Shows
This Week In Fandom HistoryFebruary 10, 2003: "Flesh Mechanic" Changes The Fic Game And We're ObsessedGod must have spent a little more time on Flesh Mechanic! (Actually, Kel and Lise did.) This week, V and Emily FREAK THE FUCK OUT over the single best fanfiction they've ever read, probably, and it is NOT what you would expect. No spoiling. Click the first source link, read the story, and then join us to FREAK THE FUCK OUT. Huge thank you to Lise for speaking with V about the writing and design process of this story, and a huge thank you to lovely Patron Nevanna for pointing it our way! TW: Mentions of suicide...
2026-02-111h 21This Week In Fandom HistoryJanuary 21, 2002: The First Time Someone Posted A Five Times Fic+1! This week, Emily and V look at everyone's favorite fic format, the 5+1 fic. This humble story structure seems like it's always been a part of fandom, or just a part of human storytelling, but no! It all started with a little Clark/Lex story in Smallville fandom back in 2002, and boy, are we grateful. Come along with us as we talk about which fandoms grow these babies like lemons on trees, which stories have devastated us the most, and more Times than you can count. Sources Basinke on Tumblr Fanlore LIVE SHOW A...
2026-02-0841 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryDecember 17-18, 2014: Makorra Bottles Never Popped, Korrasami Changes CartoonsWell, this happened. This week, V and Emily take a look at two simultaneous fandom events in a fandom neither knows well: The Legend of Korra. And really, both events are the same event: the ending of the show. On the one hand, we have Makorras ready to pop biggest bottles when their ship becomes canon. On the other, we have a different (and queer!) ship becoming canon instead, a first for Western children's animation. The majority of sources for this episode were V actually interviewing people who participated in the LOK fandom and getting their takes, because every...
2026-02-0457 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryDecember 14, 2001: Save Daniel Jackson, And Other Fan CampaignsGate those stars! This week, Emily and V take a look at fannish campaigns to save beloved TV shows and beloved characters, focusing on one in particular: the campaign to bring Daniel Jackson back to Stargate SG-1. From mailing marshmallows to taking out ads in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, fans have done all kinds of things to make their voices heard by TPTB. Were they successful in bringing back Daniel Jackson (and saving SG-1's premiere slash ship, natch)? Join us in our scifi spaceship to find out! Sources Fanlore Daniel Jackson Divas
2026-02-011h 12This Week In Fandom HistoryDecember 5, 2023: #reylogate AKA #reviewgate AKA This Again#reylos are at it again! This week, V and Emily dive headfirst into a HIGHLY requested event in fandom history: when reylo-turned-pro author Cait Corrain completely decimated their own career and tried to take the Reylo fandom down with it. This is the MsScribe story but with a 2024 twist! So many sockpuppets! So many hashtags! So much villainfucking! And SO MUCH MONEY! Get aghast with us as we imagine having consequences of these proportions rained down upon us and yet LEARNING NOTHING from them. Sources Xiran Jay Zhao on Tumblr The 31-Page Document A...
2026-01-251h 12This Week In Fandom HistoryNovember 24, 2015: Lexa Buys (a) Fish.#relationshipgoals! This week, Emily and V look at a Incorrect Quotes post from The 100 fandom that broke containment in a big way, and how normies -- and apparently major newspapers -- do not do a modicum of Googling before they draw their lines in the sand about really dumb things that are obviously fictional. We also discuss Incorrect Quotes and Texts From posts in general, with a long diversion into the literal hellscape that is fandom Pinterest. Sources Fanlore LIVE SHOW ANNOUNCEMENT! We'll be attending TGIF/F aka TGI Femslash, which...
2026-01-1444 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryNovember 23, 1963: 11/23/63No, not THAT historical event from November 1963! This week, V and Emily take a trip back in time to a notorious week to explore how a real-life major event in history-history almost caused a major event in fandom history to die at the starting line! We're talking about how Doctor Who, the juggernaut fandom that's been on the air for over 50 years, almost never became a thing just because someone (not named Bucky Barnes...) assassinated JFK a mere 12 hours before the first episode debuted. Rude. It was hard for the little scifi show that could to pick up steam...
2026-01-0748 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryNovember 3, 2017: Thor: Ragnarok Divides the MCU FandomAnd he was like, BLEGHGH! IT'S ME! Or rather, it's us! We're back. This week, Emily and V take a look at the ways that Thor: Ragnarok divided the MCU fandom as a controversial entry into the Thor trilogy and, therefore, the MCU Infinity Saga as a whole. Emily was a long-time Thor fangirl when it came out; it was V's second or third MCU movie, ever. How did these different perspectives inform the ways that they enjoyed -- or didn't enjoy -- the movie? Also, a bit of The Business up-front: we're back, and we're going t...
2026-01-041h 08This Week In Fandom HistorySeptember 20, 2020: Heat Waves, Or: We Try to Understand MCYTWe don't know enough about this fandom to have a silly exclamation at the start of this summary, tbh! This week, V and Emily stumble along in the dark as they try desperately to fulfill a request from @thesilverstarling: the posting of the massive, massive MCYT Dream SMP RPF, "Heat Waves." We do our best. Truly. But we're so very old and uncool. That said, there are some genuinely fascinating aspects of RPF culture at play here, and we're happy to wade through these waters even if they are much too deep for us! Sources ...
2025-11-2659 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryJuly 1997: Highlander [WAR!] IIThey're on a boat! This week, Emily and V finally tackle a topic requested by one of our wonderful Patreon supporters, @elismor, who also wrote up an AMAZING primer about the fandom and the event. We're venturing back to the wonderful, weird world wide web of the late '90s to see a mailing list [WAR!] -- a round-robin, not-technically-roleplaying-but-it-kinda-is, fanfiction extravaganza. But delightfully, more than being about producing more #content, it was about... making friends. And fandoming together. And we think that's beautiful. Sources elismor's Primer Promo Codes Aim High...
2025-11-2444 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryNovember 5, 2020: November 5! With Special Guest, SPN Writer Meghan FitzmartinHappy November 5! This week, V and Emily are joined by special guest, Supernatural writer Meghan Fitzmartin, who gives us the skinny on what it was like from the other side of the curtain on November 5, 2020, and who tells us all about her new fandom-centric comic book, Mary Sue (available now from BOOM! Box). Misha Collins' silly vocal choices, Russian autocrats shipping Destiel, and the omegaverse galore. Plus, lots of discussion of needing characters to just KISS already! Promo Codes Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy...
2025-11-051h 07This Week In Fandom HistoryJuly 19, 2019: Veronica Mars Kills Off LoVe... And Its Entire FandomKABOOM! This week, V and Emily discuss a fandom that V was very much in, and is very much no longer in. Because no one is. Because the showrunner used the Hulu reboot to give a gigantic middle-finger to 15 years of passionate fandom. Why?! Why must showrunners Punish?!? Featuring also: Sex and the City and, of course, Marvel (but we promise it's not all Endgame salt for once). We also get pretty deep into a discussion of whether artists "owe" their audience anything and, for more of the episode, the issue of fictional people not being allowed to grow...
2025-10-1954 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryJuly 11, 2016: Voltron Fandom Airs Its "Dirty Laundry"Not again... This week, Emily and V look at yet another time that a fandom cannibalized one of its own because of popularity. This time, it's Voltron: Legendary Defender fandom in the summer of 2016 and the massive fic (an all-time all-AO3 kudo-haver!) "Dirty Laundry" by gibslythe. While we didn't read the fic, and thus our opinions are colored by those of the people who wrote up the drama minute-by-minute and day-by-day as it happened, we predictably have a lot of feelings about how fandom always... effing... does this. Featuring: The Bee Movie, Babe 2: Pig in the City, and Spaaace...
2025-09-2857 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryJuly 12, 2013: Pacific Rim Released, Pacific Rim AUs InventedInto the drift! This week, V and Emily talk, once again, about a movie that V has never seen but that fandom loves: Pacific Rim. Topics include the Mako Mori Test, why and how this fandom is the victim of Any Two White Guys syndrome, and... Jupiter Ascending? Also, why Pacific Rim: Uprising failed as a sequel and why sometimes filmmakers just getting to play with toys for millions and millions of dollars can be a lot of fun. Promo Codes Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs...
2025-09-2146 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryJune 20, 1904: Saluton, Morojo! (The Invention of Cosplay)Saluton! This week, Emily and V look at the life of one of fandom's under-appreciated heroes: Morojo, AKA Myrtle Rebecca Smith Gray Nolan (née Douglas), the Mother of Cosplay. From her genuine belief in the ability of humankind to be good, like in her favorite scifi stories, to her BANGIN' sewing ability and sweet-ass silk rompersuits, Morojo deserves to be way more well-known in fannish spaces. (And for more than being some dude's girlfriend.) Join us as we celebrate the legacy of one of fandom's founding women. Also: apologies for the unplanned hiatus, this episode was t...
2025-09-1453 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryJune 14, 2021: The NSFW Episode (Thanks, Batman)Holy lunch at the Y, Batman! This week, V and Emily just rate which, if any, superheroes are fuckable, because DC's editorial team made an edict in 2021 that will never, ever, ever, never not be funny. Sources Vice Bleeding Cool Gail Simone on X This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history! Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory. If you have a fa...
2025-08-101h 01This Week In Fandom HistoryJune 8, 2024: A Surprise for Emily! (TW Mentions of Suicide, Parental Grief, Religious Control)Roll for initiative! This week, V and Emily use the actual "what happened this week in fandom history" event (the USPS released Dungeons & Dragons themed stamps) purely as an excuse to talk about a meatier topic: the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and its effects on fandom... focusing on the writing of one blorbo extraordinaire, Mr. Eddie Munson. Stranger Things did a great job with Eddie and the other nerd characters! The 1980s did NOT do a great job with nerds! And for being the only two people on the internet who don't play DND, we think we did...
2025-07-301h 21This Week In Fandom HistoryJune 3, 2011: Cherik Explodes the X-Men MultiverseTo us, our X-fandom-historians! This week, Emily and V venture once again into a fandom that has way too many moving parts to understand as they discuss the release of X-Men: First Class and the subsequent multiversal explosion of Cherik (Charles Xavier/Erik Lehnsherr, or Professor X/Magneto) fanworks. Even though this is literally a pairing V has written, we claim no knowledge of the X-Men franchise, because again: there are so many X-men and they are all always doing things. While the internet fandom for the X-Men had been alive before XMFC, as we discussed in our Subreality...
2025-07-201h 06This Week In Fandom HistoryMay 25: A Double Nerd Holiday!Grab your towel and your hard-boiled egg, nerds! This week, Emily and V look at a double holiday once again, because May 25 is a big day for two big fandoms: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy celebrates Towel Day, while Discworld remembers Sir Terry Pratchett and celebrates the Glorious 25 of May. Both of these hugely influential, beloved book series have spanned decades, genres, and all manner of fans, becoming tentpoles in the worlds of scifi and fantasy. Whether you're hopping from planet to planet with Arthur Dent or patrolling the streets of Ankh-Morpork, there is something about the universe to...
2025-07-1345 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryMay 19, 1997: Clan Denial Avenges Richie Ryan... On the High SeasThere can only be one! And that one better fucking be Richie Ryan! This week, V and Emily tackle a requested topic from lovely Patron @elismor and look at the extremely confusing, way-too-many-installments fandom of Highlander. Specifically, Highlander: The Series. And specifically, teenage thief and heartthrob Richie Ryan, and how he was unjustly killed off by canon and revived by the formation of Clan Denial. This fandom-within-a-fandom is also nine inside jokes wearing a trench coat, but that's our favorite thing, so it's a fun romp. Come along with us as we shadow Clan Denial on a cruise! (A...
2025-07-0254 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryMay 1–31, 2020: The First VoiceTeam!Let's get together, yeah yeah yeah! This week, Emily and V head to summer camp! That is, we discuss the podfic summer camp extravaganza that is VoiceTeam, an annual challenge to create creative podfic for any fandoms and pairings your heart desires... as a team. We also look at how podfic was THE COOLEST way to pick up chicks in the '90s, where podfic started back in the '80s as a way for sight-impaired fans to get their shipping on, and what VoiceTeam 2025 is doing (and how it's stressing V out). Let's pull some pranks and make...
2025-06-2950 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryMay 6, 2001: BNF Leyla Harrison Appears on The X-FilesGrab your tissues, it's a crying episode! This week, V and Emily look at the short life and long impact of X-Files BNF (Big Name Fan) and BNA (Big Name Author), Leyla Harrison. The very first thing she did when she got the internet was post an X-Files fic... and immediately got anon hate. From there, she became one of the cornerstone writers of '90s XF MSR fic and helped to shape the way we all still think about, read, and write fanfiction. Her legacy loomed so large that when she died of cancer, the actual X-Files created...
2025-06-221h 00This Week In Fandom HistoryApril 27, 2023: Fanbinding Puts Dramione Fandom in a BindGoing once, going twice, sold... unfortunately! This week, Emily and V look at an event requested back while it was actually happening: the 2023 fanbinding drama that nearly ended Dramione- and Reylo's fanbinding communities on Instagram. Mostly, though, it's an episode about people coming into fannish spaces without an interest in fannish community, and people who view fanfiction as "content" to be consumed rather than art to be engaged with or affection bids meant to be answered. We're probably preaching entirely to the choir if you love fandom enough to be listening to a fandom history podcast, but still.
2025-06-1855 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryApril 20, 2000: The Haircut Warning WarsGrab your floaties! This week, V and Emily travel back 25 years (gross) to the spring of 2000, when the internet was the Wild West and everyone was an asshole. Or maybe not everyone, but wow, this one e-mail list for The Sentinel sure was. We discuss the difference between tags, warnings, spoilers, and censorship, and we also discuss just how much has changed in the fandom landscape over the last 25 years in terms of expectations and norms. Get ready to be kind of mad at people in the past! Sources Fanlore Fanlore again ...
2025-06-081h 02This Week In Fandom HistoryApril 13: Homestuck Banging Out the TunesWe finally learned what Homestuck is! This week, Emily and V look at a very special double-holiday: April 13, the day that Neil banged out the tunes and, also, Homestuck Day. Who is Neil? The greatest pianist who ever lived, that's who. And what's Homestuck? That was our question every goddamn day of our lives until Emily dipped a toe into the extremely deep water that is the Homestuck multiverse and came back alive to tell V about it. Sources Fanlore The Entirety of Homestuck in Five Minutes This Week In Fandom History...
2025-05-2559 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryBONUS! Trans Fans Have Always Been Here (TW Old-Fashioned Terminology Uses)In light of certain fandoms' creators recently using their considerable fortunes to substantively make life worse for trans people, particularly trans women, this week, V and Emily take a look at a pioneering gender-nonconforming person who, literally, founded modern scifi fandom: Donald Wollheim. We look at Donald's fannish history, including hosting the very first scifi con ever; publishing Lord of the Rings in the US; and founding the Futurians, the early East Coast scifi fan club who definitely won the all-time BNF war. Then, we look at the other side of Donald's life as a landmark figure in the...
2025-05-0746 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryApril 8, 2023: Trans Hanni Day + Adapt, Evolve, BecomeDo you see, Will? This week, V and Emily finally have a happy, joyous, euphoric episode! And it's about... Hannibal, the scariest show ever to be on television. But the fandom has embraced the show and one another so wholly and so delightfully that we can't help but be charmed. In particular, we are looking at the annual fannish holiday of Trans Hanni Day, a day celebrating fanworks created by trans, nonbinary, and genderqueer Fannibals, celebrating headcanons about trans, nonbinary, or genderqueer characters from the Hannibal Extended Universe. In particular, we look at the zine "Adapt. Evolve. Become," which...
2025-05-0444 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryMarch 31, 1995: The Death of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez (TW: Murder, gun violence)This week, Emily and V look at the brilliant life and tragic death of the Queen of Tejano music, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, who was murdered by the president of her national fan club. While Selena's life was cut way too short, the amount of genius and joy that she exuded onstage and offstage is the most important part of her story. Emily skillfully guides us through Selena's life, her music, and her fashion, and V is along for the very sad ride. We also reference other stars who were killed by people claiming to be their fans, such as J...
2025-04-241h 14This Week In Fandom HistoryMarch 28, 2010: The Indie Twific Award Winners AnnouncedAU/AH/OOC! This week, V and Emily fall down an Internet rabbithole to the wild and weird world of Twilight fanfiction in 2010, where contests, rec blogs, and awards reigned supreme. Specifically, the rabbithole of the Lazy Yet Discerning Ficster blog led straight to the Indie Twific Awards, where undersung Twilight fics in quirky and delightful categories were given laurels by readers and a judging panel of BNAs. There's so much going on. It's all wonderful. Also, V recounts the single most insane plot-twist she's ever encountered in anything, fic or otherwise, and it's a doozy. Join us, won't...
2025-04-131h 04This Week In Fandom HistoryMarch 16, 2014: Wizard Rock Goes Down in Flames (TW Sexual Assault, Coercive Control, Emotional Abuse, Neil Gaiman Discussion)Yuck... This week, Emily and V tackle a requested topic and look at the downfall of wrock, AKA Wizard Rock, aka music about Harry Potter made by semi-pro musicians in the 2000s and early 2010s. Much of the wrock genre was caught up in the blizzard of allegations that made up YouTube Abuse in 2014, the pre-MeToo movement that aimed to take vloggers who preyed on their fans to account. In particular, we look at the total shitheads who made up the band Ministry of Magic. As an extra content warning, if you miss it in the episode title: we...
2025-03-3055 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryBONUS! Femslash Deep Dive with TGIF/FThank god it's femslash... part two! This week, in lieu of a minisode, V and Emily were joined by jarrow, the founder of FaberryCon and TGIF/F (see Episode #111), for a lengthy chat about all things femslash. We talk migratory (fem)slash fandom; subtext; female friendships and friend-ships; and why the death of the 22-episode season is killing shipping, especially for noncanonical pairings. Femslash has a parallel history to slash fandom, and it's one that we don't get to talk about nearly enough on this show, so it was a delight to skip the shallow wading and get right...
2025-03-261h 05This Week In Fandom HistoryMarch 16, 1982: Earthshock Rocks Doctor Who FandomTo the TARDIS! This week, V and Emily tackle a requested episode about a deeply controversial Doctor Who episode: Earthshock, which aired in 1982, featuring the Fifth Doctor. This episode killed off -- 40-year-old spoilers -- child companion Adric, and we're still seeing the effects of that choice in the writing of the show today. Although as far as it actually affected the Doctor or his other companions... well, that's up for debate. Compared to New Who companion deaths like those of Clara and Bill, Adric's was handled... uh. Well. They made some choices. Who was your favorite Doctor Who...
2025-03-2358 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryMinisode #007What was the most shocking character death you've witnessed, and how did it make an impact on you? In 2025, TWIFH is starting something new… minisodes! These will be released on Wednesdays as a li'l sneak preview of the topic for the upcoming full-length episode on Sunday. Huge thank-you to all of the wonderful listeners who sent in replies for these minisodes! If you've ever wanted to hear yourself on a podcast, send us a voice note! We've turned Submissions on on our Tumblr, and we'll also accept links to uploaded .mp3 files. If you want to an...
2025-03-1926 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryMarch 2, 2012: The Onceler Becomes Tumblr Sexyman SupremeHow bad can he be? This week, Emily and V peek through their fingers at their MOST REQUESTED TOPIC EVER: how The Onceler, from Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, became Tumblr's #1 Sexyman in 2012. Not other 2012 villains like Loki or Moriarty or Cato The Hunger Games. No. The Onceler. The animated Onceler. And you know what? After this episode, we kind of understand what was going on with all the Onceler love, and we're 100% in support of it. Did you have your very own Onceler? Tell us on our Tumblr! Sources Quinn Clark for Buzzfeed Sexymanthology
2025-03-1652 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryFebruary 28, 1986: Pretty In Pink Proves the Brat Pack Possess PowerThat's not a name, that's a major appliance! This week, V and Emily use the release of iconic teen film "Pretty In Pink" as an excuse to look at the influence of the Brat Pack on film, fandom, and film fandom since 1985. "Pretty In Pink" is a part of why Star Wars IX has the chopped-up feel it does; the Brat Pack themselves changed the nature of how fans and celebrities were meant to relate to one another. And, of course, the VCRification (it's a word) of movie-watching feeds right into the issues with direct-to-streaming fan culture today. What's...
2025-03-091h 06This Week In Fandom HistoryMinisode #005 + Minisode #006How would you celebrate a holiday all about your blorbo? + What is the biggest contribution you've made to your fandom? Anything counts, including being a kudos-leaver and headcanon-cheerleader! In 2025, TWIFH is starting something new… minisodes! These will be released on Wednesdays as a li'l sneak preview of the topic for the upcoming full-length episode on Sunday. Huge thank-you to all of the wonderful listeners who sent in replies for this minisode. Additionally, thank you to everyone who has been kind and patient with us as we had to take an unexpected break due to bereavement. If yo...
2025-03-0508 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryFebruary 15-17, 2013: FaberryCon East (Plus, T.G.I.Femslash!)Thank god it's femslash! This week, Emily and V discuss the absolutely pie-in-the-sky delightful FaberryCon, a long-running convention dedicated to Quinn Fabray/Rachel Berry in the Glee fandom, a noncanonical femslash ship. Then, even more delightfully, after the end of Glee, the conventioneers transformed the experience into @tgifemslash, a multi-fandom, ship-neutral, femslash convention OF DREAMS that is still ongoing! We take a look at the absolute pinnacle of con panel planning, cute vidshows, and why a small, niche audience is almost always better than trying to please everyone. Have you ever been to, or hosted, a ship-centric con? Let...
2025-03-0345 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryFebruary 12, 2011: The Odds Are Not In V's FavorThank you for your consideration! This week, V and Emily are joined by a very special guest, Heidi Tandy AKA Heidi8, who is on the show to explain the intricacies of fandom and copyright law because, well, she was V's attorney for the event this week in fandom history. In 2011, V made a fanwork map of the fictional country of Panem from The Hunger Games novels -- not the movies, which had not even been officially announced yet -- and in 2023, Lionsgate released an official map of Panem that looks... extremely similar. (You can see a side-by-side on our...
2025-02-161h 18This Week In Fandom HistoryFebruary 2, 2024: #CoDayHe's a special li'l guy! This week, V and Emily look at a very recent event in fandom history, Star Wars: The Clone Wars' fannish holiday celebrating their main man, almost everyone's favorite clone, Cody. Since his clone identification number is CC-2224, a mysterious yet enterprising fan saw the date 2/2/24 approaching and ran with it, creating a delightful celebration of all things fannish and all things Cody. Cody is so popular and beloved, in fact, that this episode's event was requested by not one, not two, but THREE listeners: Elismor, soundssimpleright, and an anonymous request. And having researched it...
2025-02-1247 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryJanuary 24, 1996: The NATPE 7 Strike Las VegasGet in position! This week, Emily and V look at one of the most impressive fan campaigns that we've ever covered on the show, and we also got to revisit one of our favorite fandoms to cover: Forever Knight. When FK was canceled mid-season in 1996, the fandom scrambled to cover all bases and make sure USA Network knew that these vampires needed their day in the sun. So to speak. What ensued was a bold takeover of the NATPE (National Association of Television Program Executives, aka TPTB's bosses' bosses) conference in Las Vegas. The tale is delightful. Those seven...
2025-02-091h 01This Week In Fandom HistoryMinisode #004 If you could save one TV show from cancellation, what would it be — and what would you send to the network to save it? In 2025, TWIFH is starting something new... minisodes! These will be released on Wednesdays as a li'l sneak preview of the topic for the upcoming full-length episode on Sunday. Huge thank-you to all of the wonderful listeners who sent in replies for this minisode! Additionally, thank you to everyone who has been kind and patient with us as we had to take an unexpected break due to bereavement. If you've ever wanted to he...
2025-02-0511 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryJanuary 19, 1993: The Death of Superman Almost Kills American ComicsUp, up, and oh no! This week, V and Emily take a request from listener @nerteragranadensis a little bit sideways and look at the ways that the "Death of Superman" arc -- geez, '90s DC had problems -- almost ended the American comics industry as it blew up the boom-and-bust comics speculation culture that arose after 1989's Batman movie. We look at how money is dumb, how capitalism is stupid, and also, why we're super salty about Beanie Babies. The Man of Steel deserved better. Did you ever buy something just for its potential collectors' value? Let us...
2025-01-1958 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryMinisode #003 What is your favorite collectible or piece of fannish merch that you own? In 2025, TWIFH is starting something new... minisodes! These will be released on Wednesdays as a li'l sneak preview of the topic for the upcoming full-length episode on Sunday. Huge thank-you to all of the wonderful listeners who sent in replies for this minisode! Check out our tumblr to see some photos of the submitted merch, too! If you've ever wanted to hear yourself on a podcast, send us a voice note! We've turned Submissions on on our Tumblr, and we'll also accept links...
2025-01-1509 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryJanuary 14, 2014: SPN Versus The Beliebers, Or: The Dumbest Twitter BeefOy, vey. This week, Emily and V have a loosey-goosey look at the dumbest celebrity beef in the history of Twitter: Jared Padalecki versus the Beliebers. And also, a look at the dumbest celebrity arrest in the history of Los Angeles: Justin Bieber in 2014. And also, the dumbest tweets in Jared Padalecki's long history of dumb tweets. And then also, just to round it out, some celebrity drama and feuds from our own fandoms past. Remember when Emily said that the AO3 Top Ships Poll Fraud was the silliest thing she's covered on TWIFH? This probably beats it.
2025-01-1256 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryMinisode #002 + Patreon Preview!What is the silliest celebrity feud you've ever followed or had investment in? In 2025, TWIFH is starting something new... minisodes! These will be released on Wednesdays as a li'l sneak preview of the topic for the upcoming full-length episode on Sunday. Huge thank-you to all of the wonderful listeners who sent in replies for this minisode! Show Notes Agents of SHIELD/Agent Carter Dubsmash War If you've ever wanted to hear yourself on a podcast, send us a voice note! We've turned Submissions on on our Tumblr, and we'll also accept links...
2025-01-0823 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryJanuary 1994: H.E.A.T. Sets Out to Avenge Green LanternIn brightest day, in blackest night...! This week, V and Emily look at a demographic that we haven't covered too much on TWIFH: fanboys. And this week, it's the fanboys who are behaving badly, as once AGAIN we head over to DC Comics in the early 1990s for some straight-up bullshit. This time, it's all grand and it's all green as an "Emerald Twilight" descends over Coast City and hoo, boy, were the results -- both in-universe and in the real world -- terrible. Nothing says "I'm a fan of this thing" like declaring that you're going to attack...
2025-01-0554 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryMinisode #001Which fictional character would you go to battle for -- especially against their canon writer(s)? Happy New Year! In 2025, TWIFH is starting something new... minisodes! These will be released on Wednesdays as a li'l sneak preview of the topic for the upcoming full-length episode on Sunday. Huge thank-you to all of the wonderful listeners who sent in replies for this very first minisode! If you've ever wanted to hear yourself on a podcast, send us a voice note! We've turned Submissions on on our Tumblr, and we'll also accept links to uploaded .mp3 files. ...
2025-01-0119 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryDecember 30-31, 2019: John Boyega Is Attacked by Reylos (Again)Twitter is a mistake... This week, Emily and V delve into the sordid, racist behavior of Reylos (Rey/Kylo Ren shippers) towards John Boyega (Finn) in the wake of Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker, and how they weaponized their white femininity to excuse their actions. This is a tough, emotional topic, but the episode also explores just why Star Wars makes people so uniquely insane, possible reasons Disney fumbled TROS so badly, and that Kelly Marie Tran is an absolute treasure. Plus, an interlude about the terrible ending of The Baby-Sitters' Club canon. This episode...
2024-12-291h 17This Week In Fandom HistoryDecember 1997: Kielle Founds the CBFFAsTo us, our X-people! This week, V and Emily try desperately to understand the X-Men-specific fic genre of Subreality, created by Kielle, a huge community builder who passed too soon. We look at many of Kielle's amazingly impressive undertakings in '90s and early '00s X-Men fandom, including the creation of Subreality and the Subreality Cafe, her website the Comic Fan-Fiction Authors Network (CFAN), the Comic Book Fan-Fiction Awards (CBFFAs), the Scratching Post, and, also, just how damn much she was beloved by her fellow X-Men fans. Special thanks go out to Nevanna, our lovely Patreon donor who...
2024-12-2250 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryDecember 1998 - December 2011: The Hanson Advent CalendarOh my god. This week, Emily and V discovered the existence of the single most galaxy-brain brilliant fanfiction of all time. No spoilers, but you WILL NOT predict ANY facet of this story. Also, we delve into the extremely long and impressive (and sometimes hilarious, because the '90s) history of Hanson fanfiction, AKA Hanfic. The Wayback Machine really earned its $2 donation this week, folks, because it turned up some pure gold. Sources Christmas Time on Fanlore Embers by ahestele Embers Fanart by Lily Fox 1998 1999 2003 USA Today
2024-12-1857 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryDecember 11, 2010: Fancake Opens with "Amnesia" ft. Interview with Jerakeen!Holy shit, two cakes! This week, V and Emily poke around over on Dreamwidth and its potentially coolest rec comm: Fancake. Its founder and former longtime mod (9 years of work!) @jerakeenc did a really thoughtful interview with V about the inspiration for the community, things they've learned over the long course of modding a panfandom comm, and tips for starting and maintaining a positive social space on the internet. Plus, Emily and V wrestle with hanahaki disease and swoon over a good tagging system. Sources Fancake Ad Swaps & Other Business Candy...
2024-12-1556 minThis Week In Fandom History1924: The Centennial Special!The bees' knees! This week, for the ONE HUNDREDTH EPISODE, V and Emily take a trip back 100 years to look at four fandoms that ruled the year of 1924: George Gershwin's jazz, Harold Lloyd's romantic comedies, Little Orphan Annie's laughs, and Babe Ruth's colossal clout. From the amazing breadth of the Gershwin brothers' catalog to the hilarity of what passed for celebrity gossip in Photoplay, from the plight of a little Orphant to the Bambino's birthday party shenanigans, we're celebrating 100 years of fannish passion and what it really means to be a legend that never dies. Sources
2024-12-081h 17This Week In Fandom HistoryNovember 23, 1998: It's Up To You As Nancy DrewIt's locked! This week, V and Emily (although V hardly gives Emily a chance to get a word in edgewise) delve into the 94-year history of the Nancy Drew fandom. From a congressional hearing about whether Nancy is Bad For The Children in the '50s to a woman in the '30s who made her living traveling from town to town to evangelize against the girl sleuth, Nancy Drew is an OG fandom with big "fuck you purity culture" vibes. Also, she once jumped a shark in a jetski and solved a mystery by tap-dancing with some cats...
2024-12-0451 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryNovember 11, 2005: The Scarlet Witch Sparks 19 Years of Fannish DebateNo more mutants! This week, Emily and V look at an event that had seismic effects both in-universe in its franchise and out-universe, in the real world: Marvel Comics' M-Day. The events depicted in the House of M event would go on to drive much of the forward motion of X-Men for the next 15 years and spawned whole swaths of the Marvel universe (including Agatha All Along!). And of course, any swing that wild is going to spark... a lot of Reddit posts. Thank you to listener @raineday for the request! Do you X-Men? What do you think of...
2024-12-0157 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryNovember 2021: NoCoVemberTime to catch the boat of losers! This week, V and Emily encounter not one, not two, not three, but SO MANY areas of fandom that we've never covered on the show, nor encountered in our elderly lives, as we cover the Total Drama fandom and its juggernaut ship, Noah/Cody AKA NoCo. From anime terminology and Wattpad novels to TikTok stitches and Roblox's existence, we are out of our depth this week. A HUGE thank you to lovely Patron @cavewomania AKA @tylejandro for helping V understand this fandom and ship! Have you ever participated in fandom on a...
2024-11-271h 00This Week In Fandom HistoryNovember 9, 2010: Blaine Anderson Warbles "Teenage Dream"The Warblers are like rockstars here! This week, Emily and V look at the juggernaut slash ship to come out of Glee: Kurt Hummel/Blaine Anderson, AKA Klaine, which was born in the space of three glorious musical minutes this week in fandom history in 2010, when Blaine (Darren Criss) serenaded Kurt and the rest of Dalton Academy's student body with an accappella rendition of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" and hearts around the world exploded into confetti and tiny birds. We also discuss the logistics of using slushies as a weapon for an INORDINATE length of time. Were you a...
2024-11-2453 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryOctober 2011: Project Girl Wonder Honors DC's Stephanie BrownArgh, DC... This week, V and Emily take another frustrating look at how DC Comics just loves to kill off Robins, this time with added explicit misogyny toward the fanbase as well as the character they've doomed to the gallows. On the bright side, V got an amazing primer from listener katieiscunning, who loves the character of Spoiler AKA Robin AKA Batgirl AKA Stephanie Brown, and made V and Emily love her, too! Plus, author Mary Borsellino began a comics accountability website known as Project Girl Wonder in reaction to Steph's awful death, and fans have been taking DC...
2024-11-1057 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryOctober 21, 1994: Scully Is Abducted!Scullay!!! This week, Emily and V head back to a happy happenstance in 1994 as the birth of Gillian Anderson's real-life baby changes the fictional life of Dana Scully forever, in more ways than one. By changing the scope of Scully's life, the lore of The X-Files grew and expanded into something network TV had never seen before. Plus, we love how much Gillian and David Duchovny love each other, and we're both terrified IRL about Eugene Tooms possibly hiding in V's A/C vents. Sources X-Files Wikia Shitty things that happened to Dana...
2024-10-3156 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryOctober 18-19, 2019: The First Ineffable Con, Plus We Talk About Neil Gaiman (TW Sexual Assault [Not Detailed])Apocalypse now? This week, V and Emily start out the episode by talking about the super-cool annual convention that Good Omens fans created and host as part of The Ineffable Society: the Ineffable Con, going strong since 2019. Then, we have to delve into the allegations against Good Omens co-author and showrunner Neil Gaiman, former Tumblr everyman and (alleged) total sleazebag. Looking at the Gaiman situation through the lens of, "how are fans reacting, and how are fans treating each other's reactions?" makes us feel a little better than looking too deeply at him as a person. The episode closes...
2024-10-2159 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryOctober 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs Publishes Tarzan of the Apes, Invents the Franchise*insert Tarzan yell here* This week, Emily and V explore a totally new-to-them fandom thanks to requester pandaimitator: Tarzan of the Apes. And frankly, it's crazy that we haven't heard about everything this old-timey fandom created that we still use and do today. Fan clubs! Conventions! Fan campaigns! Fanfiction! The Pizza Hut Book-It model of consumerism! The concept of the franchise itself! While the source material does not stand up to modern sensibilities — at all, and we're not defending it; it's super racist — the actions of the early fandom, and of Edgar Rice Burroughs' author-incorporation, are totally worth talking abou...
2024-10-1555 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryOctober 2-16, 2010: WAR Thirteen, In Memory of Susan M. GarrettGet out your tissues, listeners! (Seriously.) This week, V and Emily split the episode in two parts: first, the very silly attempt to understand how the Forever Knight fandom went to WAR! for the thirteenth time in 2010. Second, a look into the fannish life and ongoing impact of Forever Knight BNF Susan M. Garrett, who seems like she was a completely awesome fangirl, writer, and person. V and Emily both weep like babies in this episode because sometimes, the fans who make history ARE well-behaved, and they rock, and we love to learn about and remember them. ...
2024-10-0645 minThis Week In Fandom HistorySeptember 25 - October 5, 2023: Voter Fraud Upsets the AO3 Top Ships Bracket Tumblr PollWhat?! This week, Emily and V travel all the way back one year to look at... the dumbest thing we've ever had to cover for this show, possibly. You all remember this one: @ao3topshipsbracket pitted Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes against Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet, and things got insanely, unnecessarily, WEIRDLY nuts. We're baffled. We're a little bitter. We're mostly confused? Sources The Infamous Poll The Mary Sue This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history! Follow This Week in...
2024-10-021h 01This Week In Fandom HistorySeptember 16, 2012: The Bullshit Tweet#*@%$(*! This week, V and Emily head back to the event that caused the Great Schism Of One Direction Fandom: The Bullshit Tweet. V has an epiphany about her longest-ever fic and one of her big OTPs of the early 2010s, and Emily feels a lot of empathy for both Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson in the face of all the, well, bullshit thrown at them for years. Plus, Zayn Malik has common sense about emus. Have you ever been in a fandom that got its wrist slapped by the object of its affection (or its creator)? Sources
2024-09-261h 03This Week In Fandom HistorySeptember 14-15, 1974: The First Fest for Beatles FansCome together, right now! This week, Emily and V head back to the extremely seventies 1970s to look at a fandom currently having a resurgence on Tumblr: The Beatles. V has actually been to "The Fest," as groovy kids call it, and wrote a paper on Beatlemania that got published a zillion years ago to boot, so she chimes in about what this fandom is like from ground level while Emily marvels at the guts of The Fest's founder, Mark Lapidos, and how very accessible people were in 1974. Then we end with a tangent on the importance of internet...
2024-09-1858 minThis Week In Fandom HistorySeptember 1, 2017: The Handbook for (My) Immortals: Or, Two Literary Frauds!Fukkin' preps. This week, V and Emily have their brains melted by not ONE incredibly stupid and obvious literary fraud, but TWO incredibly stupid and obvious literary frauds! Yes! In one week! And both involving the most infamous fanfic of all time, everyone's favorite: My Immortal. Dust off your fishnets and stretch out your middle fingers, it's time to get goffik. Sources The Hollywood Reporter EW Books V's Handbook for Mortals tag on Tumblr jewishkeith on Tumblr Vox Culture Wikipedia My Immortal Wiki
2024-09-081h 10This Week In Fandom HistorySummer 2000-2003: Harry Potter Fandom and the Three-Year SummerIcicle?! This week, Emily and V hold a sort of jazz funeral for a fandom event that shaped both of them as human people, and that cannot and should not ever happen again. The Three-Year Summer was a pivotal stretch of time for fandom culture as a whole because a) every fucking person alive was in this fandom, b) the whole point was that there was no canon and the world was wide open for the taking, and c) the Internet was young enough that you could claim ANYTHING on that shit. And we all did! And we all...
2024-09-011h 18This Week In Fandom HistoryAugust 1994: Green Lantern's Girlfriend Is Fridged::General rage noises:: This week, V and Emily discuss the trope-namer for "fridging," or the killing off of female characters purely to cause manpain and advance male characters' stories. It's rage-inducing. Plus, the Hawkeye Initiative brings attention to undue sexualization of female comics characters, and Dead Men Defrosting debunk the myth that male superheroes suffer as much as women do. Additional Reading The Woman Dies by Aoko Matsuda, trans. Polly Barton This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history! Follow This Wee...
2024-08-2151 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryJuly 20 - August 2, 2016: Cipher Hunt!Buy gold...! This week, Emily and V look at one of the coolest fan experiences that they've ever heard about: Gravity Falls fandom's Cipher Hunt. To both celebrate and mourn the end of the series, writer Alex Hirsch created an international scavenger hunt for the fandom, and OUR LOVELY PATRON HOLLY played a pivotal role in connecting fans across the world! Plus, a look at the messages between Alex Hirsch and the absolute fucking goons of Disney Channel's S&P department. Sources Holly's archived blog Messages From S&P This Week...
2024-08-1146 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryJuly 22-23, 2017: The Supergirl Musical Homophobia ScandalUp, up, and... oh no. This week, V and Emily look at yet another fandom whose femslash juggernaut OTP got dealt an unfair hand by TPTB, in looking at the fallout of the Supergirl Season 2 Musical Recap from San Diego ComicCon 2017. So much rage. So much disappointment. So much annoyance. Why can't femslashers have nice things?! This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history! Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.pat...
2024-08-0456 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryJuly 16, 2010: Inception Incepts Fandom with Arthur/EamesDream a little bigger, darlings. This week, Emily and V go deeper and deeper into the mindscape of fandom in 2010, when Inception became an unlikely juggernaut fandom-that-ate-fandom because of two minor (as in tertiary) characters played by internet boyfriends Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon Levitt. They talk that iconic ending, reasons this weird movie resonated with people so hard, and how fandom itself was in a time of transition in 2010, which left its mental landscape wide open for Christopher Nolan to plant a little thought-seed in there. Were you an Arthur/Eames shipper? How do you think the movie...
2024-07-281h 07This Week In Fandom HistoryJuly 4: Merry Stevemas!We can do this all day! This week, Emily surprises V with an episode all about her blorbo, Steve Rogers (Captain America). It's a loosey-goosey chat about their baby blorbo boy, from his origin as the creation of two Jewish men who wanted a golem to punch Hitler in the face to their own origin stories as Steve fangirls. Plus, a rundown on AO3's top ten Steve ships! Note: There were some technical issues with the recording on this episode, so there are a few places where the audio goes a bit fuzzy. It might sound...
2024-07-151h 00This Week In Fandom HistoryJune 2016: Bubble Pop! Zine Party Rocks D.C.Bubble, bubble, bubble pop! This week, V and Emily explore the highs of fandom and lows of the kpop trainee system as they look at one of the coolest fanworks ever made, possibly: the guerilla zine Bubble Pop! Spearheaded by one Washington D.C. kpop fan who wanted to know who the other kpop fans of her city were, Bubble Pop! was the coolest (and most fun-sounding) party of this week in fandom history. V also tells Emily a lot of things about kpop that Emily does not enjoy at all. This episode was very helpfully aided by one o...
2024-06-3047 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryJune 19-20, 1982: The Con of WrathBeam us up! This week, Emily and V were expecting a disaster of epic proportions and bad feelings all around, but instead we got a surprisingly delightful and warm story of fandom community spirit saving a very bad situation. We both cry in this episode. It's fine. It's just Star Trek fans being great, okay?! Have you ever met a new friend at a convention? What would you do with a suitcase full of fanfiction? This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history! Follow This We...
2024-06-2355 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryJune 10, 2016: Voltron: Legendary Defender Premieres & June 10, 2017: #shoegateSee ya later, pala-dudes! This week, V and Emily hit a double-header in the Voltron: Legendary Defender fandom (thanks to two requesters and V's VLD primer pal, Fran!). First, V attempts to explain what the show is about and why it launched on Netflix with a built-in fandom. And then... oh, boy. You know how our ending stinger is "well-behaved fandoms rarely make history"? Well, this fandom is VERY POORLY BEHAVED and therefore, have made history. That's for sure... Not really a TW, but just be aware that this episode is heavy on discussions of purity culture...
2024-06-161h 01This Week In Fandom HistoryJune 5-6, 1832—Present: Barricade Day Makes Les Amies de Les Mis Fandom CryAnd I can hear them now! This week, Emily and V pre-emptively apologize for their French accents and inability to pronounce "Enjolras" as we look at the Les Mis fandom holiday of Barricade Day. While the real event was an unmitigated tragedy, and it was also an unmitigated tragedy in the book, musical, and movie adaptations, Barricade Day is a wholesome fandom holiday for Les Mis fans to gather and write, draw, sing, and hope for a happier ending for their beloved Amis de l'ABCs. We love it. This is also a very silly and loosey-goosey episode...
2024-06-0952 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryJune 1, 2015: The Marion Zimmer Bradley & Walter Breen Episode (TW: CSA, Rape, Incest, Total Institutional Failure)No quippy exclamation this week, because V and Emily delve into probably the worst, most shameful, most infuriating, just awful pair of people ever to be associated with fandom history: scifi authors and fucking monsters Marion Zimmer Bradley and Walter Breen. This is not a lighthearted episode in any way. Please heed the trigger warnings and take care of yourself if you choose to listen. History is not always fun and celebratory and silly Star Trek holidays. Sometimes it's going, "This horrible, ugly thing is part of our architectural foundation. Now what?" TW: CSA, rape, incest, total in...
2024-06-031h 02This Week In Fandom HistoryMay 23, 2001: Die, Seven, Die! + What Was Usenet?NET.SPACE! This week, Emily and V surf their way to the earliest days of being able to connect with other human beings in cyberspace, and also, once again bow to the king of fandoms that takes place in actual space. First, Emily explains the pure haterade that was the Die, Seven, Die! Challenge after the series finale of Star Trek: Voyager. (Also, we looked up how to pronounce "Chakotay.") Then, to give some context for this unconstrained summer hatefest of fun, we look into what, exactly, Usenet was, and why Alice was the fucking best. Did you Usenet...
2024-05-2651 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryMay 19, 2009: Glee Premieres on FOXDon't stop believin'! This week, V and Emily go back to a very different world. A pre-Glee world. And it kind of isn't pretty. While V loved Glee at first, its legacy is... not super chill and great? Outside of a few key ships that will get their own episodes later on this year and/or early next year? So this episode is about Glee as a whole, which... listen. The songs slapped. They did. However. There are so many "howevers." Also, V had a life-paradigm-shifting experience on YouTube vis-a-vis show choir while researching this episode, so there's that.
2024-05-1949 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryMay 3, 2021: Dracula Daily Delivers the First Message From Our Friend JonathanPaprika! This week, Emily and V head back to 2021 -- but mostly 2022, carte blanche -- to look at the phenomenon of Dracula Daily and its explosion of popularity on Tumblr. We also head to 1992 to look at the worst movie of all time, Bram Stoker's Dracula, starring extremely beautiful people who were all in extremely different movies all at once. And then we traipse to 1897 to look at the original novel of Dracula and its extremely weird creation by a very strange l'il guy, Bram Stoker. Plus, bats! Bats everywhere! Also, Jack the Ripper! Also, you may...
2024-05-131h 03This Week In Fandom HistoryApril 3, 1999: What Would They Think?What would they think? This week, Emily and V -- okay. This episode was supposed to be about the April 2000 Slate Magazine article, "Luke Skywalker Is Gay?" And it does start out that way. But thanks to Emily's personal fannish history and a tiny footnote in the article, this episode goes... somewhere else. And oh my god. Links Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at http://thisweekinfandomhistory.tumblr.com! You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory. If you hav...
2024-04-141h 00This Week In Fandom HistoryApril 2, 1956: As the World Turns Premieres on CBSIt wasn't me... it was... my evil twin brother! This week, V and Emily look at a somewhat different kind of fandom by delving into the long, long history of As The World Turns, a daytime soap opera that ran for over 50 years. ATWT made television history in 2007 when they featured the first M/M kiss, and first positively-portrayed M/M relationship, on American daytime television, but of course, Luke/Noah were not without drama. Melodrama. This star-studded episode features green-card marriages, murder attempts, doctor-blackmailing, Meg Ryan, and Spanish prisons. What more could you want from your stories?
2024-04-0846 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryMarch 26, 2005: Doctor Who Returns to the BBCFantastic! This week, Emily and V finally get to talk about one of their shared favorite fandoms: Doctor Who (New Who). With a focus on the emotional, oft-overlooked Ninth Doctor as played by Christopher Eccleston, they discuss the best and worst aspects of the show, how it makes them cry, and some timely (pun intended) elements brought specifically to the reboot by Eccleston, Billie Piper, and writer Russell T. Davies. Come along with us on the TARDIS, won't you? Additional Sources A Love Letter to the Aggressive Queerness of Captain Jack Harkness by Patrick Lenton
2024-03-3158 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryMarch 22-25, 2012: Holy Musical B@man!He's darkness! He's vengeance! This week, V and Emily look at the uniquely nerdy StarKid fandom and their superhero parody musical, HOLY MUSICAL B@MAN! (That's "B@man," not "Batman," in case Warner Brothers asks.) They look at the way StarKid musicals feel like your Tumblr dashboard, how Sean Astin will do basically anything you ask him to do apparently, and how absolutely insufferable your hosts were as high school theatre kids. (Yes, theatre, not theater. That's how insufferable.) Musical references abound! And, amazingly, we understand a joke in the show BECAUSE OF A PREVIOUS EPISODE OF TWIFH!
2024-03-2449 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryFebruary-March 2009: Racefail '09 Continues, with Guest bossymarmaladeNo pithy exclamation this week, folks, we're jumping right into the actual episode description: This week, V and Emily are joined by Maggie @bossymarmalade, who was one of the key meta-writers during this unfortunate fandom (and wider writing world) event. "Racefail '09" is the moniker for a lengthy discussion on LiveJournal in 2009 about the role of race in fandom and the SF/F community, from heinous depictions of POC in SF/F titles to the way POC always seem to die first in fan-favorite TV shows to the lack of representation of fans of color at conventions, and more...
2024-03-031h 03This Week In Fandom HistoryJanuary 20, 2015: Parse Drops (TW F-Slur, Homophobic Violence)Helloooooo, internet land! This week, Emily and V were treated to a primer on the OMG Check Please! fandom by listener and friend-of-the-pod korechthonia, and Emily explains the divide between the pro-Parse and anti-Parse sides of the otherwise sweet and peaceful fandom. Plus, she tells V about growing up on a boys' hockey team herself and losing a tooth on the ice! Also, inextricable from OMGCP's sweet tale of gay hockey players in love is the sad, homophobic truth of the NHL, so we had to dig into that as well. But mostly: cute hockey comic about love and...
2024-01-2258 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: The Batshit Saga of Andy Thanfiction, Part II (TW Gaslighting, Abuse, Murder, Gun Violence, Suicide, Mental Illness)Happy one year of TWIFH! To celebrate the end of our first year and to give you a huge chunk o' podcast to get through New Year's Eve, this week V and Emily are holding their breaths and taking a deep dive into the strange, insidious, bananapants crazytown world of Andrew Blake AKA Jordan Wood AKA Amy Player AKA Victoria Bitter AKA VoyagerBabe AKA strwriter AKA thanfiction and his many, many crimes in the fandomspace (and outside of the fandomspace, too). Because this story deals with many heavy topics and is incredibly long and harrowing, we have split this...
2023-12-311h 30This Week In Fandom HistoryANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: The Batshit Saga of Andy Thanfiction, Part I (TW Gaslighting, Abuse, Suicide Attempt, Fraud, Mental Illness)Happy one year of TWIFH! To celebrate the end of our first year and to give you a huge chunk o' podcast to get through New Year's Eve, this week V and Emily are holding their breaths and taking a deep dive into the strange, insidious, bananapants crazytown world of Andrew Blake AKA Jordan Wood AKA Amy Player AKA Victoria Bitter AKA VoyagerBabe AKA strwriter AKA thanfiction and his many, many crimes in the fandomspace (and outside of the fandomspace, too). Because this story deals with many heavy topics and is incredibly long and harrowing, we have split this...
2023-12-311h 41This Week In Fandom HistoryAugust-November 1988: "A Death in the Family" Divides Batman FandomPOW! This week, V and Emily venture to the DC side of comics fandom as they learn about "A Death in the Family" and the poll to kill off, or save, Batman's Robin at the time, Jason Todd. From the involvement of grandmothers trying to soothe weeping children who loved Robin to utterly bananas racism in the comic itself, "A Death in the Family" changed the course of Batman comics for decades and still affects stories today as Jason Todd has had a resurgence of popularity as the Red Hood (voiced, because of course he is, by one Jensen...
2023-09-171h 16This Week In Fandom HistoryAugust 31, 2009: Disney Buys Marvel Studios, And We Enter the EndgameWelcome, true believers! This week, V and Emily take a turn towards becoming an economics podcast -- no, wait! Don't go away! It's still interesting and we get to be li'l haters! This week in fandom history, Disney bought Marvel, and V tells Emily all about the absolutely terrible shitbag dude who's been behind most of the worst MCU decisions (and it's NOT Feige!). Also the amount of money that Disney paid for Marvel is obscene. For better or worse, this is an event that shaped at least the next decade of fandom. What would you do with billions...
2023-09-011h 09This Week In Fandom HistoryA VERY SPECIAL EPISODE! July 11-13, 2014: DashCon, with Special Guest Lauren Shippen!Do you want an extra hour in the ball pit? This week, for the first time, V and Emily are joined by a VERY SPECIAL GUEST, Lauren Shippen of the podcast Dashboard Diaries! They discuss the convention to end all conventions, the first (and only) DashCon. From its birth on the blue hellsite to its death in a Chicagoland hotel, DashCon was truly a lesson for the ages that just because sometimes fandom can pull off amazing and inspirational feats, sometimes it... cannot. Lauren brings her expertise in all things Tumblr to TWIFH with humor and grace. Did you...
2023-07-111h 04This Week In Fandom HistoryMarch 8, 2016: #LGBTFansDeserveBetter and the Spring SlaughterWe're not gonna take it anymore! This week, Emily and V delve into righteous -- and rightful -- fannish anger at the constant, demoralizing, dehumanizing deaths of lesbian characters on television, and the straw that broke the fandom camel's back: the death of Lexa on The 100. Fans turned their heartbreak and rage over yet another dead WLW into a truly amazing, awe-inspiring call to action. Do you know how many dead WLW there were on TV in the season surrounding Lexa's murder? Do you want to cry your face off with your co-hosts this week?
2023-03-051h 10This Week In Fandom HistoryMarch 2013: The Flower Crown Meme (TW Body Horror, Gore)This is my design! And it's a halo of flowers 'round the head of my blorbo. This week, Emily and V take a harrowing look at the history of the flower crown meme and its biggest proponent: Hannibal fandom. From the comedic sensibilities of 'fannibals' to the whimsy, or lack thereof, of Bryan Fuller shows, this was a topic that... was scary. Tell me, Will, will V ever be able to get into bed normally again? And what the heck does Harry Styles have to do with all of this? TRIGGER WARNINGS: Body horror, Hannibal-typical gore
2023-02-261h 02This Week In Fandom HistoryFebruary 19, 2007: Tumblr FoundedAll hail the blue hellsite! This week, V and Emily talk the timeline of fandom's transition onto Tumblr and why the heck we're all still there. From corporate takeovers that lost millions to the Very Special Episode that was November 5, 2020, Tumblr is an indelible part of fannish history because it's a platform that's lasted so long and been home to so many of us. Why? How?
2023-02-191h 39This Week In Fandom HistoryFebruary 2013: Femslash February FoundedHappy Femslash February! This week, V and Emily go back ten years to the introduction of an annual fandom holiday: Femslash February. Whether you're devout or just dipping your toes into the spiritual waters of femslash celebration, this episode goes hard on preaching the gospel of all things F/F. Why should dudes get all the attention? Also, just how shameful is the filthy tangent in the middle of the ep?
2023-02-121h 03This Week In Fandom HistoryFebruary 1983: Groundhog Day Stories Published, Helping Create Slash As We Know ItAll hail Punxatawney Phil! This week, Emily and V go back to the rad 1980s and learn about a fandom they'd never considered before: Starsky & Hutch. It turns out these two slashable dudes helped to forge fandom as we know it today, and the publication of the fic "February 2nd" by Alexis Rogers is a big part of why we all love it when a blond man and a brunet man who are a sunshine one and a grumpy one bone down. Have you considered how to trade slash zines when they were "obscene material"? And will you do...
2023-02-0556 minThis Week In Fandom HistoryJanuary-February 2010: Help_Haiti Auction... And Its AftermathGet out your pocketbooks! This week, V and Emily go back to one of fandom's highest highs and a pretty low low as they discuss the 2010 Help_Haiti charity auction... and the infamous J2 Haiti Fic. After the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, fandom came together for one of its largest charity auctions ever, raising an unprecedented amount of money for aid on the ground. Unfortunately, nice things can't stay nice, and the same devastating loss of life was later used as fodder for J2 to fall in very white-boy love. Where is the line between inspiration and exploitation?
2023-01-291h 21This Week In Fandom HistoryJanuary 24, 2016: One Direction Fans Discuss "Conchobar"Congrats to the proud papa! Back in 2016, One Direction's Louis Tomlinson became a father (fact) and 1D fans everywhere decided that the baby's name was Conchobar (rumor). This week, V tells Emily the story of a fandom she was actually in, and may have had an accidental hand in turning into a shitshow, as the sordid saga of Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson shipping baffles Emily to her core. When does RPF (real-person fanfiction) turn from a hobby into a damaging force? Why did actual celebrity news sources pander to "Larries"? And how much fault actually lies at V's very...
2023-01-221h 19This Week In Fandom HistoryJanuary 1967: The First Star Trek Zine Is DistributedLong live Strekdom and may it always prosper! This week, Emily and V are heading to the original frontier of fannish culture: Star Trek fan clubs of the 1960's. It's super emotional, and the women who created the groundwork of everything we love today deserve our utmost respect for their sheer ballsiness and bananas love of Leonard Nimoy. Join us as we learn about Vulcanalia, discuss ditto machines, and basically write RPF about how much we love the OG fangirls of yore. Have you paid your membership dues? Did you remember your Tupperware of snacks?
2023-01-151h 01This Week In Fandom HistoryJanuary 11, 1994: The First X-Files Fanfiction Is PostedWe want to believe! In the second week of January, we're heading back thirty years (woof) to ye olde Web 1.0 and the very first online X-Files fanfiction. But to our surprise, it wasn't just an X-Files fic! Join V and Emily as they get to explore a whole new-to-them fandom as they learn about cult fave Forever Knight, talk alt-net servers and e-mail lists, and read the cutest author's note in fandom history. Are you MSR or NoRomo? More importantly, are you a Friend Of Don?
2023-01-0857 min
This Week In Fandom HistoryJanuary 4, 2005: LiveJournal Sold to SixApartHappy New Year! It's the first week of January, and V and Emily are exploring the effects of LiveJournal's sale to SixApart Media on January 4, 2005. Fandom is an eternal wanderer, forever losing its homes on the internet. Was this sale the harbinger of things to come? How did updates to LJ's terms of use affect fandom and fanfiction? Will fandom ever find a forever-home online?
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