Hey snake charmers!
I’m writing to tell you about a cool new project I’ve been pouring my li’l heart into the last six months.
Along with two phenomenal friends, Abigail Keel and Joe Soonthornsawad, I’m making a ten-episode documentary podcast called Mirage — all about climate change and the future of water in the West!
Water policy can be a dry subject (pun intended!). But this podcast will be anything but. To tell our story, we’re getting on a boat. We’re rafting all 1,500 miles of the Colorado River from where it begins in the mountains of Wyoming to where it dries up miles above its historical delta in Mexico. The Colorado River is one of the most important rivers in America, but thanks to climate change and overallocation, it’s drying up, putting the 40 million people and countless other creatures that depend on it in jeopardy. But it’s not just a regional story. The way we treat the Colorado River crisis says a lot about the way we will treat increasing water scarcity around the world — and the actions we take now will set the stage for the actions we take in the future.
So how can you help? Well. Making podcasts is expensive. Like really, really expensive. It will cost $200K to make this entire project — and the podcast world has largely stopped funding meaningful, narrative work. Abigail and I have been working on this project for six months as a labor of love, but we’re out of savings and need money to fund the rest of the reporting.
We need to raise $43,000 to cover the rest of the reporting phase, so we’re reaching out to our friends, family and supporters to help us fund this!
Your money will help us pay for lodging, flights, motels, and equipment, as well as helping us get on the actual river, which gets pricey fast.
For donors that give $50, we’ll read your name on the river and put it in the credits of our show. (Fifteen seconds of fame, baby!). If you donate $100 dollars or more, you’ll be invited to an exclusive, water-themed donor party in Brooklyn designed by yours truly. And if you can give more, we’ve got some cool rewards cooking for bigger donors.
As a reader of Head Snakes, it would mean a lot to get your support. This newsletter is about mental health, but — as I’ll write more about in an upcoming post on the topic — our mental health is not just affected by our minds, but by the world we live in. One of my favorite folk songs says it best: “When the world is sick, can’t no one be well.”
This podcast is a deep dive into the sickness that governs our ecological thinking — and an immersive investigation into what we can do to shift that thinking and ensure a sustainable future for everyone.
If that inspires you, please donate, like and share with folks you think would be interested.
To learn more about the podcast — and to donate — check out our website here. If you want to follow Abigail, Joe and me on social, you can find us on Instagram at @ashsan82, @organichotdog, and @joe.soont respectively.
For a teaser of the show, here’s a taste from our travels.
And if you want to hear our past award-winning audio work, check out our podcast, Unifinished: Short Creek. It’s a story about a fundamentalist Mormon town reeling and rebuilding after the imprisonment of their prophet, Warren Jeffs — and it was named one of the Top Three Podcasts of 2020 by The New Yorker.
Thanks in advance for supporting independent media made by some of your favorite climate-inclined river rats! :)
P.S. If you know any folks in the climate, environmental or media worlds who might be interested in supporting us, please reach out!