Week-in-Review: Podcast conference, Legal Clinic, Hell video

I'm going to start trying something new and post mini-newsletters on Fridays to keep you all up-to-date on what I am doing.

Videos:

I posted the History of Hell video on Wednesday as a Halloween special, and it seems to be doing well! I've wanted to cover this topic for a long time, and I'm glad I got the chance. Other videos in the pipeline include the Intro to Sikhism video that I mentioned earlier. It has been delayed once again because I got a lot of feedback from Sikh scholars who suggested that I need to make a few additions. So I will be recording new sections this weekend with the goal of posting in November. I also plan on publishing a video on Shintoism and Pokemon for mid-November. So stay tuned for that. Zoroastrianism will come in December. 

Legal Clinic:

On Thursday I met with the Boston University legal clinic to strategize whether or not I should form Religion for Breakfast into an official entity (an LLC or limited-liability corporation). They provide free legal advice for all student entrepreneurs, which is awesome considering my tight budget. I have been playing around with the idea of going full-time with Religion for Breakfast, which means forming an LLC would make sense. If I don't go full time, then I still might need to form one since I've considered bringing on some help with the technical side of the channel (editing and filming). I'll keep you updated on how this progresses and will definitely tell you if I decide to go full-time. I don't see that happening in the next 12 months since I'm still writing my dissertation and applying for academic positions in religious studies. 

Podcast Conference:

A huge educational podcast conference has come to Harvard Divinity School this weekend called Sound Education. I'm not a podcaster, but as you know, I have been toying with the idea of launching one as part of Religion for Breakfast. This would entail longer form interviews with religious studies scholars on much more complicated topics (e.g. Why do American Evangelicals tend to support the Republican party?). I went to the open house last night and met the director of programming for PBS Digital Studios! He loves the sound of my channel, so we'll be chatting going forward. Not sure if anything will come of it, but he seemed interested in possible collaborations in the future. 

Thank you

As always, thank you everyone for supporting the channel RFB has grown from 10K subscribers in January to 55K as of Wednesday. The Patreon campaign has grown from sub-$200 in January to $600+ in November. I am so excited about the growth of this channel, the growth of this community, and the bright future ahead of us. As the channel grows, I'll be able to realize my goal of longer series on every major religion as well as series on thematic issues like religion and violence, religious liberty laws, and religion and science.