Upstream - Important Announcement: We Launched a Patreon

Episode Date: February 5, 2024

Join the Upstream Patreon here:  https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast Below is a transcript of the update shared in this announcement episode — TL;DR: we've got tons of bonus episodes and other goodies as part of our new Patreon!  At least 1 bonus episode a month, usually 2-3 Early access to certain episodes Stickers If you’ve been following along with our episodes or on social media you’ve probably heard that we’ve been working on launching a Patreon account, and, voila—we did it. We’ll be sharing at least one, more likely two or three, bonus episodes every month for our Patreon subscribers, and that’s in addition to the bi-weekly, regularly scheduled episodes of course. We have 5 different tiers at which you can subscribe to our Patreon—all the details can be found here, but just to give you a sense, we the tiers start at $5/month. All tiers have access to the same number of bonus episodes per month, but as you go up in tiers there are additional benefits as well, including early access to certain episodes and stickers. And, of course, you'll also be helping us keep Upstream sustainable and helping to keep this whole project going. Here’s what’s coming: this month we’ve already got two bonus episodes loaded and ready to go. The first is an episode with Doug Henwood on the problems with modern monetary theory (MMT), and the second episode is with Roger Keeran and Joe Jamison on their book Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union. So as soon as you sign up you’ll get instant access to both of these. And then we’re also planning Part 7 of our ongoing series on Palestine for later in the month. Coming up in March in March we’ve got an episode planned with Claudia De la Cruz and Karina Garcia who are running for President and Vice-President as the candidates of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, or PSL.  What inspired us to create a Patreon community? As you know, we’ve always provided all of our bi-weekly episodes and our documentaries for free to everyone—that’s not gonna change. But then last year we faced a pretty big crisis as we lost both of our grant funders (which were by far our largest income stream), and we realized that we were gonna be entirely listener funded moving forward. The nonprofit industrial complex itself is a challenge to navigate, to say the least, but even more so as a podcast—funders just don’t really fund podcasts. They especially don’t fund political education podcasts, and especially, especially socialist ones. But we have to say we were so, so grateful to all of you who started supporting us at that time, or, of course, who had already been contributing monthly or through one-time donations—you really showed us that we can definitely keep Upstream going without the grant funding. So thank you so much. And to show our thanks we wanted to give you all something extra, something special.  Wanna sign up? Here's how it works: just go to our Patreon page and sign up. If you’re already donating to us and you want to switch over to become a Patreon subscriber, it’s super easy—you can just cancel your current recurring donation through Flipcause (which is where you’re donating through now), and just sign up for our Patreon instead. If you don’t feel like making the switch, no problem at all, you don’t have to do anything—your current donations through Flipcause won’t be affected in any way. And, of course, you can still make one-time donations through Flipcause.  We’re so grateful to all of you out there who've supported us with your donations over the months and years—we really could not do this without you. And if you’ve been on the fence about becoming a monthly supporter, this is a great time to do it because we’ve got a lot of really great bonus content coming your way. And if you’re just not at a place where you can afford to subscribe, it’s all good, we completely understand—we’ve still got our regular episodes coming out every two weeks. And if you do want to support us in a nonfinancial way, the best way to do so is just to share our episodes, share our posts, help spread the word and get people tuned into the struggle for liberation and for a more equitable and beautiful world. And of course leaving us a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify goes a long way in getting those apps to put our content in front of new eyes and into new ears. So, thank you, we love you all. Solidarity. Join the Upstream Patreon here:  https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast

Hey everyone, Robbie here with an exciting announcement. So if you've been following along with our episodes or on social media, you've probably heard that we've been working on launching a Patreon account. And well, we did. Both Della and I are super excited to let you all know that our Patreon is now up and running. And we've already loaded it up actually with two bonus episodes. So I'll let you know about all the details in a sec, but first, just wanted to let you know what led us to make this decision. So as you know, we've always provided all of our bi-weekly episodes

and our documentaries for free to everyone, and that is not going to change. But then last year, we faced a pretty big crisis as we lost both of our grant funders, which were by far our largest income stream. And we realized that we were going to be entirely listener-funded moving forward. So as I've said, the nonprofit industrial complex is a major challenge to navigate, to say the least, but even more so as a podcast, funders don't really fund podcasts. And they especially don't fund political education podcasts, especially, especially socialist ones. But I have to say, you know, we were so, so grateful to all of you who supported us during that time when we made that announcement about losing our funding. And of course, also grateful to those

who had always been contributing monthly or had made one-time donations in the past. And, you know, you all really showed us that we can keep this project going without grant funding. So thank you so, so much. And to show our thanks, we wanted to give you all something extra. So we've created just for you bonus episodes with a wide variety of really, really awesome guests, which will be available on our Patreon. And so here's how it works. If you're already donating to us and you want to switch over to become a patreon subscriber It's super easy You can just cancel your monthly or quarterly donation through flip-claws

Which is where you're donating through now and just sign up for our patreon instead at patreon.com forward slash Upstream podcast and if you don't feel like making the switch, that's honestly like no problem at all. You don't have to do anything. Your current donations through Flipkaz won't be affected in any way by any of this. And of course, you know, you can still make one time donations through Flipkaz. So we're going to provide at least one more likely two or three bonus episodes every month for our Patreon subscribers. And that's in addition to the bi-weekly regular scheduled episodes, of course. We have five different tiers at which you can subscribe to our Patreon,

and the details are all at patreon.com forward slash upstream podcast again. And I'll go ahead and definitely throw that link in the show notes too. But real quick, just to give you a sense here, we have different donation tiers starting at $5 a month. All tiers have access to the same number of bonus episodes per month. But as you go up in tiers, there are additional benefits as well.

As a Patreon subscriber, you'll also get early access to certain episodes. And we also have a variety of thank you gifts at different tiers. And of course, you'll also be helping us keep upstream sustainable and helping to keep this whole project going. And so here is what you can expect. For this month, we've already got two bonus episodes loaded and ready to go, like I mentioned. The first is an episode with Doug Hanwood on the Problems with Modern Monetary Theory. And the second episode is with Roger Keirin and Joe Jamison on their excellent book,

Socialism Betrayed, Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union. So, as soon as you sign up, you'll get instant access to both of those. And then we're also planning part seven of our ongoing series on Palestine as a bonus episode for later in the month. Coming up in March, we've gone episode planned with Claudia de la Cruz and Karina Garcia who are running for president and vice president as candidates for the party for socialism and liberation or PSL. So already we have a lot of really awesome bonus content coming up.

So thank you for listening to this update. And again, we're really so grateful to all of you out there who have supported us with your donations over the past months and years. Like I said, we really literally could not do this without you. And if you've been on the fence about becoming a monthly supporter, this is a great time to do it because we've got a lot of really great stuff coming up on our Patreon. And I do also want to say, like, if you're not at a place where you can afford to subscribe,

it's all good. We completely understand I've been there where even $5 a month just doesn't feel doable, right? So we've still got our regular episodes coming out every two weeks. And if you do want to still support us, but in a non-financial way, the best way to do it is really just, you know, share our episodes, share our posts, help spread the word and get people tuned into this whole struggle for liberation and for a more equitable world

and the political education component of that, which is what we do. And, you know, of course, leaving us a five star rating and review, like we say on every episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, that goes a really long way in getting those apps to put our content in front of new people. So thank you so much.

We love you all. Solidarity. I'm a fool, I'm a fool, I'm a fool