podcast.txt

Next week I start a podcast.

There’s a Patreon for the podcast with more information 
here.

Let me unpack a little of the thinking.



Through the last seven years, since I moved back to NY, 
I’ve had pretty variant experiences of debt or huge costs 
weighing me down. Previously, I was making some serious 
income from a unix admin job, and my spending was direct 
but pretty limited. Since then, even with full-time 
employment (and I mean, seriously, a dream job), I’ve 
made some grandiose mistakes with taxes, bills and tracking 
down old obligations that means I have some notable costs 
floating in the background.

Compound that with a new home I’ve moved to with real 
landlords that aren’t family and a general desire to 
clean up my life, and I realized I needed some way to make 
extra money that will just drop directly into the bill pit, 
never to really pass into my hands.

How, then, to do this?

I work very long hours for the Internet Archive, and I am 
making a huge difference in the world working for them. It 
wouldn’t be right or useful for me to take on any other 
job. I also don’t want to be doing something like making 
“stuff” that I sell or otherwise speculate into some 
market. Leave aside I have these documentaries to finish, 
and time has to be short.

Then take into account that I can no longer afford to drop 
money going to anything other than a small handful of 
conferences that aren’t local to me (the NY-CT-NJ 
Tri-State area), and that people really like the 
presentations I give.

So, I thought, how about me giving basically a presentation 
once a week? What if I recorded me giving a sort of 
fireside chat or conversational presentation about subjects 
I would normally give on the road, but make them into a 
downloadable podcast? Then, I hope, everyone would be 
happy: fans get a presentation. I get away from begging for 
money to pay off debts. I get to refine my speaking skills. 
And maybe the world gets something fun out of the whole 
deal.

Enter a podcast, funded by a Patreon.

The title: Jason Talks His Way Out of It, my attempt to 
write down my debts and share the stories and thoughts I 
have.

I announced the Patreon on my 47th birthday. Within 24 
hours, about 100 people had signed up, paying some small 
amount (or not small, in some cases) for each published 
episode. I had a goal of $250/episode to make it 
worthwhile, and we passed that handily. So it’s happening.



I recorded a prototype episode, and that’s up there, and 
the first episode of the series drops Monday. These are 
story-based presentations roughly 30 minutes long apiece, 
and I will continue to do them as long as it makes sense to.

Public speaking is something I’ve done for many, many 
years, and I enjoy it, and I get comments that people enjoy 
them very much. My presentation on That Awesome Time I Was 
Sued for Two Billion Dollars has passed 800,000 views on 
the various copies online.

I spent $40 improving my sound setup, which should work for 
the time being. (I already had a nice microphone and a 
SSD-based laptop which won’t add sound to the room.) 
I’m going to have a growing list of topics I’ll work 
from, and I’ll stay in communication with the patrons.

Let’s see what this brings.

One other thing: Moving to the new home means that a lot of 
quality of life issues have been fixed, and my goal is to 
really shoot forward finishing those two documentaries I 
owe people. I want them done as much as everyone else! And 
with less looming bills and debts in my life, it’ll be 
all I want to do.

So, back the new podcast if you’d like. It’ll help a 
lot.