2nd Anniversary: Follow us on Bluesky and stay tuned for newly unlocked content.

0:00 Hello dear listeners, this is Lynn, the voice of the 5th Monkey. Can you believe we are approaching our 2nd anniversary already? In about one week, we will be welcoming our 2nd anniversary on December 8th. Yay. To celebrate the occasion, we're happy to make a few announcements. First up, we are on Blue Sky.

0:21 Find us at 5th Monkey. That is the number 5, followed by THMONKEY. The direct link to our profile is in the descriptions and you can also find it on our website, also linked below. Setting up a new base on Blue Sky is our first step to slowly withdraw from X, formerly Twitter because reasons. So if you happen to be following us on Twitter, feel free to unfollow any moment now so we don't feel as bad when we eventually leave.

0:49 We have some good memories over there, and we thank everyone who wrote us kind comments, but we do plan to eventually stop using that platform altogether. Nothing we do is changing. We just don't want to hang around Twitter anymore, and we apologize if this will be inconvenient for you. Go follow us on Blue Sky instead.

1:05 So we're more pumped to create content over there. On a related note, as some of you probably know already, you can now join our YouTube channel as a paid member. It will give you the same access to locked episodes as a Spotify subscriber for less than three U.S. dollars a month. Do consider joining us there if Spotify and Patreon are not your thing, but again, Patreon is still the most recommended place to join us as a paid member because we just post a lot more content there. OK, with all the housekeeping out of the way, let's get to the important stuff.

1:38 What are we doing for our 2nd anniversary? First of all, on December 8th, we will permanently unlock production notes episodes four to six. Yes, you heard it right, Permanently. So starting from December 8th, 2024, Production Notes episodes 1:00 to 6:00 will be permanently free for all. Other locked episodes will remain behind the pay wall.

2:01 So if you find the free episodes helpful, do consider becoming a pay member because we really need the money. The second perk for our anniversary will take place on Christmas Day. Starting from December 25th all the way till the 31st, we will unlock selected Patreon posts for everyone to access, which includes doodles made by the team's artist Strong from over 10 years ago, and our ongoing field piece series titled Meeting Journey to the West Characters in Real Life, where our team shows you how Journey to the West is perpetually interwoven with the daily life of a Chinese person. The posts will remain free to view for one week only, so please read them before we lock them up again. Our team is in a different time

2:42 zone from most of our listeners, so we will definitely take that into consideration and make sure the posts remain accessible when you're still in the year 2024. And as a final update, we would like to inform you that we have unlocked ad revenue on both Spotify and YouTube. We would like to thank everyone who made it possible for us to monetize our work.

3:01 Since we launched this project, we have received a lot of support from generous listeners and we are very grateful for your help. However, the team is still working below minimum wage to bring you 3 new episodes every month. And let's just agree that nobody should work nearly for free to make something that requires this much care and research. So unless our income from subscribers suddenly skyrockets, ad revenue is crucial to keep us going. Please understand that we didn't allow ads on our episodes simply to inconvenience you.

3:33 We just really need the money. If you like what we do, please consider donating to Kofi or becoming a pay subscriber on YouTube, Spotify, or Patreon. Our Patreon shop is also open to the public. You don't need membership to buy stuff from there. All the links are in the descriptions below. Even if you aren't ready to pay yet, you can still follow us for free on YouTube or Patreon.

3:54 You already know what we do. You know what to expect from us. Let's get on this journey together for the long run. Every small gesture helps. This is the 5th Monkey and thank you for listening.