Now Playing Podcast Q&A: ‘Twin Peaking,’ Podbean, and More

With those episodes now available via Podbean purchase and subscription options, listeners have been able to catch up on classic series’ including Jaws, Alien, and Planet of the Apes.

Yet, the question remains, does this mean Now Playing’s donation drives are going away?

Host Arnie Carvalho answered that question and more in a Q&A with the Venganza Media Gazette.

Arnie C: We’re going to have a Silver Donation Series for a new retrospective: Pirates of the Caribbean. That’s a five-episode series, one that listeners have been demanding for some time. The Silver level series will be available both through PodBean and, due to listener demand, also through the “classic” method through PayPal for those who want the shows in iTunes.

The classic donation wiill be $10 for all 5 shows. With Podbean, the new Pirates series will be available for $2.99 per episode, pick which episodes you want.  After the donation drive ends the Podbean episodes will increase to $3.99 per episode.

That will be the only new movie series reviewed for donation this Spring.  While we normally do three movie series, with Now Peaking and the opening of the vault we don’t want our listeners to feel over-extended.  So the Gold and Platinum series will just be rereleases of series that are currently on PodBean, but getting new installments this Spring or Summer.

All that said, there will be a couple other bonus episodes.  We usually did some Easter Egg podcasts with donation drives.  Now we are going to release those types of one-off reviews to Patrons who support the show on an ongoing basis.  Details for that are on our Podbean Patron page.

PodBean’s technology allows us to offer these old shows. Until now we’ve have had to process all donations by hand and could not balance offering so much. If we continue past our 10^th anniversary depends on listener feedback.

Arnie C: The advantage to going Podbean is instant access. In the past, donors received those shows via email, now they don’t need to wait, and they can choose which episodes they want if they don’t want the entire series.

The advantage of going “classic” is a slightly lower donation for the entire bundle. Those donors will also be grandfathered in for any future sequels, much like current donors with Alien, Jaws, etc.  But we are still processing all donations by hand, sending out weekly e-mails by hand, and so on.  PodBean purchases are by the episode so any new installments received would require an additional payment.

Arnie C: And a new Planet of the Apes film. Both retrospectives will be available on Podbean — Alien is there now – but, again, those series’ will also be available through the “classic” donation method. Alien will be our Gold level series, for the traditional donation of $25 or more, also getting you the Pirates shows.

The Platinum level series will be all three: Pirates, Alien, and Planet of the Apes. In total, that’s going to be 20 reviews for a donation of $40 or more.

And of course, anyone who previously donated through Kickstarter, our 5th Anniversary DVD, or the original Apes and Alien series will get these new episodes e-mailed to them with no additional donation needed.

Arnie C: Now Peaking is sort of a sub-show to Now Playing.  It will not be on the Now Playing site, it has its own web site at NowPeakingPodcast.com.  It also has its own Twitter and Facebook feeds.  That said, it is being made by us at Now Playing. It will be hosted by me, Jakob, and Stuart, and edited by our crack team.

Twin Peaks had an interesting formula–each episode of the series was one day in the life of Twin Peaks.  We will follow that pattern.  Our first show will be released February 24th (the day Laura Palmer’s body was discovered in Twin Peaks).  That review of the pilot episode will be available for free both on the Now Playing Podcast feed and on NowPeakingPodcast.com.

After that, future episode reviews will be part of a donation series, the money covering the costs of Now Peaking and also supporting Now Playing.  These podcasts will come out one a day until late March, keeping up with Twin Peaks’ in-universe timeline.  Then, when the Showtime series starts in May, we’ll release new episodes weekly.

There will be a total of 40 episodes or more, depending on how many Showtime releases this summer.  They will only be available through PodBean with each episode costing $0.99 each. You can also get a Season Pass of all the episodes for $29.99.

We are all really excited about Now Peaking and a chance to deep dive into the Twin Peaks universe.  Every book from The Secret Diary of Larua Palmer to The Secret History of Twin Peaks will be reviewed on Books & Nachos, the show itself will be reviewed on Now Peaking, and the Twin Peaks movie, Fire Walk With Me, will be reviewed on Now Playing, free for everyone to hear, on March 28, 2017!