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Hey there! Two quick updates.
First: After 16 full episodes, 4 bonus episodes, 1.42 million post views, nearly 200,000 downloads and 100,000 video views across platforms, Tracy and I are taking a little summer recess from the podcast. We will be back next month with a new season, likely streamlined and tailored based on everything we learned since our February launch (Which is a lot! I’ll tell you more soon).
If you have thoughts on what you liked, didn’t like, or felt “meh” about with our first batch of episodes, please send them to me. Until then, I’ll still be in your inbox each week with new reporting and/or hot takes, just with no audio/video component. (Starting next week, I need a little break in general).
Second: Right now, the newsletter is going through its annual churn—that is, the time of year when the majority of HEATED yearly paid subscriptions renew. If you’ve ever been part of any subscription-based business, you know churn time is scary, because a bunch of people tend to drop off, whether it be because of credit card changes or financial strain or just deciding they want to move on.
If we want to continue exposing hidden climate villains, debunking persistent climate myths, and revealing the climate angle of seemingly non-climate stories—and keeping all that content free for everyone, while paying myself and freelancers a respectable wage—I have to make up some of that churn. Right now, while our whole community of readers is pretty big, the paid community is very small: Less than 3 percent of HEATED’s 140,000 subscribers choose to pay.
The good news is, I only really need a small group of people to be able to continue this mission-based business model. I expect to lose at least 100 paid subscribers during this churn. It would feel miraculous to pick up 100 more.
But here’s the thing: With 140,000 people reading, it should not actually require a miracle! It would take just a tiny fraction of this community deciding that independent, accessible climate journalism is worth directly supporting. So, if you read/listen to HEATED regularly and have been thinking about becoming a paid subscriber, this would be an enormously helpful time to do it. As a push, I’m offering 20 percent off annual subscriptions for the first year—just $5 a month to keep unbought, unbossed climate journalism alive.
If you’re already part of the paid community, thank you!! You are the reason HEATED can keep publishing climate journalism without ads, sponsors, corporate owners, or wealthy donors deciding what deserves attention. You’re ensuring that specialized information about the climate crisis is available to students, teachers, activists, and everyday readers who might not be able to afford access. In a media landscape where climate coverage is rapidly shrinking—and what remains is increasingly paywalled—that kind of support means the world.
Finally, if you’re still on the fence, here are some of my favorite stories/pods from the last couple months, that you won’t find at any other news outlet.
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