Fansplaining

In this episode, Flourish and Elizabeth follow up on the last episode's questions about the impact of racism in the Star Wars fandom—and how it's a microcosm of fandom at large. They interview Rukmini Pande and Clio, and they hear clips from Holly Quinn, Shadowkeeper, and PJ Punla. Topics covered include the historical presence of fans of color, space nazis, femslash and its discontents, and the F...

In the second and final installment of our "Race and Fandom" episodes, fans of color continue to speak about their experiences in fandom. Elizabeth and Flourish interview Jeffrey Lyles and Zina, then hear clips from Roz, Traci-Anne, and zvi LikesTV. Topics covered include being Black and Jewish, Star Wars weddings, cosplaying characters of color, and why kink is never divorced from the real world.

In Episode 21, "Trash Ships and Fandom IRL," Flourish and Elizabeth split the episode between two different topics. First they talk to Fansplaining regular DestinationToast about her recent Star Wars shipping statistical analysis (during which Flourish declares herself Captain Of The Garbage Scow). Then they talk to Alexa Donne of Leviosa about the task of running a fan convention, including the i...

In Episode 20, "Inside Baseball," Elizabeth and Flourish talk to Cecilia Tan, who took her partner to a Yankees game in 1999 and ended up with the first baseball fan blog online—and eventually, a professional baseball writing career. Cecilia talks about her many fannish hats, from her erotic romance press to Harry Potter fanfic to the Menudo newsletter she mailed to hundreds of fangirls to nearly...

In Episode 19, "Cataloging Fandom," Elizabeth and Flourish talk to Ludi Price, a librarian and PhD student in information science whose research focuses on how fans collect, tag, share, and otherwise interact with information (e.g., fanart, fanfic, fanvids, facts about their fandoms, etc.). Then they read and discuss two listener comments. Topics covered include crowdsourcing, Jeremy Bentham, why...

This episode of Fansplaining is a little different: due to a technical problem, we weren't able to use our guest's audio, so we posted a transcript of the whole conversation, and the episode is a conversation ABOUT the conversation. For episode 18, Flourish and Elizabeth talked to Clay Liford, the director of SLASH: The Movie, a film about teen sexuality and fanfiction. Slash recently premiered at...

In our first SPECIAL DOUBLE EPISODE, "The Powers That Be," Elizabeth grills Flourish on how the sausage gets made. Topics covered include how a TV show gets picked up for pilot, how a pilot turns into a series, how casting decisions are made, whether network executives really ruin everything, and a whole bevy of listener questions about the entertainment industry! Plus get ready for your new favor...

In Episode 16, Flourish and Elizabeth welcome back statistician destinationtoast for her first segment as a regular contributor! They take a quantitative look at some linguistic issues from last time and discuss the peculiarities of RPF. Next, they're joined by Owen G. Parry, a visual and performance artist who created Larry! Monument, a piece inspired by One Direction fandom. Topics covered inclu...

In Episode 15, ~fanspeak, Elizabeth and Flourish interview Gretchen McCulloch, a linguist who studies the way people speak online. Topics covered include Cabin Pressure, the use of the tilde, ship and fandom names as linguistic markers, and why linguists are so incredibly chill about everything! Plus she answers some listener questions—and throws a few unanswered ones back out to the audience.

After the deaths of David Bowie and Alan Rickman, Elizabeth and Flourish take some time to reflect on the way fandom mourns their idols. Featuring Casey Fiesler (professor of Information Science at CU Boulder) on the parallels between online and physical memorials, Kathleen Smith (the Fangirl Therapist) on healthy ways to cope, and a meditation on the eventual death of Paul Giamatti.

In Episode 13 of Fansplaining, Elizabeth and Flourish interview Destinationtoast about her world-famous fandom statistical analyses. Topics covered include "2015: A (statistical) year in fandom," bad math, the differences between major fanfic archives, and trends on the rise in the coming year—plus, Elizabeth gets trolled.

In Episode 12 of Fansplaining, Elizabeth and Flourish count down their five top media fandom stories of 2015—and ask you to share your own. They also share personal fandom stories from 2015, and make a New Year's resolution for the podcast next year. Topics covered include the Triple Crown, Ham4Ham, Star Wars: The Force Awakens (with only the very lightest of spoilers!), and the fact that you hear...

In Episode 11 of Fansplaining, "Muggles v No-Maj," Elizabeth (while in England) interviews Caroline Crampton and Anna Leszkiewicz of SRSLY, the New Statesman's pop culture podcast; Flourish, back in New York, adds her responses. Topics covered include what the job of a magazine editor really entails, the difficulties of being a fan and a journalist, Britpicking, whether Tumblr is an American space...

In Episode 10 of Fansplaining, Fangirling Through Time, Elizabeth & Flourish interview Evan Hayles Gledhill about the Tumblr of the Victorian era, Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and other depictions of fans in media, Walt Whitman's reaction to his gushy fanmail (and other topics covered by historicalsquee), and the enduring patriarchal effort to police women's reading and writing. In addition, we...

In this episode, we interview Jackson Bird, communications director of the Harry Potter Alliance and waffle aficionado. Topics covered include the changing definition of "fan activism," coming out as trans on YouTube, Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander and Lili Elbe, and whether—if you had to choose just one—you would pick waffles or Harry Potter.

In this episode, we answer the question "What is fandom?" Topics covered include whether "fandom" implies "community," the Buffalo Bills' sad-sack Superbowl record, whether transformative works are really central to fandom as we think of it, and rock fans... not rock n' roll, geodes.

In this episode, we interview Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, faculty at the Penn Graduate School of Education (and longtime fangirl). Topics covered include Anne of Green Gables, suspension of disbelief, RaceFail, and the catharsis of Gossip Girl fanfiction. We also discuss Rainbow Rowell's CARRY ON and Stephenie Meyer's LIFE AND DEATH.

In this episode, we interview Amanda Brennan, AKA the Meme Librarian. Topics covered include candle fandom, archiving the internet, why people tag their Tumblr posts with whole long sentences, and tweenage Hanson fanfic. We also respond to a listener comment from Elsa, who has some concerns with the way we've been talking about the interactions between fans and major media companies.

In this episode, we interview Jules Wilkinson, admin of Supernatural Wiki. Topics covered include intentional community building, creators using fan-made resources, Your Fave Is Problematic, squickfic, and tentacles. Lots of tentacles.

In this episode, we interview Betsy Rosenblatt and Heidi Tandy, two genuine fandom legal eagles. Topics covered include listener responses to the Wattpad episode, the purpose and projects of the Organization for Transformative Works, plagiarism vs. copyright infringement, and #FanworksAreFairUse. Cover image courtesy Jonathunder, from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cour...

In this episode, we interview Aron Levitz and Samantha Pennington of Wattpad, and try to answer the question: what IS the deal with that platform?! Topics covered include noobs, the fan-to-pro pipeline, whether it's weird to read fanfic on your phone, and Flourish's newfound love of One Direction.

In this episode, Elizabeth visits GeekyCon and sees the Harry Potter theme park for the first time; Elizabeth & Flourish field a listener question from Tahariels; and we have a conversation with Meredith Levine, intrepid fanthropologist. Topics covered include LeakyCat, finding community in fandom, stars reading fanfic, and the intersections between fandom, consumerism, and commerce.

In the first episode of Fansplaining, Elizabeth Minkel and Flourish Klink introduce themselves and discuss their panel at SDCC, "Fandom Is My Fandom: Or, We All Live in a Coffeeshop AU." Topics covered include "going pro," selling out, making money in fandom, fandom as a safe space, and whether we should use the term "fandom" or "fandomS."