John has shortlisted, Alison has worked in large organisations, and Liz has done a spot-the-difference.
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 X or on Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media.
Content warnings this episode: LLMs
- Letters of comment
- Chris Garcia
- Clarrie Maguire
- Colette Reap
- Roseanna Pendlebury
- Tobes Valois
- We also heard from Ali Baker Brooks, Ang Rosin, Brian Nisbet, Caroline Mullan, DC, Doug Faunt, Ed Morland, Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Farah Mendlesohn, Gareth Kavanagh, Ivan Sinha, Jonathan Baddeley, Jonathan Cowie, Kin-Ming Looi, Lilian Edwards, Meg MacDonald, Neil Ottenstein, Phil Dyson, Raj, Sandra Bond, Shi Lala, Tammy Coxen, Tony Keen, TrishEM, Zoë O’Connell
- Corflu
- Ada Palmer runs a class called “The Italian Renaissance: Dante, Machiavelli, and the Wars of Popes and Kings,” better known by students as “pope class” or “pope LARP”
- Chris Barkley has sued Dave McCarty
- Locus
- 2025 fundraiser
- Revenue is flat and costs are up 21%
- Clarke Award
- Worldcon 2025: Seattle
- Picks
- John: The Mark by Frìða Ìsberg
- Alison: Sinners
- Liz: Blue Prince
- Credits
- Cover art: “Sample FAAn Award” by Alison Scott
- Alt text: A photograph of a yellow square on a mantlepiece. On the yellow square is black text and a red shape with yellow text. The text reads “Corflu 42. 2025 FAAn Awards. Best Immutable Object: Octothorpe”. Text overlaid on the photograph reads ‘Octothorpe 134. “Don’t believe everything you read on ChatGPT.”’
- Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
- Cover art: “Sample FAAn Award” by Alison Scott