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 [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: con artistry, privilege, racism

• Letters of comment

• Jake Casella Brookins

• Sankey diagrams on the Ancillary Review of Books

• I’m a Fan of That

• 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.

• Booking flights on a phone

• World Fantasy Awards

• Strange Horizons review in two parts: one, two

• Erin Cairns has reported that Ekpeki stole a story and passed it off as his own

• On Bluesky

• Gautam Bhatia

• John: Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

• Alison was given free tickets by the venue’s PR team

• Neat effects like Tokyo Disneyland’s Pepper’s ghost or Shiriki Utundu

• 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.