producing/funding/influencing podcasts

I have received about 20 different emails asking me to interview one person or another on a podcast. It seems that I would need to contact that person (which can be a challenge in itself) and line up dates and times and stuff like that. i would also need to make sure I am savvy about that person before the interview.

I had a thought: what if somebody paid $200 and said "I want you to interview Joel Salatin and ask him these questions." Then I could ask Adrien to make all the arrangements, then re-browse Joel's books and ... do it! Without the $200 thing, I keep putting off trying. I feel like I have 40 other podcasts to make that are much easier to arrange. But if somebody ponied up $200 + Adrien is around to do the legwork, then it has to get done!

I suppose if we didn't want to interview the person, or if we could not get it arranged, then we could return the funds.

Along those lines, about four months ago i tried to contact Bill Nye the Science Guy and interview him. I contacted his agent and asked "How much would it cost to have him on my podcast?" And they just said that they would check and see if this was possible and never got back to me. I even wrote them again and got no response.

If somebody ponied up $5000 I could try again. The thing I liked was the idea of having him look at some of my articles - mostly the rocket mass heater stuff and getting him to give his feedback on it.

I suppose for really famous people we would have to pay something like $5000 to get an hour or two of their time. Maybe we should start a new thread just to get a list going of famous people that we might want to interview, and guesses at how much it might cost to get them on my podcast.

Along those lines: I know that if I encounter somebody that has listened to all of my podcasts, I encourage them to make a list of questions and we will do a podcast together. I think these make the best podcasts.

I hereby offer that if somebody sends me $100 they can pick a topic and I will make a podcast on that topic.

Further, if somebody has listened to all of my podcasts and pays $100, they can make a list of questions and I will record a podcast with them going over the whole list via skype.

Hey Paul,

I think that is a great idea, and a great way to monetize podcasts. I'd love to do it myself in the future. The idea to talk with Bill Nye is great, I think that'd be a great podcast or video. Is a Bill Nye Podcast/Video something that could be done as a Kickstarter?

-Kirk

Is a Bill Nye Podcast/Video something that could be done as a Kickstarter?

It could be. Of course, that would mean that we would have to find out at what price we could get him. I never got an answer to what that price would be.

Kirk,
The crowd funding is a great idea.
While Kickstarter.com certainly has the popularity, something on wethetrees.com might get to the right audience.


Paul,
As someone who has post-funded your podcasts, I'd certainly love to have the option to pre-fund some awesome ones. (And If you get enough money, could you get some good lapel mics? Your current mics kinda sound like crap )
I'd be happy to give you $5 for a good 2 hour discussion with some innovators and leaders in permaculture. Probably many times over! I'd bet there are others out there that would to, but I'm not a betting man.

Thanks,
-Ryan

paul wheaton wrote:

Is a Bill Nye Podcast/Video something that could be done as a Kickstarter?

It could be. Of course, that would mean that we would have to find out at what price we could get him. I never got an answer to what that price would be.

I'd love to help out, please let me know what I can do. Perhaps if we can suggest a price upfront they'd be more apt to talk to you?

-Kirk

Kirk Marschel wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:

Is a Bill Nye Podcast/Video something that could be done as a Kickstarter?

It could be. Of course, that would mean that we would have to find out at what price we could get him. I never got an answer to what that price would be.

I'd love to help out, please let me know what I can do. Perhaps if we can suggest a price upfront they'd be more apt to talk to you?

-Kirk

I would guess that the price up front would have to be something on the order of $10,000.

I would think that to get him to speak somewhere would probably be something like $25,000. But a two hour speech would still eat up more than a day of his time. So a podcast might only eat up two or three hours of his life.

By asking "how much" I was hoping that the answer might come back as something much less and then I could try to figure out what to do from there. But I think your thinking is spot on: "if you have to ask, you can't afford it." And I am not in a position to offer $10,000.

Re the funding question....what if a pool of monies were put together and then everyone who donated got to vote on the list of hopeful speakers?

Also...if the group becomes a 501C-3 there are monies around to fund things like education, etc....(just a thought).

Also, I am sure that you could find *knowledgeable* people willing to speak on camera for a nominal fee.....try the professors at a land-grant university....
the local farm extension agents.....and just regular people who have been doing something for a long time....

Education is a collective pot.....many topics in the pot makes for a good soup and much extended knowledge gathered...



j.lee

paul wheaton wrote:

I would guess that the price up front would have to be something on the order of $10,000.

I would think that to get him to speak somewhere would probably be something like $25,000. But a two hour speech would still eat up more than a day of his time. So a podcast might only eat up two or three hours of his life.

By asking "how much" I was hoping that the answer might come back as something much less and then I could try to figure out what to do from there. But I think your thinking is spot on: "if you have to ask, you can't afford it." And I am not in a position to offer $10,000.

We could set up a kickstarter, either for a single podcast or video, or perhaps a lump of them, or a lump of your time? If there is money upfront for you to work with to get stuff done you can be more free to do that.