#72: A New Era for The Pill/Typhoid and Cholera

Dan Klass

First the big annoucement: Yes, the future is finally here, and I am pleased to announce that The Bitterest Pill has entered the next phase of its life!

After this show, The Bitterest Pill will only be available to paid subscribers for a small fee of $2 per month! What a bargain! Now, all the wit, humor, pathos and boring guests of the original Pill, but at less than 50¢ American per show. Heck, you spend five times that every day on Starbucks! Think of this as your weekly shot of espresso in the half-caf-half-decaf-low-foam-no-fat latte you just can’t live without.

Fifty cents for a half hour show?! It’s a steal at twice the price, and yet it’s not twice the price!

Thanks to my new friends at The Podcast Media Group for setting up this new for-pay system.

I discuss why my wife wants someone to put her in the zoo, the time my mom gave me typhoid and cholera and what my daughter says when you shut off the computer.

WARNING: I take the Lord’s name in vain. Three times. Once in my best Nick Nolte impression…

44 thoughts on “#72: A New Era for The Pill/Typhoid and Cholera”

  4. This is deprivation! Dan! PLEASE let this be April Fools! We’re BEGGING you! You’ve turned on what podcasting is all about!

    I’ll be listening to Rush Limbaugh for now on……

  6. I hope it is an April Fools, I’ll be unsubscribing if not.
    I can handle adverts, but I won’t be bothered to manage subscriptions for all the podcasts I listen to.

  7. Quote: “WARNING: I take the Lord’s name in vain. Three times.”

    Dan. Dan. Dan.

    You *almost* made me do just that when I read your announcement. Then I remembered today’s date.

    Very funny.

  8. Dan,

    It’s about time! You should be getting some kind of return for your time and hard work on The Pill!

    You should also set up a CafePress shop so that we can buy Pill swag!

    tsb

  9. Hey!! wait a second Dan, I’ve been a listener sinces episode 20 and i am only 12! I can’t coax my parents into buying a internet show ( I mean really, the chances are skyhigh). bad choice. You just lost a listener. :'(

  10. So, if I pay there WILL be hilarity? Well, then how could I pass that up? I’ve been listening for awhile now without any hilarity and if money will get a few laughs I’ll pay. You are promising hilarity, right…..

  12. It is a shame you are going to make us pay to listen to your show. I will not be one of the people that pay.

  13. This better be an April Fools joke. I’m sure it is. I love the Bitterest Pill, but the thought of having to pay for a podcast seems ridiculous. Bring on the ads.

  14. This can’t be real…I’d listen gladly to some commercials. I understand bandwidth isn’t free but I’m not going to start pulling out my Visa for my daily shows. I’ll miss the pill if this is true Dan. I’d buy a pill coffee cup, I already own your CD, it’s great. Best of luck with the show.

  15. Um, Dan, next time you perform the classic paid suscription soon prank, PLEASE add a disclaimer at the end.I doubt there are any pad suscription podcasts. Apparently you just lost 2 podcast listeners, and potentially quite a few more. If this ISN’T an April fools joke, good luck to Hudson on progressing in his podcast career if only a few people would be listening

  16. There are paid podcasts out there, Ricky Gervais even moved to a paid subscription. It will only hurt the audience numbers though.

    I subscribe to about 30 podcasts – $2 for each would be affordable to me, but I wouldn’t pay, because who would want to check their statements for all those entries? And deal with people in other countries if a payment is taken incorrectly.

    Again, I hope it’s a hoax, I’ll miss the show if not.

  17. I’ll try it if you want and see how it works out… But then I have to kill small cute kittens and sell the skin and meat to shady characters to save enough…

    Love
    Lisa

  18. April fool’s joke or not, what a great way to winnow the listeners.

    “Make me laugh and make it free. And make it quick.”

    The only people who should make tut tut sounds at a podcaster (who claims to be) starting to charge for the fruits of their creative efforts are other podcasters who put out the fruits of their creative efforts. The people who happily take for free shouldn’t throw up their arms in horror while clutching their credit cards to their bosom. They should get a libsyn account, a mic and some talent.

    Try podcasting for 18 months, then get back to us.

  19. It’s a great way for listeners to winnow the podcasts to.

    There are other shows that I listen to that have adverts, and I don’t mind that, I’m happy for someone with the time and talent to make a great podcast to make money, and happy to support it.

    People don’t need to do a podcast for 18 months to understand this, and remember without the audience, you’re just a guy talking to his computer.

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  21. Ads aren’t abundant in podcasting; not all ad agencies ‘get it’. In my opinion TBP is probably one of the podcasts that could charge money and keep enough of the audience base to make it pay an income.

    Let’s face it, Dan isn’t moving to a paid subscription model. But, hey, many a true colour has been shown on this comment board, eh?

  22. I agree ads aren’t abundant – but they’re less hassle for a listener is basically the only point I’m making.

    I don’t think there’s any need to take offense, on either side. Dan would have known full well that people would stop listening if he made this move, and also known that he would be able to still cover his costs and hopefully make a profit.

    And the audience should have known that in the end people have to at the very least cover their costs, which aren’t small. Adverts or paid subscriptions are almost inevitable once a podcast reaches a certain popularity.

  23. Dan, yours is one of the few that I subscribe to that I would pay for. Of course I love that people forget your a underworked actor and thus need to do the stand up act sometimes. People really need to chill and enjoy a joke when they happen.

    Of course I remember last year when no one got the joke either!

    Keep on rocking dude.

  24. Phew. I thought maybe I was the only one hoping this was an April Fools’ joke. Dan, come on and tell us we were right! Remember, once you start charging, you disappear from iTunes Podcasts directory and wind up in Audiobooks – it happened to Ricky Gervais, who claimed his was the #1 Podcast in the world. I wondered what number it was now that he charges for it – turns out even iTunes doesn’t consider it a Podcast any more.

    Cafe Press! That’s an idea. I’d buy a Pill t-shirt.

  26. this is not funny. please dont tell me this is a joke, because it is not funny at all. i have been a subscriber since episode 17, so its just second nature to listen to dan while doing my homework. but since i am going to college soon, i have to pinch EVERY penny, so sorry, but you just lost a listener, that is unless you annouce that it was all a prank.

    ben

  27. Ever since last year’s April Fool’s of yours… I honestly don’t recall if it was here or on OWR… with the 10 second talking and then ads, ads, ads… I was ready for you to try and pull something this year. Bravo.

    I have to admit… I need to do the math, and drop some of my change in the tip jar. You do an amazing job, and you’ve been worth every penny… ok, every virtual penny…

    I hate immunizations… there’s something about being infected with something so I won’t get it… I know it works, logically, but the thought still gives me the heeby jeebies.

  28. Oh, you April Fools.

    I was taken in by the Los Angeles New Times a few years ago (while that paper still existed) when they put out an extremely detailed, very lengthy article about the “Palmdale Film Festival” and the underground subculture of low budget filmmakers in Palmdale. (The first prize of the festival was a giant wooden garage door painted gold known as the “Palm Door.” Har har har. That should have tipped me off, but I just thought these guys were trying to be funny.)

    For those not from Los Angeles, substitute your own equivalent of Palmdale. Has to be a small town on the most distant edge of your city with very cheap housing, looks dumpy, and has no visible culture of any sort or nothing distinguished about it, except maybe Meth labs.

    I was so upset when I found out that this whole tale was made up out of whole cloth that I felt like moving out to Palmdale and starting to make low budget movies and starting an underground subculture, just out of spite. Then I flipped the remote to HBO and that idea went by the wayside.

    And so it goes…

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