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.

In Episode 165, "Fests," Flourish and Elizabeth use a listener letter about Yuletide—a long-running fanfic exchange for tiny fandoms—to talk about fanwork fests more broadly. While they approach fests from an observational perspective (for the record, only Flourish would like to see the return of the "Fuh-Q-Fest"), they also talk about their personal experiences writing in these events: why Elizabeth likes the structured pressure of an exchange, and how Flourish has been known to sign up for Yuletide fandoms for which they've never even seen the source material.

As the pandemic marches on and Flourish and Elizabeth (and presumably many other people) struggle to remember whether individual events happened in 2020 or 2021, they break their longstanding "year in fandom" format and simply revisit last year's fandom trends, from the influence of the Black Lives Matter movement to the rise of C-dramas in Anglophone fandom to fan campaign movements like #ReleasetheSnyderCut. They also spend time assessing the continuing influence of the pandemic on both the entertainment industry and on fans: In this fractured media landscape, will Hollywood ever see the kind of fandom scale they want again?