ICYMI - Your Next Favorite Book Will Be Fanfiction
Slate Books
Slate Podcasts
3.8 • 546 Ratings
🗓️ 6 August 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kate Lindsay and Candice Lim discuss the latest in Labubu-land, from a TikTok blackface controversy to leaving one on an iconic anti-capitalist’s grave. Then, they dive into the growing trend of fanfiction getting a big marketing push from the publishing world. From Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis starting as Reylo fanfic to Julie Soto basing her latest novel on a Dramione ship, traditional publishing is reaching into the channels of AO3, Tumblr, and Wattpad to find their next big hit. But what do we lose when our favorite fanfictions get taken mainstream? And is it good or bad for the community they originated from?
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This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, Candice Lim, and Kate Lindsay.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, I'm Candice Lim, and I'm Kate Lindsay, and you're listening to I see why am I. |
| 0:18.2 | In case you missed it. |
| 0:19.8 | Slate's podcast about internet culture. And Kate, I think it's time, okay? I think it's time for us to have the great La-Boooo-Dibu debate. Honestly, yeah, it's been a long time coming. We've had people in our DMs, in our comments, going where is the La-B the Labibu app? Yeah. |
| 0:40.9 | And to just be frank with everyone, they make me feel old. |
| 0:49.4 | And I don't like things that make me feel bad. |
| 0:51.1 | So I was ignoring it. But we really can't ignore it now because in the past few weeks, this past |
| 0:55.5 | weekend specifically, some Lubu Boo controversies that involve things the Bible couldn't have even |
| 1:03.4 | dreamed of in terms of the verbiage and the context of these little dolls. And the one I'm thinking |
| 1:10.8 | of, Candace, is when I say to you, |
| 1:14.5 | Labibu TikTok Blackface controversy. Now, did this Grace your for you, Paige? |
| 1:20.6 | Sadly, no. Or maybe sadly, yes, it evaded me. But yeah, this kind of seems like when someone's coming out of a coma, yes, someone's |
| 1:32.7 | coming out of a coma and you're asking them like, what's your name? |
| 1:35.7 | Where are you from? |
| 1:36.9 | What are the last things you saw? |
| 1:39.3 | And they're just like, ah, like, yeah, if I woke up and you were like, Kate, there's been |
| 1:43.9 | a Laboooo-Boo-BalibuFace controversy, I would go back into the coma. |
| 1:47.5 | I would go, this isn't right. |
| 1:49.8 | You're like, oh, I'm asleep. |
| 1:51.2 | I'm asleep. |
| 1:51.9 | Okay. |
| 1:52.7 | Unfortunately, tell me more. |
| 1:54.0 | Yeah. |
... |
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