podcast content feedback

Fishing for feedback on podcasts from the last month ....

paul,

Its amazing how many you have been able to turn out latley, strong work. 

I like the podcasts about functional permaculture best.  My favorites are the ones with helen and skeeter.  I like the ones that I can take away actually applicable knowdelge.  The level 8-9 and 10 stuff, nitrogen fixers and how they release, everything skeeter knows about every weed ever, your ideas on chicken padock rotation,  rocket mass heaters, stuff like that. 

I get some info when you talk about books and movies but you got a big perma brain I like it when you and your guest drop know how.  Talking about food movies that were made to inform the food purchasing folks in the city is well and good but I think that you can speak to producers about the best ways to produce better then most.  The Gaia's Garden chapter review was pretty good, you and jocylen talked a ton about all kinds of good stuff in those podcasts. 

I think that you have something special going with your podcast, your abillity to pull big perma thinkers and challenge them, getting down to the nitty gritty details, that is where the learing happens, for me anyhow. 

Strong work again. 

On a side note I signed up for the Sepp talk.  All seven days, its a ton of money and time for a guy like me, I layed in bed thinking about all the things I could do if I took that week off of work and spent that money on this place instead.  I am sure I made the right choice signing up, hell of an opportunity to meet Sepp, hear him talk for a week and skip out on the drum circles and get to talk with you.  i cant wait.  if you need anything from the Olympic Peninsula I will be driving my old pick up out.  Let me know. 

julian

I love them all.... priceless!  All are great (thumbs up to Jocelyn and Kelly), but I especially like your conversations with folks who are doing it - I get an sense of what it really feels like to 'do' permaculture. 

Books are fine, but 'what I do/did','what happened/worked/failed' etc are a better way to learn, for me, and videos are probably best, but, of course, have to be too short.

(Now I have to go find kickstarters....

You've really been kicking out some really informative and entertaining podcast........keep them coming.  It's pretty cool to get to hear others discuss permaculture, homesteading, etc topics.  There are not a lot of others in my area to have these type of discussions with.  Thanks for all you do.

what is the url of the podcast feed? I no longer have itunes (am using Linux) and I need the actual url to put into my podcast downloader

If you go to http://www.richsoil.com/permaculture there are some links at the top with options. Does that help?

perfect thanks

Hi Paul,

I was quite chuffed you quoted something I had posted about.  I tried bragging about it at work, but somehow they failed to appreciate my excitement that some guy in overalls somewhere thought that it was nice of me to say nice things about him saying nice things about other people.  Screw 'em, I say - they're just a bunch of eco-level zero bastards who are wrecking everything for everyone anyway

One piece of constructive criticism though - when you were doing your "beachwalk" podcasts from your vacation, I wanted to jump through time and space, slap you, and tell you to stay focused... but then I thought that was Jocelin's job. 

You're really cranking the podcasts out lately - I have fallen behind!  I've been too busy reading Sepp Holzer's Permaculture, so I didn't think you'd mind.

Paul,  Would you consider being a guest on Prepper Podcast, blog talk radio, on my show to talk about your site?  This may be one way to get the word out to others. ....topic of my show for the evening is using cast iron cookware everyday and for disaster time/start over situations.  Kathleen OMeal director of EPAC...the Nations largest provident living free organization with over 720,000 families learning to make it together....

I am open to infecting new groups of people to my ideas all the time.  So, sure, I'll be on your show.  Please email me the details:  paul at richsoil dot com.

Quick suggestion - was listening to your "Gaia's Garden - Chapter 8" podcasts today (078/079) - how about signing off remaining episodes with "If you like this sort of thing, buy Toby's book!"  I bought it, and whilst your reviews are many chapters ahead of where I am up to reading it, they always make me feel that I have made a wise purchase.

What would be cool is to have a long list of people say "I bought it because of the podcast" then Toby and Chelsea Green should be feeling warm and fuzzy about the weird things I do.

Paul
First time poster,long time listener and student.
I've listened to all of your podcasts and find the ones
with Jocylen to be the most enjoyable.I like the natural
chemistry that seems to come from a true respectful friendship.
She also keeps you "on point" when you go off on a rant about
the A holes on the forums or what not.
I love the hugulkulture stuff,
I wouldn't mind seeing something on growing rice in northern climes.
Can you do rice on hugle terraces?
Growing Sepp"s perrenial grain? Where to get seed for it?
Thanks for the heap of work you do,I've gotten tons of inspiration
and laughs listening to your permaculture adventures.

Love the tour podcasts.Inspiration farm was so good.
thanks Paul,Jocelyn and crew.

@Paul - I am a long-time listener to your podcasts, and do believe that I have heard damned near every single one. So, I know what to expect. I also know that a lot of others who don't know what to expect are surprised by some of the podcasts: they might get offended by the language used (their loss!) or they might think that the production quality is low (well... they're getting it for free, so why gripe?!). You have commented on both of these objections many times, and I am glad that you just keep on doing what you do. But I was particularly astonished by today's Daily-ish Email announcing that a significant number of listeners unsubscribed in reaction to the most recent podcast about women peeing outside. I listened to the podcast, was amused by one or two parts, informed by one or two others, and mostly uninterested in the rest. After all, I am a man, so there wasn't much practical for me to learn. But I certainly wasn't offended by it! I thought that between you and your guests you conducted that podcast about as well as could be done so as to tackle the subject matter in a frank, straight-forward, informative, and unapologetic way. You didn't trivialize it, make a joke out of it, or sensationalize it; you just presented it as you would any other bit of useful information.

Now, I am not surprised that the public at large would be unable to handle this subject matter without becoming embarrassed/offended/nonplussed/whatever you want to call it. But frankly I would have expected more maturity and open-mindedness from that subset of the public who listen to permaculture podcasts. Oh well, who can explain human beings?! I guess the point of this post is to send some extra encouragement your way, lest you waiver in your determination to keep broadcasting all of the incredible info you have to share or to keep operating permies.com in the way that you like to do so, with which I have certainly found no problems so far. I would be disappointed if you shied away from any important topic just because some listeners might not be ready to hear about it (and certainly this was an important topic if you are a woman trying to live closer to the Earth), or if you discouraged discussion of it on permies for the same reasons.

FYI, as a newbie practitioner of permaculture, green building, and ecological gardening still struggling to establish my own homestead, I have found your podcasts and videos positively invaluable. I have a small collection of some good books on all of these subjects, but at least half of whatever I know I have learned from you or through your community. So I am in your debt. Keep up the good work!

Matthew, merry citizen of the Evil Empire

Matthew,

On any given day I get about 25 subscribes and 2 unsubscribes. The daily-ish email now has more than 7000 peeps.

When the women peeing outside podcast was announced, I think I saw 10 unsubscribes over the next 24 hours. Not all that big. But I liked the idea that the remaining peeps went through that and are still around. 7000 of them. So the pie thing had more to do with gratitude about the 7000 than about the ten that left.

The daily-ish email is my favorite thing from a personal perspective. The forums are the most important thing in the empire - it is through the forums that the world is changed. But the daily-ish email is designed to make it REALLY easy for people to unsubscribe. So the daily-ish email is the people that are my best peeps. I send out the most obnoxious stuff and 7000 people stick with me.

I like the idea that the daily-ish email will some day be 50,000 strong. Or more.

@Paul - Thank you for the personal reply. Glad to know that I am one of "your peeps," hehe. I love receiving the Daily-ish Email. I'm always quickly informed of the newest podcast or article published, reminded of opportunities like free books on permies to compete for, or workshops somewhere to sign up for. Yet it's never so frequent that I feel like my inbox is being cluttered by irrelevant or marketing-oriented mail.

Also glad to learn that the "mass exodus" after the recent podcast was, in fact, so small. My faith in humanity has been restored. I'm sure that some of those 10 were in reaction to the podcast, even though it still boggles my mind why someone should be "offended" by women speaking pragmatically about their girlie bits. Particularly when there was ample disclosure up front of exactly what they were going to hear. Nonetheless, 10 unsubscribes is pretty small; almost small enough to be explained by random variation.

I was absolutely delighted to hear the pee podcast! I only discovered your podcast recently and have been making my way through all the old ones while keeping up with all the news ones. I was sad to read that people had unsubscribed but am glad to now learn it was only 10 people. I look forward to listening to more and to reading your forum and emails.

I am glad to hear that you did not loose too many people!

I like the fact that the daily-ish email is both informative and short. It is a great way to keep up to date with the podcasts and interesting information about the Permie Empire.

Paul, I really like what you do with your empire, and the forums and videos.
For some reason, I can't listen to more then 5 - 10 minutes of most of your podcasts.
I have tried, really I have and I wish I could get more out of them.
I do find rare golden nuggets when you interview really interesting people.
Even a couple of times I try to make it past the intro funny bits and bobs, but I find them often lacking in any substance that is valuable to me.
It's cool that a lot of people like it, but most of it seems like buddies shooting the breeze and not much else.
Maybe its just me.

Well, I am sure I would enjoy your podcasts/videos/other things if I was able to listen/watch/whatever. We just this year were given an old amazon kindle with "experimental browser" capabilities. Our first online experience at our house and it is free. The wireless service is provided by amazon and we take full advantage of it...but don't buy ebooks just get on line. I joined one forum, permies, and have thoroughly enjoyed the information flow. I can't link when someone just posts a link and when it is a video I see a blank space but just the discussions have added great ideas and support for what we have already been doing for a long time. This forum got me through a period where I had limited use of my hands because of wrist injuries and an extremely hot, long summer. I love the be nice policy and enforcement and I bookmark a lot of topics for my husband who likes that level of participation. so, thank you..

I've been working my way thru the podcasts (starting from the May ones) and I'm getting great nuggets of info. The quality is a real drag though. Mainly if it's more than just the two of you. I finally got to one that I actually couldn't finish - I think it was part II of planning and goal setting. It seemed like all of the other speakers forgot to speak into the mic so I tried to turn the volume up but when you interjected it got very loud. This is too bad because I did write out 5 pages of farm plans...

The other, related problem was the presentation at Ludemans. If you have this kind of set up again, it'd be really helpful if you could repeat the question from the audience so we could hear it before you start answering it.

@Paul - Cj Verde makes a very good point, right above, in that the answer to a question often makes a lot less sense if you couldn't hear the question in the first place, which very often you can't when listening to or watching a podcast or video of a presentation recorded live in an auditorium. Succinctly restating the question as part of the answer is a very good technique that I have seen many presenters use, as often even people inside the room might not have heard the original speaker. Many of my college professors used to do that even in small rooms, because it also clues in the original speaker, and everyone else, about how you interpreted the question, which may be different than the way it was intended (primarily the psychology profs who had been trained in communications techniques).

I do realize, of course, that you can't afford to slow down a live presentation with too many considerations over how it will play on a podcast; time is too critical. Still, you might take this particular little nugget under consideration. As always, just hoping to be helpful : )

There are now 212 podcasts up. I think there is another dozen in the hopper. I think I have stuff in my calendar for a bunch more.

At the same time, I am drowning in tasks for the forums, the podcasts, the videos, the blogs, the articles, and all sorts of empire stuff.

So here is my question to all of you: how much are you willing to pay to have the things you wish? I suppose if I had a paid assistant that would make sure that everything was always recorded properly and a paid assistant that made sure that the podcast was processed properly, then I suppose the quality would be higher.

I think it is fair for folks to give feedback on what improvements they would like. And it is fair for people to say "I want more. I want better. I want it for free."

I also think it is fair for me to ask: are you willing to put in a hundred bucks? If a hundred people put in a hundred bucks per year, somebody could be paid to do some of this stuff.

I suspect that some people are willing to put in $20. If I pass the hat, I might get $100. Not enough to really do anything.

I suppose I could try to set up a fund called "Paul's Minion Fund" and people could put money in. Maybe I should have a kickstarter to get $20,000 and see if enough people are willing to put up enough money so I could have a minion for a year.

I think when Suzy Bean processed the podcasts, she had a magic button that would auto-level the volume. So when there is somebody asking a question, the volume would go up and you can hear the question. And then when I would talk the volume would go down because I am trying to be heard by everybody in the room. Now that Tim Brogan is processing the podcasts, I think he did not push that same button for that podcast.

Another thought: Anybody want to write a transcript for a podcast? Or all podcasts? That way, when the volume on a question is low, you can pick that out and then put it into a transcript for others to be able to read.

So, yes, the quality is poor. I know it is poor. I keep thinking about that old picture of bigfoot and how people wish the quality was better. Is it a hoax?



So when I find easy ways to improve the quality I usually go down that path.

I suppose if some studio with a half million dollar budget followed me around and did all the editing and stuff like that, there would be a better wheat to chaff ratio, all the voices would be clear, there would be music and advertising as part of the podcast and things would be smoother.

Over the last month I've recorded hardly any podcasts. Tim is still coming up to speed on the processing and he has a real job. So he processes them when he has time. So we might go a week between podcasts. Since there are so many in the hopper, I have pretty much stopped recording them. I suppose it is possible that Tim won't put another one up. Ever. And nobody else will step up to process them. And I'm too busy with other stuff. So, number 212 could be the last podcast.

Oh well.

I can think of 4 ways to monetize the podcasts off the top of my head.

1. You could emulate Jack Spirko and have sponsors. Maybe even one sponsor would pay for someone to process the podcasts to bump up the quality.

2. You could emulate Jack Spirko and do a Member Support Brigade. This might be too much extra work if you went so far as to line up discounts with sponsors but that does sweeten the pot.

3. You could charge for the podcasts at the risk of losing using the podcasts like a business card for the forums.

4. You could have some podcasts devoted to listener questions where people would pay you to brainstorm a permaculture solution to their problem. How much is 10 or 15 minutes of your time worth? If you charge, let's say $300/hour that's 5/minute. $50 to get you to spend 10 minutes focusing on a permaculture problem. Which you kind of like to do anyway...

paul wheaton wrote:Mmmmmmm toooooobers!

Possibly the #1 survival food to plant! Huge calories per acre that will tolerate some of the most terrible conditions!

But not mine! I have planted and killed them at least twice, I think three times!

Podcast are great! But once in a while I hear something that just makes the think the rest of the podcast..."whaaaat"?

such as
What is the issue with lye? somewhere along the line I have missed the reasoning behind that.

Lye is a natural product. Hard wood ashes and soft water.

I clean with vinegar, peroxide, baking soda and dawn. But I do have lye soap. I happen to be allergic to Tide, Cheer and just about everything else with perservatives and artificial scents and colors.

But lye soap is tested to be PH neutral or close. I can use that on my skin.

paul wheaton wrote:I think when Suzy Bean processed the podcasts, she had a magic button that would auto-level the volume. So when there is somebody asking a question, the volume would go up and you can hear the question. And then when I would talk the volume would go down because I am trying to be heard by everybody in the room. Now that Tim Brogan is processing the podcasts, I think he did not push that same button for that podcast.

Another thought: Anybody want to write a transcript for a podcast? Or all podcasts? That way, when the volume on a question is low, you can pick that out and then put it into a transcript for others to be able to read.

Paul, there are simple free programs that will autolevel the podcast. There are also programs that will slowly transcribe the podcast into txt. Someone would still have to trasnscribe, but it would have completed most of the work.

Paul, I spend a lot of time here and it is well worth a hundred bucks per year to support your work! I waste more than that on lotto tickets each year ! So let me know where to send it.
Anybody else feel like they have learned $100.00 worth of stuff here?

I would love to contribute. But right now, I am having trouble paying for everything. My husband became disabled and now it is all on me. So while I would absolutely love to...and feel the content is well worth it, I just cannot right now.

Part of why I listen is to find ways to cut corners and save money.

I remember when I had never made a podcast. Folks said: just record talking and put the file on the web. Done. I still didn't want to do it because of a bunch of other reasons, but setting those aside and focusing on the technical stuff.

The file generated was an AMR file and people wanted Mp3. So I had to get something to convert that. Then the file was "too big" so I had to learn about how to make it smaller. Then it apparently needed embedded information: track number, title, "artist", album .... then the quality is wonky so that has to be fixed. Then the fix made the quality wonky in a different way.

All this time, hoards of people are saying "unacceptable" or giving all sorts of tips of things that I never wanted to ever learn.

Then the file is big enough that if it gets downloaded more than 50 times that could be a server problem.

What the fuck is "itunes"? Feedburner? Why should I give a shit about rss with a podcast?

Then itunes gets pissed. Then feedburner gets pissed. Then there is a shift to "blueberry".

The work goes on and on and on.

Suzy Bean will help, but she needs to learn all this stuff.

Kane will help, but then he gets overwhelmed with work.

Tim will help, but work draws him away.

Josiah does a whole bunch of stuff way beyond my comprehension and fixes all sorts of things. And then he gets pulled away for work.

Jack gives me a lot of advice - most of which is over my head.

My point with this post: "just put the audio file up" is a load of crap.

Take a look at the things with the volume leveling. Yes, it is true. And it works great. And then somebody new comes along and doesn't do it. Who's job is it to track it down and fix it.

Right now, huge gobs of time are directed to dozens of little problems that crop up all the time. The more podcasts that are made, the more problems there are. Youtube doesn't have all these headaches.

(got lots more to say to respond to the posts here but my computer is seconds away from crashing ...)

@Paul - Okay, here are my three (hopefully helpful) observations about this discussion:

1) Don't stress out about this stuff! Worst case scenario you can always just continue to make the podcasts however you find it is easiest to make them, as you have been doing, and to hell with what any of us think about them. We will keep listening, I guarantee it. Or certainly I will. I agree that there is room for improvement with the podcasts on average, but regardless I have enjoyed them greatly and found them extremely useful as they stand already. I don't know what type of other feedback you get by email or whatever, but concerning just the discussion in this thread I think that most of it could fairly be described as constructive criticism and/or useful suggestions, not as bitching. Some of it is probably bitching. But hey, there are always going to be people in this world who will bitch loudest when you give them something for free.

So my point is that if YOU feel the need to improve the format or delivery of the podcasts we can discuss that here and maybe find some new approaches to try. Or if you need more help just to continue on doing the same - because previous helpers are no longer available and need to be replaced, for instance - make that call for help here and we will see who can afford to step up to the plate and give a little time. But it would be silly to adopt the mindset of "well I guess I have to discontinue the podcasts unless I can manage to upgrade them to the point of satisfying all the bitchers out there."

2) If one solution with which you'd like to experiment is preparing transcripts of the podcasts for the listeners' reference, as you suggested above, I would be willing to help. I'm a fast typist. At least a little bit of help: I can't afford to take this on as a volunteer job in perpetuity, but I could certainly find the time to tackle one podcast, for instance. I bet there are a lot of people out there who would each be willing to tackle one podcast. We could organize a forum here on permies to coordinate such an effort: dole out the work, know who is working on what, agree on a common format for the transcriptions, etc. And if someone indeed knows of a software application to facilitate the job, all the better! Of course, what we really need is a trained stenographer, but such a person probably comes at a significant expense.

BTW, totally apart and aside from the idea of creating an aid for people who might be struggling to hear some bit of discussion on a podcast, I think it would be a good idea on general principles to convert the podcasts to a text transcript. Just for the permanent record, as it were. Who knows how such documents might be useful to someone in the future.

3) In your most recent post, above, you wrote that "The more podcasts that are made, the more problems there are. Youtube doesn't have all these headaches." Perhaps you were being sarcastic here, I honestly don't know since I've never tried to post anything to YouTube. But if YouTube is indeed easier, maybe you should use it! Let's think outside of the box. Why couldn't you use a small digital video recorder (could probably be the camcorder you already use to create your videos) on a table-top tripod instead of the audio recorder as a means to record the podcast discussions? Or at least certain of them. You wouldn't have to have a cameraman to operate it; we aren't talking about making a video in the same sense as the videos you already publish. It would just sit and point at you and record what you say so that you could post the file to YouTube. Hell, you wouldn't even really need to be in frame; it could point at a wall the whole time if you preferred. There are freeware applications that we the listeners could then use to rip a .mp3 audio file from the YouTube video URL if we feel the need to download the podcast to our iPods. They work. I've used one. Here is the link to it: http://www.youtubedownloaderhd.com/youtube-to-mp3-converter.html.

Cj Verde wrote:I can think of 4 ways to monetize the podcasts off the top of my head.

1. You could emulate Jack Spirko and have sponsors. Maybe even one sponsor would pay for someone to process the podcasts to bump up the quality.

2. You could emulate Jack Spirko and do a Member Support Brigade. This might be too much extra work if you went so far as to line up discounts with sponsors but that does sweeten the pot.

3. You could charge for the podcasts at the risk of losing using the podcasts like a business card for the forums.

4. You could have some podcasts devoted to listener questions where people would pay you to brainstorm a permaculture solution to their problem. How much is 10 or 15 minutes of your time worth? If you charge, let's say $300/hour that's 5/minute. $50 to get you to spend 10 minutes focusing on a permaculture problem. Which you kind of like to do anyway...

Here you go: http://www.scubbly.com/store/permaculture/

As for sponsors: I suppose I could go for a sponsor or two. But I don't really want to go hunt them down and stuff. On the upside, it is possible that Tim would get paid by the sponsor, and Tim would have to work the message into the podcast. So that seems like a workable thing.

Tyler Ludens wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:Mmmmmmm toooooobers!

Possibly the #1 survival food to plant! Huge calories per acre that will tolerate some of the most terrible conditions!

But not mine! I have planted and killed them at least twice, I think three times!

Tyler, did you want this in this thread?

Morana Revel wrote:Podcast are great! But once in a while I hear something that just makes the think the rest of the podcast..."whaaaat"?

such as
What is the issue with lye? somewhere along the line I have missed the reasoning behind that.

Lye is a natural product. Hard wood ashes and soft water.

I clean with vinegar, peroxide, baking soda and dawn. But I do have lye soap. I happen to be allergic to Tide, Cheer and just about everything else with perservatives and artificial scents and colors.

But lye soap is tested to be PH neutral or close. I can use that on my skin.

Morana, these questions would probably be much better in the thread for that podcast.

Wyomiles Hogan wrote:Paul, I spend a lot of time here and it is well worth a hundred bucks per year to support your work! I waste more than that on lotto tickets each year ! So let me know where to send it.
Anybody else feel like they have learned $100.00 worth of stuff here?

Well, I have to think about that a bit. I think I need to come up with something like the "paul's minion fund" or some such.

Let me get back to you on this!

Matthew Nistico wrote:1) Don't stress out about this stuff!

I am sooooo tempted to turn off all of my web sites and replace it with a message that says "Matthew said to not stress about this stuff, so I turned it all off to get rid of the stress."

Here's the thing: I wanna make new videos, but all the other stuff seems to eat up my days. I suppose I could set up an email auto-reply that says "fuck off and leave me alone" but that doesn't seem right either.

I hear your point: people are trying to suggest stuff. To help out with advice.

If one solution with which you'd like to experiment is preparing transcripts of the podcasts for the listeners' reference, as you suggested above, I would be willing to help. I'm a fast typist. At least a little bit of help: I can't afford to take this on as a volunteer job in perpetuity, but I could certainly find the time to tackle one podcast, for instance.

Awesome! Pick your favorite podcast and start putting that into the podcast thread. Maybe ten minutes worth for each post.

paul wheaton wrote:I hear your point: people are trying to suggest stuff. To help out with advice.

Well, to be fair: SOME of us are trying to suggest helpful stuff. I'm sure you're not imagining things; I'm sure that some of the feedback DOES come from bitchers and haters. Or else (and I think this probably is even more common) from people who think they're being helpful but don't know how to do it respectfully, without coming across as being demanding or ungrateful for a free product. I know too that it's easy for me to say "oh, just turn a deaf ear and keep on doing your thing" when I'm not the one against whom all of the feedback is being directed.

If one solution with which you'd like to experiment is preparing transcripts of the podcasts for the listeners' reference, as you suggested above, I would be willing to help. I'm a fast typist. At least a little bit of help: I can't afford to take this on as a volunteer job in perpetuity, but I could certainly find the time to tackle one podcast, for instance.

Awesome! Pick your favorite podcast and start putting that into the podcast thread. Maybe ten minutes worth for each post.

Alright, I think I will. No promises as to how quickly that might come to pass, since I am generally buried all of the time as well, but I have added it to my list. Now I have to pick a podcast... Just one thing: if and when I manage to complete this task, assuming that you're pleased with the results, would you make a post or some such directing peoples' attention to it so that perhaps others might be inspired to similarly take on other podcasts as their own projects?

I really like the Podcasts and I agree that the quality is not always stellar, but it is always good enough that I can make up what is being said. Well...okay...sometimes with recorded presentations, it is harder to hear, but heck it is like playing Jeopardy... If Paul answers that, the question must have been this!

Nevertheless, the sometimes shaky audio quality is ALWAYS counterbalanced by amazing information. I have not found any podcasts on the internet that covers permaculture the way Paul's does. His stuff is always so down to earth (vs. being about hearts, flowers and raindows) and covers such a broad spectrum of subjects: growing food, frugality, energy saving, etc. Plus there are no other podcast starting with a "Okay, it's going" or a joke... On a more serious note, I am absolutely certain that he has pull me at least one eco-level up. When I first listened to his podcasts, I was challenged, going WTF quite often. Now I am much more educated about permaculture and see eco-issues in a much less simplistic way (e.g.: CFLs are good because they use less electricity).

@Paul, I guess my post is something like a virtual pad in the back saying thanks. I understand if you cannot put more podcasts online and think you already made a huge contribution by making available to all of us the 212 free ones. As a note, I do not think YouTube videos would have reached me the same way as the audio files did. It is so easy and practical to download a podcast and listen to it while driving to work, running, washing the dishes.

Anyway, if it can help I just started another thread where I suggest a possible solution to help you continue with the good work while not being crushed by the podcast burden.

First step:

Podcasts 217 and 218 are not free.

https://permies.com/t/18297/podcast/podcast-Art-Ludwig-innovation-legality

https://permies.com/t/18298/podcast/podcast-Art-Ludwig-square-foot

I'm putting all the podcast-for-sale stuff up at

https://permies.com/podcast

Tim and I have talked about some things to get more cash flow from the podcasts so the podcasts will at least stop running in the red.

Next up is sponsorship. If anybody has contact information for good sponsors, please give a shout out now.