In the first episode of a brand new season, the Cat gets synchronistic over the profundity of coincidence. While Joseph performs an experiment with time and Kaaron buys a 'decorative stack', Aaron confuses a French orgasm for a high-protein yoghurt. The centrality of coincidence is discussed – and why coincidence illuminates in life, but disappoints in fiction. Also, the excitement of hidden connections, stepping out of the everyday into the unreal, and how the orchestration of coincidence can be worse than a betrayal. Violations of privacy. Seeking narrative in the real. The drive to understand one another. Aaron has a creepy encounter in a bookshop. Kaaron has strong feelings about twins. Joseph uses a wanky word. Everyone crosses a line.

Boundaries and limitations transcended in this episode include:

• Agatha Christie's The Sleeping Murder
• J.W. Dunne's An Experiment With Time
• WG Sebald's The Rings Of Saturn
• John Le Carré's Silverview
• Kaaron's story (and film) A-Positive
• Josephine Tey's Brat Farrar
• Paul Auster's Leviathan
• M. John Harrison's anti-memoir Wish I Was Here

Check out the episode page for more pics and bits.

The Cat gets personal in this lo-fi, bargain-bucket, guest-free and long-overdue episode of supernatural occurrences and generational egotism. And when we say 'the Cat', we mean two Gen Xers and an elder Millennial; and when we say 'personal', we mean 'persona' (the 'l' is silent). While Kaaron lives in the moment and Aaron embraces his own mortality, Joseph flaps his Kermit hands and says the C-word. The stories we tell about ourselves are discussed, the elevator pitch of yourself, and the narrow contexts of identification. Also BO on the bus. Updating books to fit the mores of the age. Using masks to build a wall between yourself and others. Being too posh to save a life. Aaron gets his head stuck in a table. Everyone stops for soup.

Zips, buttons and other collectable doodads featured in this episode include:

• Douglas Coupland's Generation X
• Nick Cave and Sean O'Hagan's Faith, Hope & Carnage
• Kaaron's The Underhistory
• The story about Aaron's Grandad's diary is in Episode 31 – Bag

Check out the episode page for more pics and bits.

The Cat gets spoilerific in search of all things Arthurian with special guest, legendary New York Times bestselling author and award-winning comic book writer, Dan Abnett. While Aaron shepherds a coming out and Kaaron is betrayed by a cheap trick, Joseph ruins Lunar Park for everybody. Dan goes to Glastonbury on a quest for the holy grail. Fictional truths are discussed, as is reality as a device, the great conceit of modern literary fiction, and the amazing lie that everything is true (but is it permitted?). Also, autobiographical truths buried in fictions, the fictionalising of reality to make it readable, and the different ways we read stories knowing they're fiction versus assuming they are, in fact, true. The value of a sense of quest. The extraordinary adventure of observing the everyday. Dan chooses wisely.

Librettos and Fisher Kings conceptualised in this episode include:

• Brett Easton Ellis's Lunar Park and The Shards
• The Coen Brothers' Fargo
• Daniel Petrie's Sybil
• M John Harrison's The Sunken Lands Begin To Rise Again and his 'anti-memoir' Wish I Was Here
• Jorge Luis Borges's The Aleph
• Michael Haneke's Funny Games

Check out the episode page for more pics and bits.