Building Out Studio 3 - Sneak Peek - Updates - Thanks to You (Patreon)

There is a very likely chance that tomorrow we will do a Zoom for Patrons only (sorry, it will be short notice) with a sneak-peek into Studio 3.

On Monday we will be in-studio for the first time since COVID, and Jennifer and I will be together. So Sunday will be a tech check for lights, sound, framing, etc.

If you're interested in how live video production sausage is made, cursing included...

I also want to update you on a shift in our editorial direction, that you may have seen on Twitter earlier today, or heard about on our Thursday broadcast.

We will no longer be covering smaller protests that include those in bloc. There are several reasons for this:

🟣 Despite the fact that many in bloc continue to welcome us and believe we report with integrity, some of the newer faces do not and it is exhausting to deal with them.

🟣 The small protests at this point are ineffective and many (not all) in bloc are not operating with any specific agenda beyond anti-capitalism/insurrectionary anarchy. Candidly, for me (my opinion) this platform is just inches away from Boogaloo, and we would never actively platform Boogaloo. (that isn't to say all anarchists act like Boog or that all operating anarchists are insurrectionary anarchists)

Also, I'm ready to share some other updates with you:

🟣 Two of us are taking a Reuters-Thompson digital journalism class that will end with a test and certification (including me). I've been wanting to do this for a while and jumped at the opportunity.

🟣 We are overwhelmed, literally, with how many stories are coming in and people actively asking to be on the show - we're growing up and that is in part thanks to you.

🟣 We have several publications and media platforms that actively want to partner with us, and we will be deepening our partnership with Converge. There are some ideas we are talking about.

🟣 We are in opening talks with Axios right now (yes, that Axios) about a project they are working on, and how we can work together. Don't know if this will go anywhere but they called our work, "impressive."

The last 3 items on that list bring out the change in editorial direction. We are going to be doing a lot more local and hyper-local coverage. Now that active wide-scale protests in Seattle are basically over and COVID is winding down (not over) we are going back to our roots.

We will lean on national stories to fill in gaps during slow news days and major stories will get covered when they are relevant to the BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, or our Democracy not imploding in on itself, but candidly, there are so many people who want to talk to us now, I'm not seeing many slow news days.

A bit on me. My mental health hasn't been great and I've been hinting about the PTSD and trauma I've been processing since last summer. It has been a long search but I'm finally going in to see a specialist. One of the challenges I've been dealing with is the news cycle never stops, so "taking a day off" feels near, impossible.

Lastly, Can You Hear Us - the Director's Cut. YES! We have had amazing videos submitted by 4 more people and the Marshall Law Band is going to let us use some of their music in the V2 (how amazing is that). We are going to work with some organizations to understand where the production bar is to get into some smaller film festivals, given the positive feedback.

Patrons will get access to the next "rough cut" when we reach a point of the new story. The videos and interviews that have been submitted to date are remarkable,

Thank you so much for your support, we deeply appreciate our Patreons - all of you!

David, Jennifer, the entire team, and Yoda the Wonderpug in spirit