This was my only panel at Readercon this year, and it was an interesting one–about how advanced degrees had impacted the writing careers of the panelists. More than one person noted the irony of having this panel right after the “Drop Out, Write On” session, with panelists who never graduated college, but the key point is that different paths work for different people. For me, academia was a valuable entry into the world of writing generally and speculative fiction more specifically, and the other panelists had (not surprisingly) similar takes. The panel had Brett Cox (who was the only other “Humanities” person), Lauren Burka, Anil Menon, Tom Easton and Joan Slonczewski. (I apologize for the audio–I had forgotten my digital recorder and thus recorded this with my netbook, an experiment I won’t repeat.)