Pip install fails with typeerror in rfc822_escape

[leotohill]

using python 3.8.5, pip 20.3.3, the installation fails with a typeerror in rfc822_escape. Stack follows:

ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
command: 'c:\users\leoto\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\python.exe' -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'C:\Users\leoto\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-tv8zp9nk\koch\setup.py'"'"'; file='"'"'C:\Users\leoto\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-tv8zp9nk\koch\setup.py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(file);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, file, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' egg_info --egg-base 'C:\Users\leoto\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-pip-egg-info-atm8f81m'
cwd: C:\Users\leoto\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-tv8zp9nk\koch
Complete output (26 lines):
running egg_info
creating C:\Users\leoto\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-pip-egg-info-atm8f81m\koch.egg-info
writing C:\Users\leoto\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-pip-egg-info-atm8f81m\koch.egg-info\PKG-INFO
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "", line 1, in
File "C:\Users\leoto\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-tv8zp9nk\koch\setup.py", line 13, in
setup(
File "c:\users\leoto\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\site-packages\setuptools_init_.py", line 144, in setup
return distutils.core.setup(**attrs)
File "c:\users\leoto\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\core.py", line 148, in setup
dist.run_commands()
File "c:\users\leoto\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 966, in run_commands
self.run_command(cmd)
File "c:\users\leoto\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 985, in run_command
cmd_obj.run()
File "c:\users\leoto\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\site-packages\setuptools\command\egg_info.py", line 290, in run
writer(self, ep.name, os.path.join(self.egg_info, ep.name))
File "c:\users\leoto\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\site-packages\setuptools\command\egg_info.py", line 622, in write_pkg_info
metadata.write_pkg_info(cmd.egg_info)
File "c:\users\leoto\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 1117, in write_pkg_info
self.write_pkg_file(pkg_info)
File "c:\users\leoto\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\site-packages\setuptools\dist.py", line 165, in write_pkg_file
long_desc = rfc822_escape(self.get_long_description())
File "c:\users\leoto\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\util.py", line 475, in rfc822_escape
lines = header.split('\n')
TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not 'str'
----------------------------------------
ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1: python setup.py egg_info Check the logs for full command output.
WARNING: You are using pip version 20.1.1; however, version 20.3.3 is available. (I ran again with 20.3.3, same error)