In Episode 176, Elizabeth and Flourish welcome Liang Ge, a PhD candidate studying Chinese boys’ love fiction (aka danmei) and its fans. Topics discussed include a history of danmei, ambivalence around gender and sexuality amongst its readers, and how fan culture has shifted with the huge success of several BL-adapted web series—and the subsequent crackdown from the Chinese government. They also respond to a listener letter about the recent meta episode, and (spoiler!) Flourish grows even more rigid in their definition of meta.

In the latest (13th!) installment of the “Ask Fansplaining Anything” series, Flourish and Elizabeth tackle a fresh batch of letters from listeners. Questions posed include: Are author’s notes “unprofessional”? What are the distinctions between fusions and crossovers? Are some fans writing x reader fic to avoid engaging with canonical characters of color? Would it really be so hard to make a new fic archive? And what can fans do when their object of fandom likes fic…a little too much?

In Episode 174, “The Classification of Fandom,” Flourish and Elizabeth break down some of the broad categories people use to define types of fans, starting with a foundational meta that proposed distinctions between “affirmational” and “transformational” fandom. Why do we create these categories, and are they—or have they ever been—meaningful? They also welcome the first Fansplaining Fellow, Pepper Campbell, onto the podcast to introduce her upcoming research project: an ethnography of fans who use Discord for fandom activity.

Episode 172, “Safe Spaces,” is split into two parts: first, Flourish and Elizabeth read and respond to a series of listener letters about their recent “Fandom-Tinted Glasses” conversation; then, they discuss another listener letter on younger fans’ struggles to avoid or escape “anti” or “purity culture” dynamics. In increasingly fractured—and increasingly hostile—digital spaces, is it possible to create fandom environments that allow us to truly protect ourselves?

In Episode 170, “OFIC Magazine,” Flourish and Elizabeth welcome back fic writer, editor, and writing teacher Betts to talk about her latest project, a literary magazine of original writing by people from fandom. Topics discussed include OFIC’s origin story, Betts’s observations from the first round of submissions, whether fic has a unifying genre or aesthetic, and ways readers in and out of fandom think about character. They also talk about the upcoming sessions of Betts’s Fanauthor Workshop, and how her beliefs about writing workshops inform the way she runs her own.

In Episode 170, “Fandom-Tinted Glasses,” Flourish and Elizabeth use a letter from a listener weary with certain patterns in fandom as a springboard to discuss pan-fandom dynamics in 2022. Topics discussed include flattening characters and source material, the interchangeability of some fandom memes, supercut videos, and how this is all structured by current fandom platforms and scale. They also read a response to a portion of the previous episode, on fandom AUs, bystander fic, and “in-universe RPF.”

In Episode 168, “The Entertainment Media Machine,” Flourish and Elizabeth use a recent Business Insider article about Netflix’s editorial strategy—and some subsequent worries in fan spaces—to talk about the shifting dynamics between the entertainment industry, the media, audiences, and fans. Netflix’s Tudum may not affect fans at all in the short term, but what will the entertainment media landscape look like in a few years? They also read a listener letter in response to the “Writing Trans Characters” episode, on exploring gender via femslash A/B/O.

In episode 167, “Our Secret Identities,” Elizabeth and Flourish use a listener voicemail on pseudonyms as a springboard to talk about the many facets of fannish personas online. Topics discussed include the way pseudonymous norms vary in different fandom spaces, the effects of platform features like Tumblr’s sideblogs or AO3’s orphaned works, catfishing and other forms of digital abuse, and what “the right to be forgotten” means in a fandom context.