookins
    • Sankey diagrams on the Ancillary Review of Books
  • Ali Baker Brooks
    • I’m a Fan of That
  • Christopher J Garcia
  • Emily January
  • Kat Kourbeti
    • SH@25 is a new, year-long interview and feature series that will delve into the archives, celebrate the work of past contributors and staff, and highlight the contributions of Strange Horizons to SFF publishing and the wider community.
  • Caroline Mullan
  • Zoe O’Connell
  • Roman Orszanski
    • Booking flights on a phone
• Awards
  • World Fantasy Awards
  • The Kitschies
  • Ursula K LeGuin award
    • Strange Horizons review in two parts: one, two
• Oghenochovwe Donald Ekpeki
  • Erin Cairns has reported that Ekpeki stole a story and passed it off as his own
    • On Bluesky
    • On Google Drive
    • File 770 report
  • Cairns tried to sound this alarm on X in June
  • Reactions
    • Gautam Bhatia
    • L D Lewis (requires Bluesky login)
  • Ekpeki’s response
  • Jason Sanford talks about his reaction to the news: one, two
• Picks
  • John: Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
  • Alison: Bridge Command
    • Alison was given free tickets by the venue’s PR team
  • Liz: Japan
    • Neat effects like Tokyo Disneyland’s Pepper’s ghost or Shiriki Utundu
    • Liz was not given free tickets but if anyone wants to give me free tickets to Disney parks please get in touch
• Credits
  • Cover art: “Octothorpe, Octothorpe, Octothorpe” by Alison Scott
    • Alt text: A pumpkin carved with an image of Beetlejuice, with the words “Episode 122” at the top of the image and “Octothorpe, Octothorpe, Octothorpe” at the bottom.
  • Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)