You may have noticed the “donate” button on the right hand side of the main page of this blog and podcast. It’s a link to a PayPal page that will enable you to make a donation to support the podcast (using a Paypal account or a credit card… if everything works as it should). Perhaps you’re wondering: “What’s up with that?”

If you just enjoy listening to this podcast and have no inclination to think about donations, that’s absolutely fine. I will, for as long as I can, keep making this stuff, and you can keep listening to it, and the earth will keep turning. I am happy to have as many listeners as I can possibly have, and I will keep doing what it takes to make that a reality.

Here’s the reason I have added this button. This podcast has quickly become much more popular than I expected it to, which is fantastic. It is the most popular Christian or philosophy podcast in the country, and has gained a large overseas audience as well. That means that a lot of people are listening to it at the website, through the iTunes store, or downloading it to their computer (and as far as bandwidth is concerned, these all have the same effect). I upgraded my hosting plan when I started this podcast to allow for more storage space so that I could store the podcast mp3s. I’ve since had to upgrade my plan further to allow for the surge in bandwidth usage. Internet hosting pricing is not nearly as forgiving in New Zealand as it is elsewhere, and the upshot of all this is that it is costing quite a bit to do all this. That’s not the end of the world. I just suck it in and pay what it costs, because I think it’s worth it to be able to provide this podcast. But if you like this podcast and would like to play a small part in ensuring its comfortable future, feel free to click that link. Think of it like visiting a museum or a church. No obligation whatsoever, but if you like what they’re doing, feel more than welcome to help them do it more.

I started this blog and podcast in part because as a fairly recent graduate (finished the PhD in 2007, graduated in 2008) I really need to get my name out there to give me as much of a fighting chance as possible in the very barren job market for academics in theology/philosophy. Some people have financial backers and are able to literally do this kind of thing for a living, giving them the luxury of researching and publishing full time (or even part time, a couple of days a week), running a full time ministry online and as a result having a much greater output than I do. I’d love to be able to do that, but it’s just not possible. I don’t have backers, I just have me. I don’t run this full time (barely even part time), I work a low paying full time job during the day. I also take a couple of papers by distance to help towards getting a better regular job while I continue the very long term project of raising my profile enough to land a full time academic position. This podcast and blog is one of the ways I do this, and another way is by working on pieces for publication (which often requires locating and obtaining new or used books, and as always, require a pretty substantial investment of time).

If you feel moved to get on board and encourage others to get on board in supporting this, enabling me to seriously increase the output of this podcast, please don’t let me discourage you. Go right ahead. No really, I won’t stop you. Press that button.

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