This week, Vivian brings a copy of The Perilous Realms by J.R.R Tolkien, a wonderful gift from her mother-in-law, who is a member of the Tolkien Society. Holly has their own experiences with the Tolkien Society, so we talk about it! The Tolkien Society is a more academic based fan group of people who love Tolkien's writings and worlds. We talk about the perceived boundary between "play" and "serious", and the fight to make fantasy and genre-literature more generally to be seen as a legitimate field of study. But we also talk about the way different fan groups and individuals have different definitions for the same stuff, often resulting in conflict between individuals and groups.

The Perilous Realms by JRR Tolkien

Reading List

"Anthropology and Play" by Thomas Malaby

Our Socials

Vivian's instagram

Holly's instagram

The Pod's instagram

Music for this episode was Nowhere Land by Kevin MacLead Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

This episode was produced by Vivian Asimos and Holly Swinyard

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vivian comes to Holly demanding a Love Island water bottle! Not really, but we actually chat about Love Island today, one of Vivian's favourite reality shows in the UK. We talk about the notion of the "new" celebrity, and the accessibility of celebrity through social media. We talk about the creation of narratives and storylines, and how Love Island creates gossip and narratives through the presentation of the islanders.

Picture of a Love Island water bottle

Our Socials

Vivian's instagram

Holly's instagram

The Pod's instagram

Music for this episode was Nowhere Land by Kevin MacLead Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

This episode was produced by Vivian Asimos and Holly Swinyard

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Holly brings a D20 to the podcast, a 20 sided dice that has become a token symbol of table top role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. We talk about the need for adult play - not that kind of adult play - and the way TTRPG players play with the boundaries of belief, and the creative and interactive way stories are crafted.

An image of a D20

Reading List

Gizmodo article about DnD's open gaming license

Gizmodo article about fan response to the license change

Polygon article about the u-turn on the license

Jane McGonigal's article "A Real Little Game: The Performance of Belief in Pervasive Play

Our Socials

Vivian's instagram

Holly's instagram

The Pod's instagram

Music for this episode was Nowhere Land by Kevin MacLead Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

This episode was produced by Vivian Asimos and Holly Swinyard

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Enjoy this teaser trailer for I'm a Fan of That! First episode drops just NEXT WEEK!!!

Our Socials

Vivian's instagram

Holly's instagram

Fandom's instagram

Music for this episode was Nowhere Land by Kevin MacLead Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.