Hello, this is Stephen Dubner, host of Freakonomics Radio.

A couple of times a year, we put Hatton Hand and ask you to join the 200,000 people who already

donate to New York Public Radio and WNYC, the station that produces this show.

Now, I can hear you thinking, why should I pay for something I can get for free?

That my friend, it's a great question.

You may also be thinking, but what about those ads I hear on your show?

Another great question.

So, here's a story.

Even with the ads or what public radio people call underwriting, the public radio business

model is heavily reliant on listener donations.

All you have to do is go to Freakonomics.com and click the donate button.

You'll see all kinds of Freakonomics Radio swag there, t-shirts and mugs and whatnot that

are only available to donors.

Now, let me admit, this whole setup is a bit awkward for me because by my asking you to

pay for a podcast that can be gotten for free, I am implying that the podcast is pretty

valuable, right?

Which puts me in the awkward position of trumpeting the value of my own podcast.

So we thought, what if instead we asked you to say whether the podcast is valuable?

A few episodes back, we asked you our Freakonomics Radio listeners to tell us whether this

podcast has ever helped you accomplish anything worthwhile.

In this episode, you'll hear some of those stories.

Some of them are pretty trivial.

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