John is a professor, Alison doesn’t have a bucket list, and Liz is the country’s foremost fan historian.

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

Content warnings this episode: More wealth privilege (chapter 2)

• Letters of comment
  • Bridget Bradshaw
  • Christopher J Garcia
  • Farah Mendlesohn
  • Jonathan Cowie
  • Jonny Baddeley
  • Kin-Ming Looi
  • Sandra Bond
  • Tammy Coxen
• Awards
  • Babel wins “Best Translated Work” at the 2024 Xingyun Awards
  • Clarke Award finalists
    • John: 0, Alison: 1, Liz: 3
    • The winner will be announced on 24 July
  • 2024 Nebula Awards
  • 2023 Nebula Awards
  • Locus Awards
• Glasgow 2024
  • The Hugo Packet is now available
  • Joel’s Whisky Zoom is hosting a tour of the Clydeside Distillery on 9 August at 7pm
• Picks
  • John: Sunderland Shorts Film Festival
    • Soulmate, Beautiful Things, Ensouled, Finger Food, Bisected, Own Home?, R1CO, The First Time I Never Met You
    • Wes Anderson’s short adaptations of Roald Dahl
  • Alison: Aurora
    • Liz’s view on auroras
  • Liz: A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin [paper, ebook, audiobook, Amazon]
• Credits
  • Cover art: “Explain 2233” by Alison Scott
    • Alt text: Three photographs of the night sky, labelled Newcastle, Bangkok, and “Quite near London” (the labels were written by a Londoner, which is why it doesn’t just say “London”). Text above reads “Octothorpe 110” and below reads “Local Aurora Snapshots”. The Newcastle and London images show photographs of aurora with some minor bits of vegetation intruding; the Bangkok picture shows a skyline of buildings underneath a thunderstorm.
  • Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)