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)