The Cat goes positively bonkers over an audience with the best-dressed man in speculative fiction, game designer, teacher and writer, the incontrovertible Rik Lagarto. While Joseph gets all the ups and Aaron clobbers a Hobbit, Kaaron is haunted by a butterfly cake. The ghosts at Bethnal Green are discussed, as is ham (again), Nazis (fuck ‘em), and Russell Crowe’s piss. Also scar trees, scars in time, and the awareness of historical time as a new angle from which to perceive or experience the present. The importance of The Ugly Duckling. David Hasselhoff’s frozen poo. Aaron gives Rik some sensible advice.

Scats and scent trails sniffed over in this episode include:

• Joseph’s collection The Measure of Sorrow
• Michael McDowell’s Blackwater
• Iain Banks’ The Crow Road
• John Waters’ A Dirty Shame
• Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year Of Rest And Relaxation

Check out the episode page for more pics and bits.

The Cat gets ‘poetic and foul-mouthed’ in a bewitching episode with award-winning author and academic, the incantatory Lisa L. Hannett. While Kaaron gets a Lacroix and Joseph gets lost in the nineties, Aaron dodges the post-con blues by calling from the toilet. William Hope Hodgson is discussed, as is the gathering of disasters. An extended riff on the mixtape follows: the mixtape as a labour of love; the mixtape as a time capsule; the emotional beats of a mixtape. Also, the secret language of couples, the execution of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, and the cultural etiquette of burial mounds. The emotional safety net of a selfie and the magical thinking of everyday life. Aaron makes a mixtape confession. Lisa is careful not to say völva.

Runestones and philtres conjured in this episode include:

• Lisa’s Viking Women
• Aaron’s Dirty Heads
• M John Harrison’s The Course of the Heart

Check out the episode page for more pics and bits.

That Cat gets compulsive in an out-there episode with multi-award-winning author and associate professor, the incontestable Helen Marshall. While Kaaron investigates an autograph book and Joseph discovers a horror show in the guinea pig hutch, Aaron goes fungal and transforms into the Moth Boy. Helen works through her fixation with children and death. The dark and light sides of creative obsession are discussed, as are curiosity, boredom, and fandom – toxic and otherwise. The impact of parenthood on maintaining an obsession. Obsession as fuel to complete a project – and the importance of its ending. Also obsession as possession, romanticising obsession, and obsessive coincidence. Not forgetting mortality dump reads and struggling with smalltalk. Kaaron reveals what really happened to her ducks. Joseph bemoans the dearth of peppered mackerel. Aaron keeps a secret to seem more interesting. Helen invites everyone to visit her toilet.

Paint-pots and palette-knives alluded to in this episode include:

• Emile Zola’s The Masterpiece
• JG Ballard’s Complete short stories
• Joyce Carol Oates’s Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars.
• John Goodwin’s The Cocoon
• CH Pearce’s Jimmy Flip Brings His Little One to Work, and It Comes My Turn to Hold It

Check out the episode page for more pics and bits.