Whether you’ve been deep in the fanfic world for years or have only heard others talk about it — we’ve worked really hard to make this episode for all of you. Yes, you might have to hear someone define what slash is (very useful for newbies!) but then we go deep on how fanfic is influencing genres, general fanfic mainstreamification, how and why AU (alternative universe) fics work more or less effectively with different texts, and, best of all, WHERE TO FIND THE GOOD STUFF.

This is a classic case of the Culture Study Pod making the argument that even if you’re not super into a cultural object/phenomenon (and especially if you are) there is so much interesting stuff to talk about — you just have to the find the right people, like our brilliant cohosts Emily and Vee, avid fanfic writers (and theorists) and cohosts of Mind the Tags.

Thank you to the sponsors of today’s episode!

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• Listen to MIND THE TAGS!

• Highlighting this great episode on AO3

• And another on Kirk/Spock and the Genesis of Slash

• My interview with The Pudding about “Who Gets Shipped and Why”

• And the piece that inspired that interview (and prompted the email exchange that led to this episode): Who Gets Shipped and Why

• Emily and Vee recommend using the extensive tagging system to find your first fic on AO3

• Read more about the Organization for Transformative Works, the non-profit that runs AO3

• TATE MCRAE (who is she, how did she get so popular, why is calling her the New Britney imprecise, take this wherever you want)

• SoCal Culture (broad, I know, but whew there’s so much — we’ll be talking with the great Gustavo Arellano, formerly an investigative reporter for The OC Weekly and current columnist for the Los Angeles Times, who pleads to consider this theme as broadly as possible! )

• Dark Academia (as in, the literary genre)

• Van/Skoolie/RV Life

• Anything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segment. You can ask about anything, it’s literally the name of the segment!

• As always, you can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here