FAQ
Q: Isn’t Fansplaining a podcast?
A: It was! From 2015-2024, Fansplaining was a biweekly podcast hosted by Elizabeth Minkel and Flourish Klink—over 250 episodes featuring more than 100 guests. When Flourish stepped down (to have a child and join the priesthood!), Elizabeth took the occasional written wing of Fansplaining and expanded it, publishing longreads about fan culture once a month. Now, the scope has expanded even more, with 1-2 articles per week and a small editorial team.
Q: So is the podcast totally over?
A: Not completely. We always put out special episodes for Patreon supporters, and now that we’ve switched to a paywall model, subscribers in our “Benefactor” tier and above will get access to all past and future special episodes, which we’re hoping to put out monthly going forward. (“We” is our editorial team and special guests—including Flourish from time to time!) There’s also a good chance we’ll produce more podcasts in the future, perhaps in a format other than “two people talking.” As always, any podcast we put out will have an accompanying full transcript at the time of publication.
Q: That’s great for people who prefer reading over listening—but I like to listen rather than read. Will you still have audio versions of the stories?
A: Yes! If you’re new to Fansplaining, this is something we started experimenting with when we were transitioning to a written publication—specifically, the article’s author reading the piece aloud—and we heard from so many folks that they really appreciated it, so it’s now a core part of the article. The thing that has changed is we won’t be publishing the audio in the Fansplaining podcast feed anymore, since most articles are behind the paywall. While we have private subscriber-only audio feeds for special episodes, this kind of feature is pretty expensive, and we cannot afford to implement a version of it for the articles, with a much larger pool of readers/listeners. You can download any audio version of an article straight from the on-page player if you’d prefer to listen elsewhere.
Q: Speaking of paywalls…you didn’t have one before. Why now?
A: Like a lot of podcasts, our Patreon mostly covered our hosting and other software costs, with a small amount leftover for our labor. This is a full publication featuring writing from professional journalists, academics, and other experts, and we need to compensate them for their work (we’d like to pay even more than our current rate, and hope to be able to in the future). You probably saw beloved small/medium-sized publications fold in the past decade as social media platforms suppressed posts with links and ad revenue plummeted; worker-owned, subscriber-funded publications are one of the only realistic models for non-corporate media today.
Q: Will I be able to access anything for free?
A: Yes! The entire podcast archive—including full transcripts—will be totally in front of the paywall, no log-in required. (The audio for those episodes is available all over the web via various podcatchers, so we want to make sure the transcripts are equally accessible.) If you create a free Fansplaining account, you’ll also get access to all the archive articles as well as occasional new ones. When you sign up, you will receive our weekly digest of the things we’ve published every Thursday, but we’ll never send articles to your inbox.
Q: I can’t afford to subscribe at your current rates. Will you ever lower your prices?
A: We’ll absolutely have periodic sales and drives to try and convert free subscribers over to paid ones. Additionally, we offer an affordable tier for folks with lower incomes, students, educators, people who are unemployed or precariously employed, etc. No questions asked: just email us at info@fansplaining.com and we’ll provide you with the discount code!
Q: I’m at the opposite end of the spectrum: I have a whole lot of cash to burn and I love supporting independent journalism about fan culture. How can I help you?
A: You can subscribe at one of our higher tiers, of course! We also welcome one-off donations of any size. If you’re looking to share the love, we have gift subscriptions—sponsor a friend or fellow fan and give them access for a month or a year! If you’re looking to sponsor or invest in this project in any capacity, we’d love to hear from you: again, info@fansplaining.com. The more we’re able to bring in, revenue-wise, the more we can publish—imagine if we put out new stuff five days a week!
Q: I’m a journalist or fan writer and would like to send you a pitch. Are you open to pitches?
A: We are! You can find our full guide to pitching here. We recommend familiarizing yourself with our archives (podcast and written) to see what we’ve published in the past. We don’t want “fandom 101” stuff, so having even a vague sense of what we’ve covered—and the depth with which we’ve covered it—will help you find gaps we might want to fill, or how you can take a particular conversation to the next level.
Q: You’ve said the types of stuff you’ll publish is going to expand, too. What does that mean?
A: First and foremost: criticism! The book space in particular is BLEAK these days, with so few outlets publishing any book writing at all beyond round-ups of titles. We know fans love the long tail, and don’t see why critics can only write about a book, film, or show during a small window around its release, as is the norm at a lot of outlets. We’re also hoping to publish more first-person essays, as well other forms entirely (we’re interested in comics in particular). We will not be pivoting to video, but we’re pretty sure fandom specifically still loves the written word.
Q: I have [thoughts, feelings, questions] about [my account, your coverage, fandom in general]. How do I get in touch?
A: Once again, info@fansplaining.com. :-) You can also reach any individual editor at [firstname]@fansplaining.com.