26 December 2008

I received an email today from Ira Glass:

As I’ve been mentioning on our podcasts, our home station, Chicago Public Radio, like all non-profits, is struggling in the current economy. It faces a $1.5 million dollar deficit. A dozen of our colleagues were laid off.

Which brings me to our podcast. It costs Chicago Public Radio over $150,000 each year just for the Internet bandwidth to get you our free podcast and free streaming of our show. They don’t need to make a profit on the podcast but they can’t afford to have it cost them money. It would be horrible if they had to lay off more of our friends and co-workers so we could have a free podcast. So I’m turning to you again to ask for your help in covering that cost. Whatever you can afford, $1, $5, or if you’re still doing well in this economy, $20 or $100. Here’s the link to do that.

My wife and I love This American Life (although I think she has a bigger crush on it than I do), who doesn’t? Can we even begin to imagine life without Ira Glass’ famed show? Let’s not.