The episode will be in your podcast feeds first thing in the morning, but you can access it on the web right now at https://hiphination.org/episodes/s2-e6-the-self-and-survival/. We also have a new sponsor for this episode, Warby Parker, an online one-stop shop for your eyeglass and sunglass frames, with free shipping! Please visit them to help support the show, so they can continue to sponsor us in the future!

Hello Hi-Phi Nation blog followers! As per usual, you are first to have access to the next episode. This is another fun one about the philosophy of music. Here is the link to the show description and episode. It will be in your podcast feeds first thing tomorrow morning.

https://hiphination.org/episodes/s2-episode-5-cover-me-softly-feb-27th-2018/

We are also thanking our Patreon supporters on this episode. Even $1/month helps a great deal. Ryan Samarakoon, Emily Baliestri, Rick Grush, Greg Poulos, and Pamela O’Neill have been particularly generous.

You too can support the show monthly here.

Our other Patreon supporters are:

Kristi Reuille, Shawn Eng, Adil Haque, Andrew Szekely, Antonio Minichilli, Josh Cohn, Skylar Primm, James Lohner, Lauren Bacon, Cody Sehl, Karl Young, Olga Z, Vance Ricks, Simon Jones, Laurent Shupbach, Kay Reeves, RC, Justin Brauer, Neil Ashworth, Andrew Yoder, Adam Zendel, Michelle Li, and Angie Whitiken.

One time donors to the show on Paypal have also really helped with production costs.

William Manson, Sandra Alvarez, Jesus Andrade Guzman, Kayla Hinrich, Susan McKenzie, Emily Balistrieri, Sam Denison, Jennifer Nield, Kristen Bruxvoort, Oona Junni, John Shelby, Laurent Schupbach, Adam Zendel, Markus Wagner, Philip Klay, George Vulov, Kieran Setiya, Faith Dower, Misofa PTY LTD, Yunyun Cheng Turim, Creighton Rosenthal, Wade Roush, Simeon Fitch, James Barnett III, Leslie Dema.

Hi Everyone, March Madness has hit the podcast industry, and one newsletter has set up a bracket that includes Hi-Phi Nation as an up and coming indie. Your vote will help us move along in the competition, hopefully we can get some more attention if we get far enough to square off against the big hitters, the Marons, Gimlets, Panoplys of the world! Vote this week, and if we make it, vote next week! https://discoverpods.com/podcast-madness-2018-round-1/

I have been interviewed on a brand new Podcast Review channel with the LA Review of books. Here is a link to the interview. https://podcastreview.org/interview/hi-phi-nation-barry-lam/

Just for you blog-followers of Hi-Phi Nation, a brand new episode is available now on the webpage. The episode will be released on your podcast feeds Tuesday morning, which will mark the 1-year anniversary of the release of our first episode.

It has been a wild ride this past year. The very first episode of Season 1, still one of my favorites, receive 742 downloads on the first day of release. Since then, it has been downloaded 60,000 times. We currently have about 20,000 subscribers judging from the number of downloads new episodes get within a month of release, but across the board, episodes have eventually reached 50,000 downloads within a few months. We are well north of half a million downloads from around the world. This is not huge, but for an indie production done by one person in just a year, I think its pretty good. The only way to grow, with no advertising budget, is word of mouth.

I appreciate your patience with me this season as I juggle teaching and research as well as producing the show. I had to make a decision as to whether to finish production on a batch of episodes, and then release them more frequently, or just releasing them as I complete them. I decided on the latter, and it has meant about an episode a month. Behind the scenes, I am trying to secure a way to fund future productions, which involves a lot of grant-writing and grant-rejections. Its a high-risk, high-reward affair but its the only way I see of sustaining such a geeky niche show. That said, there is a lot of good news. I will be producing the show from Canberra, Australia, at the Australia National University, from Mid-June thru Mid-August, so send me your story tips from down under. I am also in the works for an entire season three based on one philosophical theme throughout.

Future episodes from this season will include questions about personal identity and the afterlife, another episode on the philosophy of music, and more collaboration with outside producers. Please continue to support the show through word of mouth, writing to journalists who cover podcasts, and donations through Patreon and Paypal. -Barry

Whether you love or hate math, its impossible to deny that it has driven almost all of scientific and technological change. This week we look at how a religious cult in Southern Italy gave rise to the worship of numbers, and why the more we know through numbers, the less we know about them. Episode 3 on the philosophy of mathematics, out just in time for your holiday commutes! S2, Episode 3: Drowned at Sea (Dec. 19th, 2017)

Hi everyone, I’m including in an article about local podcasting at the Poughkeepsie Journal, and I am featured on the Academic Minute this week on WAMC. Here are links to both.

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/life/2017/11/28/hudson-valley-podcasts-deliver-entertainment-and-education/903535001/

https://academicminute.org/2017/11/barry-lam-vassar-college-the-wishes-of-the-dead/

Hello followers of the Hi-Phi Nation blog. I finally completed Episode 2 of Season 2. You can get it online first, it will be in your podcast feeds tomorrow morning. I hope to have one more episode out before the end of the year!

https://hiphination.org/episodes/s2-episode-2-the-ethics-bowl-nov-28-2017/

Greetings Hi-Phi Nation listeners. You may be wondering -and I know some of you are because I’ve seen messages on Twitter and iTunes-where are my Season 2 episodes?

I’ve been working on episode two all week, and hoped to get it out by Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, but alas, it just isn’t finished. I expect to have it out by Tuesday of next week. As many of you know, it is a big challenge to churn out content now that I am back at my 9-5 job, but they are coming. Here is how I envision the release of Season 2. I will be releasing episodes monthly going into the Christmas/New Years holiday break. I will be producing a large batch of episodes during that break and releasing in a more regular, bi-weekly schedule starting at the end of January, still with the aim of a total of 10 episodes by May. Hopefully I will also have time to update the website as well as thank all of you who have donated through Paypal and Patreon. Keep rating on iTunes, and stay subscribed, the episodes are coming!

It has been a while Hi-Phi Nation fans, but the first episode of Season 2 is scheduled to drop first thing in the morning in your podcatchers. But, you can listen to the full episode on the website and Soundcloud now if you can’t wait!

Rather than hold off until everything was perfect, and many episodes were done, I have decided that it is better this season to release episodes as I make them. You see, I am back at my day job this year, as a Professor at Vassar College, which means teaching, grading, and administering. But I have collected, and continue to collect, hours and hours of interviews and stories for the year, and I fully plan to release 10 episodes by the spring. We also have a new logo for Season 2 produced by the wonderful Katherine Zhou, whose artwork graced the cover of every episode of Season 1.

As always, I would greatly appreciate that you share the episode on Facebook, Twitter, or by word of mouth, and help the show continue to grow! I will be updating the website in the coming days to thank all of you donors who have helped support Hi-Phi Nation this coming season. In the meantime, happy listening!