Description

John is worried, Alison volunteers, and Liz is warm.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk, join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: None

• Letters of comment
  • Chris Hurley (email)
  • Dave O’Neill (Bluesky, DM)
  • Ivan Sinha (Facebook)
  • Jesi Lipp (email, Facebook)
  • John Hertz (typewritten letter with pasted image from File 770 scanned by Fedex and sent by email)
  • Mike Glyer (email)
  • Neil Ottenstein (Facebook)
  • Nicholas Whyte (email)
  • Nuala (Bluesky)
  • Paul Weimer (Bluesky)
  • Rory Hennell James (Bluesky)
  • Tammy Coxen and Jesi Lipp (Bluesky)
  • We also heard from Doug Faunt and Farah Mendlesohn
• Worldcon 2025: Seattle
  • Business Meeting
    • Jesi Lipp posted some excellent infographics on JOF
    • Jesi also posted a small table on our Facebook of attendances back to 2014 and John made them into a graph
    • NASFiC is gone
      • The USA has a national con now and it’s Dragon Con, so why compete? We will return to this question…
      • The end of fan-run conventions in the USA
        • NASFiC is gone, leaving Dragon Con as the de facto national convention
        • The Westercon by-laws have been repealed
        • Wiscon has not got enough volunteers to run an in-person convention
        • Gallifrey One is coming to an end, Showmasters Events are running a commercial replacement
        • GeekGirlCon and Penguicon are struggling
        • Arisia, Baycon, Boskone, Loscon have all shrunk (anecdotally)
      • The end of fan-run conventions more widely?
        • New Zealand: Fan-run conventions have been struggling since CoNZealand
        • Finland: SMOF News recently reported that Finncon is not running due to lack of volunteers
      • More widely to do with volunteering?
        • Maybe more true in the UK?
• Picks
  • John: The Tyrant Philosophers by Adrian Tchaikovsky
  • Alison: Control Room B at Battersea Power Station (and Battersea Power Station Station)
  • Liz: Woodworking by Emily St. James
• Credits
  • Cover art: “Mildly Wes” by Alison Scott
    • Alt text: A photograph of a cocktail bar at Battersea Power Station. The words “Control Room B” are above the cocktail bar, and the words “Octothorpe 141” overlaid in similar style.
  • Theme music: “Surf Shimmy” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)