March 24, 2012

What Are Your Favorite Podcasts?

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As part of my ongoing effort to join the 21st century, I bought an iPhone several months ago. Now it’s finally time to make some use of it. As it happens, I walk up to the market every day to buy food for dinner,1 so I’d like to start downloading podcasts to listen to on the way. Yesterday, for example, I listened to the Ira Glass retraction of This American Life’s Mike Daisey story.

So: any recommendations? What are your favorites? I don’t listen to the radio at all, so feel free to recommend anything. Or how about class lectures available as podcasts? Have you come across any especially good ones lately? I’m open to anything, but the ideal recommendation will come in approximately one-hour chunks and be free.

1Why do I do this every day? Because it’s a good way to force myself to get outside and walk. I’m a lot more likely to do this if I actually have someplace to go, so unlike most people I buy groceries daily instead of weekly.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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