Welcome to strangers from KCW and Radiotopia. I'm Leah Tao.

And something is happening right now that is blowing my mind.

We're doing this Radiotopia fundraiser for 30 days to raise money for 2016.

And it's not a Kickstarter.

It doesn't have the public profile of our kick-ass Kickstarter from last year.

But listeners are coming out in droves to support us.

You know, I'm from Denmark where art is supported by the state, much more than it is here.

And I used to think that it was kind of sad when I'd hear pledge drives on public radio,

and every nonprofit around me was begging for money.

Like, oh, how awkward and just kind of terrible that they have to do this.

But something about this campaign we're doing right now, more than any other

I've ever been a part of, and have been a few. I'm no fundraising virgin at this point, if you

know what I mean. But something about this campaign makes me feel really hopeful and uplifted

and inspired and deeply grateful, like honestly I've never been before.

Sure, the Kickstarter last year was exciting the way, you know, a bowl of candy corn is exciting.

And it allowed us to do everything we've done in the last year.

Every episode you've heard on this show or any Radiotopia show was made possible by that

Kickstarter, by you. But this campaign

is much more stripped down and it has a much lower overhead, which means that we get to keep more

of the money. We didn't spend money on a fancy video this year. We made the campaign video by

having each producer record ourselves in the space where we work, and it was hilarious to see how many of us work in our bedrooms, including me.

So if you want to see my bedroom, watch the video.

...