#helen reads 2022

[bibliophilecats]

Read this month: November 2022

So many great books!

B. Stoker - Dracula (e-mail)

T. Baldree - Legends & Lattes

S. Fry - Mythos, the Greek Myths Retold (audio)

M. Lo - Last Night at the Telegraph Club

T. Pratchett - The Science of Discworld (audio)

E. Maxwell - Ocean’s Echo (eARC)

I am floored at the amount of fantastic books I read this month. Only Science of Disvworld wasn’t outstanding - but that is okay as I have found so much joy in all others. Everina Maxwell is a new auto-buy author and I definitely want to check out Malinda Lo’s other books. Legens & Lattes is such a quiet, cozy read (but still has some action), it calmed my mind. And Dracula in the form of Dracula Daily was An Experience. 

(only drawback: I did not read a single book of my start of the year tbr - but I do not regret a single reading choice nonetheless)

[littledidiknow]

Books Read in 2022

Faggots by Larry Kramer (1978)

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (2009)

Never Be Alone Again: How Bloghouse United the Internet and the Dancefloor by Lisa Abascal (2020)

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (2015)

Arriving Today by Christopher Mims (2021)

But What If We’re Wrong? by Chuck Klosterman (2016)

Fuccboi by Sean Thor Conroe (2022)

Red Notice by Bill Browder (2015)

How Should A Person Be? By Sheila Heti (2010)

Astragal by Albertine Sarrazin (1965)

Human Wishes Enemy Combatant by Edmund Caldwell (2011)

Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry (2019)

This is How They Tell Me the World Ends by Nicole Perlroth (2021)

Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy by Dave Hickey (1997)

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (2009)

Gentleman Overboard by Herbert Clyde Lewis (1937)

A Wreath for the Enemy by Pamela Frankau (1954)

Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt  (2011)

Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (2019) (reread)

LaserWriter II by Tamara Shopsin (2021)

By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolano (2000)

Hot Milk by Deborah Levy (2016)

The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt (2000)

Milkman by Anna Burns (2018)

The Golden Spur by Dawn Powell (1962)

They by Kay Dick (1977)

Bliss Montage: Stories by Ling Ma (2022)

Status and Culture by W. David Marx (2022)

This was a big year for me both for quantity (nearly twice as many books as i read last year) but also for quality. So many standouts! And I'm learning I'm very here for experimental literature, please send me your weirdo recos.

Where the hell has Helen Dewitt been all my life? How are so few of her books published?! (she claims to have a dozen ready to go and i need all of them).

Chuck Klosterman has really grown up since I last paid attention to him like 15 years ago. But What if We're Wrong? changed the way I look at the world. He looks at the present day from 1000 years in the future and comtemplates what we could be completely wrong about based on what we've been wrong about in the past. Some of the interviews I've listened to of his this year have really opened my mind to new ways of thinking. Will be doubling back on what I've missed from him in years past in 2023.

Fuccboi was a blast and all the literture snobs that hated it are just completely fucking wrong.

I found Human Wishes Enemy Combatant through a newsletter or something. How lucky we are that this was released again! Read if you want to experience someone completely destroying the structure of a novel.

Milkman is gorgeous. Read immediately.

Gentleman Overboard is another that was nearly lost to time and recently published again. A beautiful and haunting little story.

Read Faggots for a very fun and raunchy romp through the gay sex scene of the late 70s moments before the AIDs crisis. You won't be able to keep track of all the characters, but it doesn't really matter.

How Red Notice hasn't been made into a movie by Adam McKay is beyond me. Maybe it's coming. A great window into Russia's transition after the Soviet Union and also the mindset of modern Russians. Also lots of fascinating stock, money stuff.

Read Arriving Today and This is How they Tell Me the World Ends (about the supply chain and hacking/internet security respectively.) for a peak into our modern lives told by very good story tellers in ways that are far from boring.

I could go on and on about Fleishman is in Trouble (and have in person to so many). The story of two women trojan horsed through the tale of one very mid man. The series on Hulu is also good and an incredibly accurate representation of the book.

Status and Culture! I'm still reeling from this book. Marx is so direct when looking at how and why we like the things we like it almost makes you uncomfortable. i don't think i have ever underlined, astricked, exclamation pointed so much in the margins of a book.

The Golden Spur, They, Bliss Montage, Astragal, How Should A Person Be?, Laserwriter ii, Night Boat to Tangier, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead are all well worth reading also. Honestly, I was blown away by almost everything i read this year minus two big exceptions.

I hated The Buried Giant. Read it for a book club. I'm not a fantasy girl. I get what he was trying to do with the language, but i couldn't get into it, it felt like a bad translation. Which is really saying something for a book written in English. If he called her Princess one more time, I can't.

1Q84 I really wanted to love, (my first Murakami, somehow.). I really liked the first section, but it just didn't add up for me in the end and there were so many loose ends for such a long book.

I have found so many of the books that i loved this year on the podcast Backlisted. Two British guys have on two guests to discuss an old, out of print, or a newer book that isn't as popular. They are charming, it's very nerdy. But they have incredible taste and i put at least 5 books into my Thriftbooks cart during every episode. n+1 also did a fundraiser quiz that gives you 10 book recos. i was very excited about all of them and most of them i'd never heard of. Haven't read any yet, but many are sitting in the same shopping cart. Just checked and they aren't doing it anymore, but look for it next year!

[similistic]

Books of 2022

Favorites:

- Owen by Kevin Henkes It’s a children’s book about a mouse who is very attached to his security blanket. XD

- Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler A very eerie post-apocalytpic/dystopian science fiction novel. The story is set between 2024 and 2027, so reading it in 2022, as a resident of California, was a bit chilling and very thought-provoking.

- Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb This is book 2 of the Rain Wild Chronicles series, and to be honest, I don’t highly recommend the other three books in the series, and I’m not sure I would have “favorited” it as a stand alone. But it’s the most dragon-centric book of the series and I really enjoyed her treatment of dragons and their lore.

5-Star Ratings in 2022:

- The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles Young man coming of age, vintage Americana.

- Bravely by Maggie Stiefvater Basically a look at what happens to Merida from Disney/Pixar’s “Brave” after the events of the movie.

- The Partner Track by Helen Wan Young, female, Asian lawyer, trying to make partner at her firm. Dealing with racism and sexism. Slight “Devil Wears Prada” vibes.

- The Hating Game by Sally Thorne Fun romance novel. Enemy to lovers trope.

- 99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne Fun romance novel.

- Mad Ship by Robin Hobb Book 2 of the Liveship Traders trilogy.

[rivkathetechie]

Rating books I read this year:

“Red, White, and Royal Blue” by Casey McQuiston. 8/10, I love my dumb American boy with a literal Prince Charming. Don’t care about anything I love it so much I’ve listened to the audiobook 5 times this year.

“Iron Widow” by Xiran Jay Zhao. 10/10. All of this. Perfection. This might as well be a XJZ fan account. Yas Empress let’s destroy the patriarchy 💖

“A Touch of Darkness” by Scarlett St. Clair. 5/10, so many tropes but it’s aight. Decent smut but nothing to write home about. I’m just a sucker for enemies to lovers.

“A Touch of Ruin” by Scarlett St. Clair. 1/10. I hated Persephone and everything was just so… ugh. Bad. Went from questionable and tortured love interest to “I can’t justify this fucking douchebag.” Didn’t finish because it made me so mad.

“She Drives Me Crazy” by Kelly Quindlen. 7/10, cute sapphic YA. Tropes are tropes for a reason. Cute as hell tho.

“Neon Gods” by Katee Robert. 9/10. Tropes are tropes for a reason, love this take on Hades/Persephone. Preferred the smut here to St. Clair’s work, way preferred Persephone’s characterization here (I became a Persephone connoisseur in 2022 I guess.)

“You Go Your Own Way” by Eric Smith. 6/10 Enemies to lovers trope and a dorky main character I kinda identified with. Ending felt rushed but it’s alright. Love the audiobook narration. Very quick read so it’s great for commutes.

“Today, Tonight, Tomorrow” by Rachel Lynn Solomon. 8/10. Literally EVERY trope (well, feels like it) and very pointed “meet cute AU” moments that felt very self aware. Props for well done incidental Jewish rep that bucks stereotypes and doesn’t involve Chanukah.

“The Golem and the Jinni” by Helene Wecker. 10/10. Might be the best book I read this year. A 20 hour audiobook and I listened to it twice in a workweek. It was so good. SO good. Multiple rounded characters. Could be a bit convoluted and confusing toward the end if you weren’t paying attention, but I was so invested. I give this audiobook to people who want to get back into fantasy novels.

“They Went Left” by Monica Hesse. 6/10. Heavy. Good, made me cry, wish a romance hadn’t happened. I disagree with my library insisting this is YA, felt more adult than the “general audience” of “The Golem and the Jinni.” The twist destroyed me. I was a broken person for like 10 minutes working in a laboratory trying not to cry into a beaker. 9 hours but heavy enough to last a while. Would be a good emotional rollercoaster for a long train or plane ride.

“Sweet Ruin” by Kresley Cole. 7/10. It isn’t good, per se, it just gets the rocks off. Decent enough and fun to have a desirable protagonist with an accent like mine.

“The Way of Kings” by Brandon Sanderson. 4/10. I just can’t get into Sanderson. Hot take, I know. Did not finish.

“Gideon the Ninth” by Tamsyn Muir. 10/10, love my funky space lesbians. I recommend this book all the time when someone wants a cheeky protag. The audiobook is awesome. I was SO invested in this and I can’t believe I waited so long to read it.

“The Bone Clocks” by David Mitchell. 6/10. Very well written, I was just struggling to stay engaged with it while working. Some of the lulls made my brain check out and I would miss critical exposition. That said, very complex, great if you want to read waaaaaaay too into a book.

“A Hunger Like No Other” by Kresley Cole. 6/10. Once again, it doesn’t have to be good. It just has to be.

“The Lies of Locke Lamora” by Scott Lynch. 2/10. I hated this fucking book. Hot take in my friend group, especially since I read Rothfuss and Hearne. But I just hated it. I couldn’t get my teeth into it and couldn’t care about the characters. Did not finish.

“No Other Love” by Harper Bliss. 6/10, cute and sweet. Love a short sapphic read. Unremarkable but good.

“The Chosen” by Chaim Potok. 10/10, one of my favorite authors. He just don’t miss. Heavy at points but I love it.

I probably missed some but here we are. Ones I could remember off top.

[proceduralbob]

I also enjoy canoeing, and I suppose you will smile when I say that I especially like it on moonlight nights. I cannot, it is true, see the moon climb up the sky behind the pines and steal softly across the heavens, making a shining path for us to follow; but I know she is there, and as I lie back among the pillows and put my hand in the water, I fancy that I feel the shimmer of her garments as she passes.

The Story of My Life, Helen Keller

[lifewithchronicpain]

Following the news for Hurricane Helene this week, I’ve been worried about everyone in its path. But it’s the people who rely on prescription pain medication that I am most worried about.

When natural disasters strike, patients who rely on opioids and other controlled substances can be left to face withdrawal or the black market to fill the gaps until doctors and pharmacies are fully functioning again.

While some states have laws in place to allow people to get early refills of their prescriptions when there’s an impending natural disaster, those laws can specifically exclude controlled substances like hydrocodone and Adderall.

According to a 2022 article by Healthcare Ready, the laws vary widely state-by-state and are poorly organized. Only 12 states have laws or regulations that allow for emergency prescriptions during a specified public health emergency. About half the states allow for short-term refills of medication during unspecified emergencies. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia don’t have any regulations allowing for emergency prescriptions.

The two states facing the worst from Hurricane Helene, Florida and Georgia, both have laws allowing for emergency prescription refills – but only one allows for refills of opioids. (Read more at link)

Another reason why we feel the need to privately hoard certain medications.

[d-criss-news]

Darren Criss Says Maybe Happy Ending Is a ‘Phantom-Level’ Spectacle

If you'd asked Darren Criss years ago what his dream stage role was, “Hedwig was it,” says the Golden Globe winner. Well, Criss did perform the title role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch on Broadway in 2015. So in the decade since, what is his new dream? Answers Criss: “If I'm being really honest, it's being able to originate something that hasn't been done on Broadway yet.” So, you can say his newest Broadway project, the new musical Maybe Happy Ending, is another check off the bucket list.

When speaking to Criss about this show in July, he hadn’t yet started rehearsals. But he spoke about the musical with a palpable excitement—after all, it is the first original musical he’s done since his days with the musical theatre company he co-founded, Team Starkid. In recent years, the Emmy winner (who rose to mainstream fame after starring in Glee and The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story) has done mostly revivals on the stage, such as Little Shop of Horrors and American Buffalo.

----------

But to Criss, the particular pleasure of doing something like Maybe Happy Ending is the opportunity to utterly surprise the audience. “​​Being part of something this original is always a bit of an exponential curve,” admits Criss. “It's always a tough climb at the beginning, because people might not have an instant familiarity with it. But I think that it pays its dividends real soon, once they see what they're in for.”

For Shen, though Maybe Happy Ending follows robots, it touches on deeply human questions—both Helperbots are nearing the end of their lifespan and so they must decide if they want to take that emotional leap to make a connection, even if it means they might lose each other. “It feels like there's a ticking clock at the end of it,” she says. “And so, they're a little bit forced to live life to the fullest while they have this opportunity to do so.”

It’s not just the show that’s new. This is Shen’s Broadway debut. While Criss has over 15 years worth of experience under his belt, Shen is a relative newcomer. She was born and raised in New Jersey; her parents immigrated from Shanghai to America. They both play the violin, passing down their musical aptitude to their daughter, who grew up playing piano. She graduated from the University of Michigan (Criss’ alma mater) in 2022. Though she is still green, Shen’s credits are impressive: This year alone, she starred in the Off-Broadway musicals The Lonely Few and Teeth—both of which were favorably received. “I suppose, in a way, it feels like arriving,” Shen says with hesitancy, as if she doesn’t want to spoil this lucky year. “I think it's a cautious arrival. It's so wonderful and such a blessing and gift to be working with this particular team.”

Criss met Shen during her final callback for the show, which was a chemistry read with Criss where they sang a song together (though years earlier, Shen had attended a master class Criss held at the University of Michigan). More recently, the two have quickly bonded over being trained musicians who eventually became actors (Criss plays guitar, violin, and a bevy of other instruments). 

When it’s pointed out that he’s now effectively a Broadway veteran, Criss exclaims (to the giggling Shen), “I cannot fucking believe it. That sounds so twisted, like so Twilight Zone. To me, I've always been the youngest, like, I was always the kid.” But then, he brings it back to his co-star, which he does multiple times during the interview saying, “She'll kick so much fucking ass. That's one of my favorite parts about being in this, I get to forever now be part of the inevitable rise of a young star.”

It’s not just talk. Criss recently had Shen perform multiple songs at his music festival Elsie Fest. When asked what they’re excited for in Maybe Happy Ending, Shen’s answer was getting to sing the score. “The uniqueness of the sonic world—the music is so ethereal, and it's so gorgeous,” she enthuses. “The music feels so beautifully understated, but also, it's orchestral and sweeping. And not to mention, the people who are already attached to the project are people that I look up to in my own career so much.”

There is the assumption that because the show has a chamber musical sound, and it has four cast members, that it’s a small show. Think again, teases Criss: “It's four people, and the story is a ‘smaller’ story, but it has really, really big ideas.” So much so that in July, Maybe Happy Ending announced it would be delaying the start of previews by a month, citing supply chain issues that prevented crucial components of the set from getting to the theatre in time.

Though, Criss admits, “it sounds like we're covering up some nefarious reason.”

Laughs Shen: “We had to clear our beef.”

“Yeah, our beef,” smiles Criss. “Supply chain delay sounds like, kind of made up, but it's literally that.” Though he can’t say much more about what this intricate set design entails, other than it will utilize “cutting edge technology” to match its robot protagonists. As he excitedly puts it: “We're talking [Phantom of the Opera] level of production. This is a spectacle…I can categorically say that this will be something that you have never seen the likes of before on a Broadway stage.”

[s-che]

“you are a good nurse” (knives out and great men)

***(this is extremely spoilery for both knives out and glass onion. read with caution)***

In quarantine, in a smaller apartment than you might expect, Benoit Blanc is playing Among Us. This is a game—like Clue—which the celebrity detective hates. It’s too simple, too obvious, and too easy to resolve. Although he holds himself to be better than these “stupid things,” they are also a weakness—later, we will be told that he nearly failed to solve a case because it was too simple all along. For now, the gentleman sleuth is doing poorly in isolation, suffering from an all-consuming boredom which descends between cases (a trait he shares with his literary antecedents in Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes). This is, all in all, a tremendous reintroduction to Blanc, the detective who, in 2019’s Knives Out, solved the murder of James PattersoHarlan Thrombey and who—in 2022’s Glass Onion—will attend a murder-mystery themed weekend getaway of the innermost circle of tech billionaire Elon MusMiles Bron. Blanc shares DNA with the classic sleuths—but he is both more and less of a hero than they were. Much of that has to do with the communities he finds himself in. Murder mysteries have always run on high-energy casts of colorful characters—most especially in the works of Agatha Christie, whose Mousetrap, Murder on the Orient Express, and And Then There Were None feel like important steps on the road to Knives Out. Working with big tropes and cliches makes sense in a genre which is, in many ways, about developing and subverting reader expectations, and the two Knives Out films certainly build on that mold, establishing a set of stock characters drawn from the here and the now. Whether we’re dealing with a wealthy college student who sets her political beliefs aside to bow to the demands of her family (Katherine Langford as Meg Thrombey, Knives Out) or an internet micro-influencer about to explode into the mainstream screaming about the downfall of western masculinity (Dave Bautista as Duke Cody, Glass Onion), the supporting casts of both Benoit Blanc murder-flicks are fresh tropes for a fresh culture. They’re also—critically—all drawn from a particular world. Children of wealthy families, publishing executives, influencers, lifestyle models—these are people given a huge privilege, not only in the quality of their lifestyles but in the degree of their control over the direction of their lives. Although Knives Out and Glass Onion both  depict circles dependent on the charity of individual, powerful men—Harlan Thrombey and Miles Bron, respectively—they are also circles made up of people who society grants decision-making power, imbuing them with the belief that they are the protagonists of life granted the god-given right to personhood in contrast to those in sidelined roles—the help, medical staff, and “Derol.” The heroes of both films, however, are the odd ones out. They are neither the suspects (the colorful ensembles of those who “could have done it”) nor the celebrity sleuth himself (on whom everyone depends to solve the mystery and straighten things out), but rather those who are pushed to the side—assumed to be objects, not actors. Marta and Helen are the Watsons of both movies—the characters through whom we view the story, whose experiences frame and color our own (Helen takes on this role predominantly in the second half of the movie, once her true identity has been revealed to the audience). Unlike Holmes’s Watson or Poirot’s Arthur Hastings, however, these two characters are not neutral “straight characters” but individuals who suffer an active isolation, people who—however “normal” they might be in comparison to the cast—are marginalized and assumed to occupy a passive space. This positioning impacts their perspective, skewing things for viewers, reminding us that there is no apolitical way to view these events—and not to normalize the antics of the elite. In both cases—as Marta is Harlan’s long-term nurse and Helen is dedicated to seeking justice for her sister—they are presumed to, and in many cases do, act without ego, functioning solely as objects and in the ecosystem which surrounds the powerful decision makers (Harlan Thrombey and Miles Bron) and support systems on which the protagonists of life can lean. Although the films work to counteract this assumption—reminding us of the fundamental personhood of both Helen and Marta—it is also partially through their dedication to serving others that both Helen and Marta succeed. Blanc puts this clearly in Knives Out when he reveals that he knew Marta was involved in the murder from the start: “I want you to remember something very important:” he says “You won not by playing the game Harlan's way, but yours.” The heroes of these films do not succeed by using their invisible status to their advantage in playing “the game Harlan’s way,” getting one up on everybody by being the cleverest person in the room. Rather, they succeed by staying true to their values and doing what they know is right—even if that means sacrificing themself to the cause of another because it is right. For Marta this is attempting to save Fran—for Helen it is running out of clever ways to seek justice for her sister, and setting fire to theb building instead. By working against their own self-interest in the “game” or “puzzle” of a murder mystery, both Helen and Marta defeat their antagonists. In Knives Out, the Thrombey family spends much of their time bickering over who really deserves to inherit Harlan’s legacy—and the film is clear that none of them can truly claim to have built success themselves, as each was granted the privilege and security of their family’s wealth. None are truly as independent—we might say, “protagonal” —as they believe. Glass Onion takes this a step further, attacking the “source” of the cycle of  wealth. While Harlan Thrombey seems to have been a generally good man, a skilled storyteller, and a strong judge of character—it was his decision to reward Marta, and not his kin, with the inheritance—Glass Onion’s counterpart in Miles Bron is explicitly framed as lacking substance (being a “Glass Onion,” which appears deep but is in fact easy to see through) and having simply been in the right place in the right time to steal someone else’s work. There is no “self-made man” or “good billionaire” in Glass Onion—only people who were lucky enough to be given the opportunity to step on someone else on their way up the ladder. This developed critique of “great men” plays directly into the events of Glass Onion’s climax. Unlike Knives Out, where the police are presented as broadly interested in justice and glad to work alongside Blanc although their investigation has already ended, Glass Onion demonstrates explicitly how systems of power—the courts and the police, but also social dynamics and community pressures—can be bent to the defense of those assumed to be powerful decision makers (like Miles Bron or Ransom Thrombey). There were allusions to this in Knives—where Ransom claims that Benoit solving the murder means nothing, since he has good lawyers and will avoid a significant sentence—but they are eventually unsubstantial, as Marta tricks Ransom into confessing in front of two officers and he is arrested as a result. When, in Glass Onion, when the only evidence to Bron’s crime is burned, Blanc himself seems to surrender, claiming that “This is where my jurisdiction ends” before leaving the room (though not before handing Helen the physical and emotional material she needs to literally burn Miles Bron’s island home to the ground). Although Helen eventually manages to set fire to the Mona Lisa—defeating Bron by ruining his public image, not through criminal prosecution—this does not seem to be her intention when she begins destroying the mansion. In this, Glass Onion seems to develop a second critique of Knives Out—not only do we come to question the validity of the narrative of “good” billionaires, we are shown that, faced with hostile powers insulating  themselves within systems of law and order, the only path to justice may be working outside the law and our basic (i.e. carceral) assumptions of what “justice” is. As the emergency  services arrive to pick up a body, Benoit sits on the beach, smoking a cigar. His hands are clean, and he has inspired Helen to the heroic action that she must take. He is as smart as any Holmes, but he did not do his part in this adventure in the way Holmes would, by playing the game, solving the puzzle, and handing things over to the police. Rather, Benoit has himself taken on a supportive role—supportive to Helen, who has, in turn, taken action and found justice for her sister. He understands the limits of his jurisdiction—in other words, he knows when it is actually his turn to be the protagonist, and when it is his role to inspire others. In a world full of people who claim to have risen to power by their skill and focus, Blanc actually has remarkable skill—but he uses them, ultimately, to ends of uplifting the meek, not simply restoration of order.

[isabelpsaroslunnen]

Oh right, it's not just dissertation month but Pride. I'm belatedly joining the month of my people with ... a poll :)

My best friend has been good-naturedly mocking my predictable (read: gay) taste in female characters since childhood. I thought it would be fun to let the good people of Tumblr vote between some of said predictable options:

[who-is-page]

CoHost Closure & Hurricane Helene/Milton Updates

[Cross-posted from my Patreon]

Social media platform CoHost, which started in 2022, announced Sept. 10th that it would be closing its doors by the end of 2024. Per the staff team's post, CoHost will go into read-only mode on October 1st, and the team will make their best efforts to keep the lights on until the end of the year.

Although not universally well-known, the site was beloved by its members and had a thriving alterhuman community. Because of this, my system has been scouring the tags for public essays to preserve and add to the Alterhuman Archive. So far we've completed looking through #otherkin; all archivists are collectively still working on getting everything summarized, tagged, and mirrored through the Wayback Machine. We've also got some new folks on the Alterhuman Archive team to help with the effort, including Sivaasonikaan, Rudy Cantor, The Dragonheart Collective, and the Draconic Wizard Workshop. Huzzah!

The one problem we're running into is that CoHost disabled new member accounts shortly after its announcement. My system, as far as I'm aware, are the only ones out of the lot of us who had a CoHost log-in. This has slowed down the effort somewhat. I'm focusing on just grabbing what I can from the tags, and then chucking its links into the collective work pile that anyone can work on (unless the work is marked as 18+, it seems). Not an ideal situation, but we're making do. If you have a CoHost piece you want to make sure ends up archived, please send it our way!

Our efforts to archive CoHost (and to work on everything else that we mentioned in the last post) have also been a little hampered thanks to back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton. My town was devastated by both in rapid succession, and I've been without power for a majority of the month. Because of Milton, a large portion of my city is now without Internet access as well, as a large amount of cell towers completely toppled in the storm. Thankfully, my family evacuated and we're all okay-- unfortunately, my job stayed open the morning and afternoon of the day that the hurricane was set to make landfall, having had me scheduled to come in, and calling out of that shift is likely to come with termination (albeit when, I couldn't say; this job has been known to wait up until 363 days after an infraction to terminate or write someone up). Job hunting will shift my plans around quite a bit and losing this job will postpone my degree by a while, unless I can graduate before I lose access to this job's tuition assistance. So we'll have to play these upcoming few months by ear, and I'm going to keep my eyes locked forward as I apply for better positions prior to my formal termination.

[bibliophilecats]

My Reading Year 2022

A good year.

[incorrect-koh-posts]

Other than leper king and his heirs which book would you recommend for research on Baldwin iv of Jerusalem?

All right then, buckle up for some nerdery! 😁

I will preface this by saying that I am not a total expert on Baldwin and haven't done a colossal amount of research specifically on him. I could chew your ear off prattling on about the general world of the crusader kingdoms, their politics, and about Raymond III of Tripoli and Sibylla of Jerusalem in particular, but Baldwin isn't my main interest here. Also, as far as I know, Hamilton's study is the only longer academic work centred solely around Baldwin. Hence, in order to learn more about your fav and the world he lived in, I'd recommend reading a little more broadly. Being a king, he is featured (at least in some capacity) in most publications that deal with the Latin kingdoms in the latter half of the 12th century.

That said, have a list:

Piers D. Mitchell: "Leprosy and the Case of King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem: Microbacterial Disease in the Crusader States of the 12th and 13th Centuries", International Journal of Leprosy, vol. 61, no. 2, 1993, pp. 283-91. Pretty self-explanatory. You can find this article on the internet; Mitchell also has a few other publications that deal with medicine in the crusader states, so you might find some additional Baldwin stuff there as well.

Elma Brenner: "Recent Perspectives on Leprosy in Medieval Western Europe", History Compass, vol. 8, no. 5, 2010, pp. 388-406. Has a little bit on Baldwin, might be useful if you want to find out more about how the disease was regarded by his contemporaries.

Helen J. Nicholson: Sybil, Queen of Jerusalem, 1186-1190. Routledge, 2022. This is a really good and really recent one that I was lucky enough to find in my uni library. Of course Sibylla-centred, but gives a good overview of the politics in Outremer and of course has passages about Baldwin in it. Also look into some of Nicholson's other publications if you're interested in the role of women in the context of crusading.

Kevin James Lewis: The Counts of Tripoli and Lebanon in the Twelfth Century: Sons of Saint Gilles. Routledge, 2017. Obviously mostly a Raymond-centric source, but it is also relatively recent and has a good chunk on Baldwin in the chapter where Lewis talks about Raymond's time as Baldwin's regent.

Joshua Prawer: Crusader Institutions. Oxford University Press, 1980. More politics to be found here, but very well put together. Prawer was an extremely prolific scholar where the history of the Latin East and the crusades was concerned, so - once again: if you're interested, look up his other works.

Jonathan Riley-Smith: The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades, Oxford University Press, 1997. Good overview that goes into detail about the mentality among crusaders and aspects of daily life. Again, Riley-Smith is one of the authorities in the field, so looking into his bibliography might be worth a shot.

If you're into military history, the works of Benjamin Z. Kedar, John France - or, if you want something more dated, R.C. Smail - might be of interest to you. They mostly cover general points of Frankish and Muslim warfare or the Battle of Hattin in particular (other than in Hamilton or in some of the primary sources from the crusader period, I've never come across an article on the Battle of Montgisard), but might be helpful if you want to get a feel for what life was like at the time.

Hans-Eberhard Mayer is also definitely worth a look as a scholar, even though his works are a bit older now. However, I'm not sure how much of his stuff you can find in translation - I've only read him in German.

For the physical setting of crusader-period Jerusalem and the material culture, I very heartily recommend two works written or edited by Adrian J. Boas: Jerusalem in the Time of the Crusades: Society, Landscape and Art in the Holy City under Frankish Rule (Routledge, 2001) and The Crusader World (Routledge, 2016). I consult both of these frequently for world-building in my fic writing.

If you want something on the general concept of the knight / chivalry, Maurice Keen's Chivalry (Yale University Press, 2005) might be a good start. For a detailed analysis of medieval courtly culture, I recommend Joachim Bumke's Courtly Culture: Literature and Society in the High Middle Ages (2000, English translation by Thomas Dunlap). That thing was invaluable when I was writing my BA thesis. And if you'd like to know more about the literary life of the crusaders, there is a recent publication called Literature of the Crusades (Cambridge University Press, 2019) edited by Simon Parsons and Linda M. Paterson that I also found rather good.

For fashion: The various Osprey Military History books are a good choice if you want visual representations of knightly dress. There's also a collection of essays called Encountering Medieval Textiles and Dress: Objects, Texts, Images (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002) edited by Désirée Koslin and Janet Snyder, which is one of the better ones I've found, as most books about medieval fashion focus mostly on later centuries. This one might be a bit hard to get through, though, if you don't have some kind of background knowledge about medieval texts or architecture.

If you want something less strictly academic and more in the vein of popular history, you might want to try James Reston's Warriors of God (2002) or the much more dated but rather fanboy-ish The Crusades: A History (also sometimes titled The Dream and The Tomb) by Robert Payne, which is very pro-Baldwin.

Other than that, I'll link you an older post about fictional depictions of Baldwin and other assorted good bois and girls from KoH. I hope this will scratch the Baldwin itch for you!

And: If anyone has more suggestions, of course do feel free to add them!

[arshipweek]

AR Ship Week - Fandom in 2024

Another year, another shipweek, and another State of the AR Shipping Fandom post. This is the first weekly post leading up to the Alex Rider Ship Week. Just under 4 weeks to go!

This post focuses on pre-S3 fandom, since the data was scraped before the season was released, but we might do an update for post-S3 fics. For methodology, it can be found both on the graphic analysis pages and in the notes at the bottom of this post. For those only curious about the popular pairings this year (1), feel free to read right on.

This year, we have analysed a few specific shipping stats to get a look at us as a fandom.

We have also created an interactive dashboard of all the graphs for you to explore. This is where the following data was taken from, as well as some bonus visuals!

A Timeline of AO3

For a blast from the past, we took a look at the shipping timeline - the count of fics and authors per year for the top ten most popular AR ships - and found immediate proof that as a shipping fandom, we're still small enough that a few, determined people can make a difference. AR fandom's use of AO3 as its primary fandom purveyor is fairly recent, as most of its history can be found on FFnet, but with a total of just under 3k fics as of April 20th, we're gaining on FFnet's 4.5k of AR fics at a very respectable pace.

Some particular developments were:

The number of Yalex authors was about the same in 2021 - 2023 (just around 40) but the number of Yalex fics in 2022 was almost double that of 2021 and 2023. This was not due to a sudden, imported backlog that we could see but a handful of popular events/challenges and potentially the release of S2 in December of 2021.

Tom/Alex and Yassen/Ian both had a peak of fics in 2021, most likely because of the release of S1 that gave Tom a much larger part and offered an intriguing look at Yassen and Ian's potential past.

Fiona/Sabina had a huge spike in fics in 2023 due to a Femmeslash February event (2) that sent it firmly up the ranks of popular ships.

The State of the OTP

For the top ten AR ships, we also took a look at how many of the writers that had written other AR ships (and which ones) to look for interesting patterns and to see if there was any real difference to spot. As it turns out, the answer was a resounding yes:

At one extreme, we have Alexmis (Alex Rider/Artemis Fowl) which is a fandom unto itself. Only 20 percent of the writers of the pairing have written for other pairings in AR fandom fics, and Alexmis fics as a whole tend to lean more towards adding Alex to the Artemis Fowl world rather than vice versa (3).

In the middle range, we have Yalex and Alex/Wolf - two pairings about as old as the fandom itself, and which both have an OTP percentage around 55 - as well as (mostly) newcomers Tom/Alex and Kyra/Alex, both with an OTP percentage in the 40-50 range.

At the other extreme, we have Yassen/John with an OTP percentage of just 4. Fiona/Sabina does it one better with an OTP rate of 0 (!) but the sample size here is so small it makes no meaning to compare it.

So what other pairings do these writers enjoy indulging in, then?

Yalex writers really like their Yassen pairings. Out of the combined number of non-Yalex fics the Yalex authors have written, 24 percent of them are Yassen/Ian and 22 percent are Yassen/John. This means that almost half of their non-Yalex pairings feature Yassen in some way.

70 percent of John/Helen shippers have written other pairings, too - probably because of the pairing's nature as a background part of Alex's story and not necessarily the focus of a shipfic they're in. 30 percent of the fics written by John/Helen writers outside of the ship are Yalex (and 6 percent are Yassen/John).

The case is even more extreme for Yassen/John, which is firmly entwined with the Yalex pairing. 96 percent of the writers have written other AR ships, with three quarters of those fics being Yalex.

Text Analysis

Interactive dashboard with graphs and visuals

We also ran a text analysis on the shipfics to look for patterns and recurring details in the writing - first in general, then for specific ships. The amount of detail for each ship depends a lot on the sample size, which results in a detailed, varied word cloud for Yalex and somewhat less so for several of the smaller ships.

For that analysis, we recommend clicking around to explore the word clouds and get a feel for the different ships, but for the ambitious types, we have a word hunt ready as well (4):

Word Hunt, Significant Phrases edition:

Tools of the Trade:

Duct tape

Frying pan

Krav Maga

Sniper rifle

Zip ties

I Know That Reference:

Fer de Lance

Air Force

Albert Bridge

Point Blanc

Brecon Beacons

Getting Kinky:

Boxer briefs

Dimly lit

Lower lip

Pressed a kiss

Yes sir

Feel free to comment with any particularly entertaining/intriguing/otherwise just plain fun word cloud combinations you've spotted, and we will see you again next week!

______ 

Note on methodology:

The two Alex Rider sections (main + TV) were scraped over the course of two days in early March 2024, except for fics that were locked to AO3 users only (5). For the author specific statistics, we excluded orphan_account and anonymous authors. Median measures were chosen over average the majority of the time to account for outliers, especially in the case of the rarer pairings (6).

For ship-analysis, a fic counts under every pairing it has. This means that someone who writes Yassen/Alex, Yassen/John and Yassen/Ian in the same fic (7) will count as an author for all three pairings and under the Yalex OTP analysis, they will have an additional fic marked under both Yassen/John and Yassen/Ian.

(1) Yalex. It's Yalex. Look, we're not even going to bother posting the stats for that. It's still Yalex, trust us. Though we can talk again next year, considering how well Kyralex is currently doing post-S3. (2) Proving that a few, determined writers can make or break the non-Yalex ship rankings. Please use this power for good; if someone manages to get Sayle/Nadia Vole or something into the top three next year, I'm outsourcing that part of the stat post to a particularly enthusiastic raccoon with a keyboard. (3) Canonically, the wholesale kidnapping of Alex is pretty on-brand for Alex Rider supervillains so really, Artemis is in excellent company. (4) Technically two, but there is unsurprisingly a lot of overlap between the general wordcloud and the Yalex one. For those curious, here's the Word Hunt, Yalex edition:

Adam's apple

Bottle of lube

Cock

Index finger

Nerve endings

Pale skin

Scar tissue

(5) As of April 20th, 225 out of 2961 fics were locked to AO3 users. (6) Meaning anything non-Yalex, let's all be honest here. (7) Because sometimes, like a particularly persistent Pokémon player, Yassen also needs to catch them all. Traumas or Riders is dealer's choice.

[coochiequeens]

Earlier this week I said that the tide is turning for the TQ+. This is an example of why that is happening.

By Genevieve Gluck April 10, 2024

A trans-identified male spared a prison sentence after threatening to bludgeon a man with a claw hammer has again avoided jail after threatening to kill women’s rights campaigners. Layla Le Fey, 44, was handed a combined 20-week suspended sentence for violent threats he sent to Helen Joyce and Kellie Jay Keen, two well-known women critical of gender identity ideology, in which he fantasized about butchering and dismembering them.

Last year, Le Fey sent the violent messages via a now-suspended account on X (formerly Twitter) from March through June. Using the handle @laylalefey1, Le Fey stated he was “interested in setting fire” to Keen’s home while she was inside.

Le Fey had also communicated his desire to “kick the s**t out of” her, rip her eyes out, and break her spine in a bizarre bid to “prove [her] point” that “some trans people are extremely violent.” That same day, Le Fey stated that he would enjoy either seeing Keen brutally killed by a “misogynist psychopath” or acting out the murder himself.

Also targeted by Le Fey was author Helen Joyce, a vocal critic of gender identity ideology and Director of Advocacy for the women’s rights charity Sex Matters.

“God how I would love to just rip your eyes out, chop your hands off, and carve your face up really badly,” Le Fey said to Joyce on March 20. His macabre comment was made in response to Joyce’s 2022 post announcing the publication of her book, Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality.

Le Fey pleaded guilty in a Brighton court yesterday to four offenses under the communications act, including threats of arson.

While reading a victim impact statement out in court, Joyce said: “I’m used to robust and unpleasant debate online. I never get into back and forths and accept that other people have the right to criticize what I say. But seeing the things they were expressing, describing to me how much he would enjoy cutting me, is something else altogether.”

Layla Le Fey in 2013. Source: Facebook

Keen, when presenting her victim impact statement, emphasized that Le Fey is a man who terrorizes women. “A violent man committed a crime,” she said. “The violent threats had far greater impact on my husband and children than me. They are very worried for my safety.”

“Terrorizing women into silence was the intent of this man. I want to make it clear, this crime was committed by a man,” she continued. “This is what happens when women speak up. I didn’t want to elevate this person’s comments, so I did not respond. These tweets disturbed me and I’ve no doubt given the opportunity this person would have carried out these threats… My whereabouts is often known and I have no doubt, given the opportunity, this person would be a threat to my wellbeing.”

Le Fey’s defense attorney, Cathy Walker, referred to him with feminine pronouns while arguing that he had been struggling with his mental health when he made the threats. Walker also claimed that he had had no intention to act on them. Le Fey was sentenced to a consecutive 10 weeks for the threats against Keen, and another 10 concurrent weeks for the messages he sent to Joyce.

Additionally, he is subject to an 18-month restraining order which prohibits him from either contacting or attending events involving either Keen or Joyce, and has been ordered to participate in 25 days’ involvement in a rehabilitation program.

Following the series of violent posts last year, Le Fey was arrested in June by Sussex Police after a massive outcry from concerned supporters of Keen and Joyce.

Le Fey has a history of violence, and, according to the Daily Mail, a lengthy criminal record. He has been convicted for more than 50 prior offenses, including several for wielding weapons in public.

Le Fey had also previously avoided a prison sentence as a direct result of his transgender status. In 2020, Le Fey was convicted of common assault and possession of an offensive weapon after attempting to steal wine from a Budgens in Brighton. During the incident, which took place on November 6th, 2019, Le Fey brandished a claw hammer and used it to threaten the cashier. He was apprehended by police after he swiped another bottle of wine and attempted to flee.

During court proceedings, presiding Judge Stephen Mooney initially called Le Fey’s crime “inexcusable,” and sentenced him to serve a suspended six-month sentence in prison, along with a 30-session rehabilitative therapy order. But within the hour, Judge Mooney overturned his own decision, citing a lack of evidence of Le Fey’s gender reassignment.

Because the court could not establish whether Le Fey had undergone genital surgery, it was argued that a prison term presented an inhumane situation which could not be easily resolved.

Le Fey has gone under several names, including Marcus Smith, Adam Hodgson, and David.

Le Fey, 2023. Source: Facebook.

As Le Fey lacked a legal document known as a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), Le Fey’s attorney, Rebecca Upton, remarked: “The only way Le Fey could prove her new gender would be an ‘undignified examination,’ one which court staff were not prepared to do.”

Without a GRC or physical examination, Le Fey, considered a vulnerable minority under the law, would have then been forced to serve his sentence at the Lewes Prison, a correctional facility for men. Judge Mooney refused to do so, and commented that he could not allow Le Fey to serve his sentence in the male estate.

“We live in a society which acknowledges and embraces diversity and allows and encourages people to live the life they want to. Sometimes society does not make the necessary or appropriate adjustments in all ways it can to reflect the adjustments of society as a whole,” Judge Mooney said.

“Having reflected again upon the impact an immediate custodial sentence would have, the difficulties there are and the intractable problems the prison service would face, I have reconsidered whether imprisonment must be immediate,” he added. “In light of this information I have come to the conclusion that in your particular case it allows me to hope for some form of rehabilitation.”

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading update: DECEMBER 2023

what's up gamers!!!! 2023 is over, and before I can make a post reflecting on every book I read I need to talk specifically about what I was reading in December. I was lucky enough to end the year coming out of a pretty dire depressive fug, and I celebrated by going buckwild reading as much as possible and placing so many holds at the local library that I will, probably, come to regret any day now. such is the price of being in love with life again, I guess!

let's talk about it!!!

what I read:

Buffalo is the New Buffalo (Chelsea Vowel, 2022) - a collection of Métis speculative fiction short stories. Vowel's stories didn't always quite land for me, feeling as if they would benefit from another round or two of revisions and a bit of elaboration, but even when they fell a little flat the concepts were promising. I especially adored the story "Michif Man," in which a mid-twentieth century Métis man is gored by a radioactive buffalo and develops strange powers that he uses to defend his community, told through the fascinating framing device of a 21st century scholar's speech making a case for Michif Man's existence. I also really liked the closing story, "Unsettled," which felt like really cool old school sci-fi: five clashing characters alone burdened with the responsibility of tending to the rest of humanity frozen in stasis, with each character serving as a mouthpiece for a vastly different perspective and set of values about their Indigenous identity. hit or miss collection for me, but the hits hit much harder than the misses missed.

The Bandit Queens (Parini Schroff, 2023) - this book was genuinely so so hard to put down!!! the story follows a group of women in a small Indian village as they decide to start solving problems by murdering their husbands, turning to Geeta - whose widely believed to have killed her own husband years ago - for advice. the only problem is that Geeta didn't kill him, he just walked out on her. and now she's caught in a RAPIDLY tangling web of murder, blackmail, and hidden motives among women she's never let herself get close to. it's a dark comedy, to be sure, but also surprisingly heartfelt, exploring the countless factors - gender, class, caste, religion, motherhood, beauty - that keep Geeta and the other women apart as well as the forces powerful enough to pull them together. it's a book about the power of friendship and also the power of going ape shit.

Small Game (Blair Braverman, 2022) - a VERY different book from Bandit Queens on every level, but equally hard to put down! Braverman is something of a professional wilderness survivor, and decided to write a story about a similarly experienced young woman, Mara, signing up for a survival-themed reality show where everything goes wrong. one day the camera crew simply fails to show up, and everything shifts when the contestants are forced to shift from surviving for show to actually fighting for their lives. a book that's gross and tender in equal amounts; Braverman is a very good storyteller and I'm strongly looking forward to anything else she puts out.

Are You My Mother? (Alison Bechdel, 2012) - a gorgeously drawn and terrifyingly vulnerable graphic memoir. a spectacularly brave endeavor; while I would never discount the tremendous artistry of Bechdel's more well-known Fun Home, I cannot imagine the terror of writing something like this about my mother when she's still alive to read it. absolutely ruinous if you yourself have any remotely complicated feelings about your mother, I will tell you that much!!!!

The Heart Principle (Helen Hoang, 2021) - Helen Hoang is so good that I didn't even count this as my romance novel of the month; this was just a book that I sincerely wanted to read. apparently quite a few reviewers on goodreads whined about how this shouldn't qualify as a romance novel because it's too sad, to which I say those people are fucking wieners. Heart Principle gets heavy, sure, with protagonist Anna navigating the sudden illness and death of her elderly father, but at the same time she's finding happiness and new ways to be herself and having the best sex of her life with resident hottie Quan, who's been a gem of a supporting character in this series since Kiss Quotient. it gets sad as hell, for sure, but it's also a mature, touching, and sexy story of two people developing a bond that encourages them both to embrace life and grow together. also, hi, Anna finding out she's autistic is SUCH a source of joy and eventual self confidence for her and it's SO nice to read.

Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror (ed. Jordan Peele, 2023) - listen. it's a very good short story collection, filled to the bursting with some of the best writers in the game. there are very few stinkers in the bunch, which is really impressive for a collection with so many stories. but. it very seldom felt properly... scary? spooky, creepy, mysterious, supernatural, sure. but I want to be scared!!!! fuck me up!!! Us got under my skin and scared me in a way that I still think about years later, and I was expecting something similar from an anthology edited by Jordan Peele. so on that note I would actually really strongly recommend this is you like being a little spooked but not terrified!

Kiss Her Once for Me (Alison Cochrun, 2022) - this one was the romance novel of the month, voted on by my patrons, and incidentally my patrons should go to prison. listen. this book sucks shit. god, this protagonist sucks. I know the point of this kind of story is for characters to start in a place where they're flawed and you want to see them improve as people, but Ellie is just so endlessly whiny that I don't want to see her improve, I want her to shut the fuck up and stop using her anxiety as an excuse to be wildly unpleasant to everyone else. the chemistry between the main characters was what I call the "because I said so" variety, by which I mean there was no chemistry despite the narrative insisting repeatedly that there definitely was. (incidentally, Ellie had way better chemistry with the man she was fake engaged to, meaning I was actually really rooting for the hetero option for once.) also Cochrun is apparently a huge swiftie and referenced Taylor Swift a truly unwell amount of times in this book. dismal all around.

Mammoths at the Gates (Nghi Vo, 2023) - Nghi Vo can do absolutely no wrong and is one of the authors whose new releases I will ALWAYS be showing up for. Mammoths at the Gates is the latest in the Singing Hills Cycle of novellas, and sees the cleric Chih leaving their quest for stories in order to return home to Singing Hills Abbey after years on the road. they're excited to be home, but nothing is as peaceful as they'd have hoped: an old friend has been promoted, straining their relationship, and a beloved mentor has died, creating a complication when their family come to lay claim to the body. it's a book about death in the best way, by which I mean it's very much a book about life, and I read it all in one delightful morning racing to the gentle shock of the ending.

what am I reading now?

God: A Biography (Jack Miles, 1995) - this is a book rec I scooped from Oh No Ross and Carrie and it is. such a weird reading experience, but I'm enjoying it! this God dude is nuts!

Masters of Death (Olivie Blake, 2018) - I'm not very far into this book yet, and I can't decide if the prose is fun or annoying. maybe both!

what's next: a list of books I have on hold

Patternmaster (Octavia Butler)

Laziness Does Not Exist (Devon Price)

Piñata (Leopoldo Gout)

[samcampbellfans]

Sam Campbell Podcast Masterlist

Here's a masterlist of podcast episodes that feature Sam Campbell, in reverse chronological order. I tried to find all of the episodes that are available on the internet, do send me an ask if you find any that I did not include here!

Note: some of these links are Spotify links but usually podcast episodes are available anywhere you usually get a podcast i.e. Apple podcasts, Acast, etc.

September 2024

The Adam Buxton Podcast, Ep 226. Sam Campbell. Recorded 26th and 27th July 2024 at Latitude Festival.

July 2024

The Last Video Store. Hosted by Alexei Touliopoulos.

May 2024

Lucy and Sam's Perfect Brains, Ep 6, Ep 7, Ep 8, Ep 9. Hosted by Sam Campbell and Lucy Beaumont.

April 2024

Some Laugh Podcast - Episode 99. Taskmaster, Edinburgh Fringe & Secrets. Hosted by Marc Jennings, Stephen Buchanan and Stuart McPherson.

Tim Key's Poetry Programme. 3. Safari. On BBC Radio 4.

Lucy and Sam's Perfect Brains, Ep 2, Ep 3, Ep 4, Ep 5. Hosted by Sam Campbell and Lucy Beaumont.

March 2024

Lucy and Sam's Perfect Brains, Ep 1. Hosted by Sam Campbell and Lucy Beaumont.

Off Menu with James Acaster and Ed Gamble - Episode 229, Live with Sam Campbell in Nottingham Royal Concert Hall. Note: the episode was recorded on October 18, 2023 and released 2 March 2024.

January 2024

Drifting Off with Joe Pera Ep 12: Australia and its Greatest Horse ft. Cut Worms. Guests: Sam Campbell, Aaron Chen, Guy Montgomery and Yaraman Thorne aka Yaz.

November 2023

Ep110. SAM CAMPBELL / Plato, Purses & Palm Readings. Trusty Hogs podcast. Hosted by Catherine Bohart and Helen Bauer.

BONUS: Ep111. NATHAN FOAD/ Colleagues, Cucks & Cliff Richard. Trusty Hogs podcast - Sam pulls a prank on Nathan Foad at 22:38. Nathan Foad was in Bloods, the Sky TV sitcom that Sam was also in.

Taskmaster The Podcast. Ep 149. (S16 Ep.10.) Hosted by Ed Gamble.

Northern News. ‘A Spider’s Intern’. Hosted by Ian Smith and Amy Gledhill. Sam Campbell's guest appearance starts around the 21 minute mark.

September 2023

Taskmaster The Podcast. Ep 141. Sam Campbell - S16 Ep. 2. Hosted by Ed Gamble.

May 2023

WTF w/ Sam Campbell. Welcome to Meet You podcast. Hosted by Dart Sultan and Robbie Armfield.

April 2023

Mugg Off #173 Live Show Melbourne. Sam Campbell, Sam Taunton, Tim Hewitt, Laura Hughes.

November 2022

NTS - Hot Mess W/ Sam Campbell (hosted by Babak Ganjei).

October 2022

Dave’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards: The Podcast with Lara Ricote and Sam Campbell.

September 2022

Plot Twist podcast Kevin ‘KG’ Garry and Sam Campbell. Sky TV.

June 2022

Mugg Off #139 - Sam Campbell. Hosted by Cameron Duggan, Gerard McGowan, and Yaz.

May 2022

Backyard Stories - Episode Thirty Four - Sam Campbell

October 2021

Aunty Donna Podcast Ep 277 Nippers Feat. Sam Campbell and Eric Hutton. Hosted by Zach, Mark and Broden.

July 2021

The Phone Hacks Podcast 170. Sam Campbell - Hay Ladies. Hosted by Mike Goldstein and Nick Capper. (Thanks to Cambo Fans!)

June 2021

The Good Stuff - Episode 41 Feat. Sam Campbell. Hosted by Sam Taunton and Tom Cashman.

Australia Debates - ABC Comedy. Series 1 Episode 1 - Should Social Media Be Banned?

March 2021

Mugg Off #80 Tom Cashman and "Dingo Duggan" - Sam Campbell plays Dingo.

December 2020

Mugg Off #069 - Sam Campbell. Hosted by Cameron Duggan, Gerard McGowan and Yaz. Note: this episode was recorded in December 2020 but the video was uploaded June 2022.

August 2020

The Grub podcast, with Nikki Britton, Bjorn Stewart, Sam Campbell, Cameron James, and Danielle Walker. Hosts: Anne Edmonds, Greg Larsen and Ben Russell. NOTE: Sam is only in a few clips in this podcast, not in the whole thing.

July 2020

Circling the Drain - Ep1: Elouise Eftos, Sam Campbell. Hosted by Andrew Wolfe.

April 2020

The Good Stuff - Episode 3 Feat. Sam Campbell (An Expose on Women’s Bathrooms). Hosted by Sam Taunton and Tom Cashman.

January 2020

Mugg Off #20 - Sam Campbell. Hosted by Cameron Duggan, Gerard McGowan and Yaz.

The Grub - 2020 Call-in Special. With Melinda Buttle, Becky Lucas, Sam Campbell, Aaron Chen, Rodney Todd. Hosts: Anne Edmonds, Greg Larsen and Ben Russell. NOTE: Sam is only in a few clips in this podcast, not in the whole thing.

October 2019

The Worst Idea Of All Time - Friendzone Ninety. Hosted by Guy Montgomery and Tim Batt.

May 2019

Special Features with Cameron James and Alexei Toliopoulos - Ep 50. Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019) with Tom Walker and Sam Campbell.

May 2018

Aunty Donna Podcast Episode 97: LIVE FROM THE FACTORY THEATRE SYDNEY FEAT. SAM CAMPBELL

October 2017

The Dragon Friends. S3 Ep 18: THIS BOY FREZNO. The Dragon Friends is a DnD podcast and this episode was live. From the podcast description: "Also Sam Campbell wore a mask and an elephant trunk for all of the recording so if it helps, imagine that." Cambo knows nothing about DnD - he went on the podcast to prank his friend Michael Hing (allegedly). Sam plays the antagonist (an evil Michael Hing).

The Dragon Friends. S3 Ep.17. A Dog With Human Eyes with Carlo Ritchie

August 2017

Mike Check with Cameron James & Alexei Toliopoulos - Ep 45. The Gong Show S01E04 & S01E05 w/ Sam Campbell

January-February 2015

Sad Boys, episode 1-3 hosted by Sam Campbell, Eddie Sharp and Anith Mukherjee. Originally broadcast via FBi Radio.

November 2014

Mark Williamson Chat Show - Episode 110: Becky Lucas and Sam Campbell. With regulars Lester Diamond and Ryan ‘Special Comments’ Crawford.

June 2014

Truth Nest - Episode 1 Feat. Alexei Toliopoulos. Hosted by Sam Campbell and Craig Anderson.

Below are 'lost episodes' - I cannot find the audio anywhere, or the audio files are broken. Podcast descriptions say Sam was a guest. Please do message me if you manage to find the audio!

Special Features with Cameron James and Alexei Toliopoulos: 9. 2 Guns with Sam Campbell. July 2015.

Sydney Comedy Festival Podcast. April 2015.

The Loose Five with Marcel Blanch- de Wilt. Episode 107- Sam Campbell & Shubha. January 2015.

Versus on FBi Radio - Witches vs Calendars w/ Sam Campbell and Claudia O'Doherty. December 2014. This episode has unfortunately been scrubbed from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and FBi Radio website.

The Loose Five with Marcel Blanch- de Wilt. Episode 96- Sam Campbell and Gearard McGeown. September 2014.

A massive thank you to @vampire-lily / Lauren for contributing to this masterlist!!