“It’s really easy to get caught in this trap of monolithic fandom as a singular idea,” Fanthropologist Meredith Levine said in a recent Comic-Con panel. “And I think that within fandom it’s really really diverse, and so you have all sorts of different cultures… We say “fandom” and I think really we mean ‘fandoms.’”

Fandom is indeed many-headed, and now we have a podcast to help us all make sense of the beast. Fansplaining is a new podcast by Flourish Klink and Elizabeth Minkel, created to discuss fandom in all its iterations.

The two met at Comic-Con this year at the “Fandom is my Fandom” panel. After a hearty discussion, they decided the topic needed more attention than a single one-hour convention panel, and began Fansplaining.

The first episode discusses the emerging recognition of fandom in the general population, from the phenomenon of 50 Shades of Grey and its effect popularizing fanfiction to companies looking for ways to utilize fan communities to benefit their brand. If you’re the sort of person who gets jazzed about analyzing how fanworks are being used for capitalistic purposes, my friend, this is the podcast for you.

Klink and Minkel both have pedigrees in fan circles. Klink, a longtime fan in X-Files and Harry Potter circles, helped run a series of Harry Potter conventions, and currently works in film and TV development “helping explain fandom to Hollywood”.

Minkel is a journalist who writes a column about fan culture for The New Statesman. She unwittingly entered fandom at a young age writing Sweet Valley High fanfiction, before levelling up to more advanced fandoms like Buffy and Torchwood.

In the second episode of Fansplaining, Klink and Minkel discuss GeekyCon, fannish internet jobs that didn't exist ten years ago, and the uncomfortable phenomenon of showing celebrities their own fanfiction, as well as speak with Fanthropologist Meredith Levine. New episodes come out every two weeks.