NFTs for Charity

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When Michael and I decided to start a podcast back in 2017 we had no expectations.

We didn’t know how big our audience would be or the opportunities it would bring or how much fun it would be or any of that stuff. We also had no idea how great our audience would be.

Our email inbox is full every week with people offering feedback, opinions, TV & movie recommendations, books, research reports and links to useful topics for the show. Then there are listeners who are in on our stupid jokes and make us laugh with comments on Twitter, Instagram or YouTube.

I listen to a lot of podcasts so I understand the feeling behind this meme:

So Michael and I were intrigued when we were approached by a start-up called Audiograph1 that was interested in creating communities for podcasts.

The team at Audiograph — Quinn, Josh and Andrew — felt podcasting was a one-way street and there had to be more ways for podcast hosts to connect with their audience and more ways for the audience to connect with one another.

This made sense to us so we signed on as advisors and shareholders in the company. We have been working with Audiograph for a while now developing their platform. Towards the end of 2021 Quinn and team told us they were exploring a new idea — what if we used NFTs as a way to unlock podcast community features?

Michael has been more involved with NFTs than I have but I’ve been following the developments in this space. Art is in the eye of the beholder but I don’t see the need to invest in digital art. I understand why some people are doing so but it doesn’t interest me all that much. To each their own.

However, using NFTs to unlock benefits makes a ton of sense to me. It’s like a digital key.

Quinn, Josh and Andrew have spent the past few months programming away on the blockchain and creating an amazing platform for us. The landing page looks awesome:

The basic premise is you buy an NFT and that allows you to unlock the benefits of our digital podcast community. Here’s what we came up with to incentivize people to join:

To sum up, if you buy one of our NFTs you will receive access to:

  • A premium mailbag where you can ask Michael and me questions.
  • Access to an archive of the Google docs we use to produce the show and fill with content every week to discuss on Animal Spirits.
  • The ability to watch one live taping of the podcast each month.
  • Access to our Animal Spirits Discord channel to interact with us and other listeners who own the NFTs.

And we’re not selling these NFTs as some sort of money grab. We made that clear early on in this journey. We wanted to do something good with this money so we’re giving it all away. We’re not making a dime on these transactions and neither is Audiograph.

We will be giving away all proceeds to charity. No Kid Hungry is an organization that is striving to end childhood hunger in America. This is straight from their website:

According to the latest estimates, as many as 13 million children in the United States live in “food insecure” homes. That phrase may sound mild, but it means that those households don’t have enough food for every family member to lead a healthy life.

This problem is only getting worse as the cost of food rises with higher inflation. We couldn’t be happier to partner with them. In fact, they even accept crypto so this money will go directly to them.

The cost of an NFT is 0.1 ETH.

We think that’s a steal based on everything you’ll be getting out of this community.

Our video producers Duncan and John helped put together the artwork for the NFTs from the podcast:

Here is a link to all of the information you need to find the NFTs as well as the benefits you receive:

Animal Spirits Community NFT

Check out our podcast with Quinn from last weekend to learn more about our journey with Audiograph, how this project came together and some more information on the NFTs:

Animal Spirits NFT Drop

If you’re not crypto native, have no fear, Audiograph can walk you through this process. We’ve already had a number of people who said this is the first NFT they’ve ever purchased and it was a breeze. Reach out here if you have any questions or problems:

Reach out to Audiograph for support on Twitter or Discord

And finally, thank you to No Kid Hungry for working with us on this project. It’s a worthy cause if you have the means to help those in need.

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1Audiograph has been producing these excellent transcripts of our podcast for a number of months now.

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