Behind the Code is a companion video series created to accompany the release of Tales from the Algorithm. The series provides background context for each story in the collection, with Madam Lether discussing the origins, themes, and influences that informed their development. Rather than offering analysis or interpretation, Behind the Code focuses on process: how each piece began, what ideas shaped it, and how those ideas evolved during writing.
The series was first introduced as part of the live digital launch event for Tales from the Algorithm, where selected episodes were shared alongside readings and discussions. Following the launch, the series was released more widely across social media platforms, allowing audiences to engage with the material incrementally and in parallel with the stories themselves. Viewer response was consistently positive, with audiences expressing interest in learning more about the creative decisions and personal influences behind the work.
The version presented here is the complete edition of Behind the Code, made available in full via YouTube. Collected in one place, the series documents Madam Lether’s interest in transparency around creative practice and her enthusiasm for inviting readers into the thinking behind her work. It also reflects the reciprocal relationship between author and audience that developed during the release of Tales from the Algorithm, where curiosity, discussion, and reflection became part of the project’s wider life beyond the page.
Across Behind the Code, Madam Lether speaks openly about the long gestation of many of the stories in Tales from the Algorithm, with several concepts tracing back decades. Alexander, for example, began as a teenage encounter with a comic depicting a vampire hunting a child an image that stayed with her for over twenty-five years before evolving into a modern cautionary tale about online grooming, webcams, and digital predation at a time when those dangers were still largely unexamined.
Other stories emerged from far more incidental moments. Bacterium was inspired by the design of the Library of Shadows logo, which struck Madam Lether as resembling something viral and alive a fleeting visual association that grew into the most overtly cosmic story in the collection. Similarly, The Last Train Home originated not in technology, but in a visceral discomfort with the underground: the claustrophobia, the stale air, and the feeling of being moved through a system built for efficiency rather than care. Technology entered later, layered on through advertising screens and systems that quietly consume those who pass through them.
Several episodes highlight how personal unease and cultural observation intertwine in the work. Blind Spot was written specifically to bring the collection to thirteen stories, driven by a sense that the number was unavoidable. Its focus on bioenhancement and healthcare economics grew out of a concern with how easily people agree to terms without reading them a theme echoed throughout the series in references to consent, fine print, and the quiet costs of convenience. In The Leviathan’s Wake, Madam Lether describes balancing her fascination with virtual reality against a deep fear of becoming trapped inside it, shaping a story built on the tension between immersion and loss of control.
The series also documents the role of memory both personal and cultural in shaping the collection. Dead Link draws directly on childhood memories of wandering empty office buildings after hours, spaces that felt both safe and deeply unsettling, while Digital Memory explicitly acknowledges the influence of Philip K. Dick and his preoccupation with unstable reality and unreliable recollection. Elsewhere, stories such as Echo Chamber, The Algorithm’s Hand, and The Truth Rewritten emerge from close observation of social media, political radicalisation, and the mechanisms that shape what is seen, believed, and amplified online.
Taken together, these reflections give context rather than explanation. Behind the Code does not seek to resolve the stories, but to map the questions, fears, and moments of curiosity that led to them offering viewers a record of how Tales from the Algorithm was assembled, one influence and unease at a time.