[1] In October 1883, Podmore and Edward R. Pease joined a socialist debating group established by Edith Nesbit and Hubert Bland.

Podmore suggested that the group should be named after the Roman General, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, who advocated weakening the opposition by harassing operations rather than becoming involved in pitched battles.

Psychical researcher Alan Gauld wrote that he "was compelled to resign without pension from the Post Office because of alleged homosexual involvements.

This change may have resulted from an unsympathetic review of his work by H. G. Wells, which Historian Brian Inglis suggests embarrassed Podmore and made him more sceptical, wanting to be viewed as "a detached, scientific, no-nonsense commentator on psychic affairs".

[1] Podmore's books, giving non-paranormal explanations from much of the psychical research that he studied, received positive reviews in science journals.

[12] Rationalist author Joseph McCabe stated that despite Podmore's "highly critical faculty" he was misled in the Piper case by Richard Hodgson.

[14] Podmore's text Mesmerism and Christian Science: A Short History of Mental Healing received a positive review in the British Journal of Psychiatry, which referred to it as "an excellent account of this interesting and important subject.