Our Ads Philosophy
Added 2026-01-23 20:15:03 +0000 UTCRecorded on January 20th, 2026.
A quick chat about ads on the show.
Previous Ad Implementation FAQ: https://www.patreon.com/posts/ads-spotify-and-141215793
Edit - A common concern in the comments seems to be "They're putting ads on the Patreon content?" and I wanna clarify that no we are not doing that and there will never, ever, be ads on the Patreon content.
Also since a handful of people asked, how the initial ad got accepted at all:
Basically a series of awkward mistakes + me not really taking issue with the ad individually (by my own framework of how I accept ads, I was a happy customer for years and didn't really think anything of it)
1 - Our network normally posts potential sponsors in like a "pipeline" that we look at, then we respond yes/no. This applies to every sponsor request. I am normally the only person that checks this but for anything I think the other guys might have questions on, I bring it up with them
2 - For this ad, it didn't get added to the pipeline (it did for other podcasts in their network, this was just a mistake it didn't get added and sent to us, this has literally happened once and it was for this ad)
3 - We got info about the ad in Slack (that I and our producer actively check, less Doug/Atrioc), I passively assumed we must have said yes to it, not remembering we never actually did, and since I had no issue doing the ad individually I didn't bring anything up (it was also over the holidays where I was intentionally checked out)
4 - Day of the sponsor read Atrioc and Doug are seeing the ad for the first time. Atrioc assumes that we must have discussed and been down for this, and presumably feels uncomfortable speaking up about the ad because he's "late" to weighing in and other people benefit from this money that aren't him, so everyone just does the ad assuming everyone else was down.
At the end of the day someone should have just said something and we presumably would not have agreed do it if we had discussed it, but we didn't. But yeah that's what happened lmao. - Aiden
Comments
The explanation you seem to be looking for about Turbo Tax is right in the description of the video. That's how it happened. Adobe isn't a part of this at all, we're not dropping them,. Not really sure how any of this could be construed as corporate spiel tbh. 15 mins of being as candid as we can be about a process that we don't have to post, and we cancelled the 14 week ad deal we had. I don't really know what more you could ask for other than this never happening in the first place. - Aiden
Lemonade Stand
2026-01-30 23:02:13 +0000 UTCI dont know, I still am pretty upset. I understand that ads are necessary and if you take an apple, amazon, mcdonalds, or whatever other brand Ad I think I would be much less upset. In my mind those are all products that I dont really like the companies but understand their purpose. TurboTax feels outright hostile to the consumer, something that should not exist and only exist because of lobbying. And I think the reason I feel betrayed is because you are the ones that told me that. yeah you can talk about all day that apple is being awful about their appstore but im not blaming you for using an iphone or selling their ads. TurboTax feels just as scummy as gambling ads just in a different way, extorting people for money they shouldn't have to pay. I think you get that perspective now but it just felt so jarring to see you basically lie to us and now not even have the balls to say turbo tax or Adobe directly. I understand not wanting to burn bridges but god damn guys dont give us a corporate spiel explaining yourselves, just say sorry and that you'll do better. I hope yall felt uncomfortable, that's the point. Think a little. This podcast is so heavily focused on political and personal thoughts and expectations that at least for myself I'm gonna be more sensitive if one day you are talking about the abuse of financial entities and the next you are selling me their product. I still very much appreciate what you do and will keep watching but just be human. you are a business but that business involves communicating to your audience yourselves which is a lot of pressure and toll on you but it is the job you are doing.
Cardinal
2026-01-30 00:58:23 +0000 UTCYeah, 😅 it’s probably a contractual issue. Most sponsorship deals are fixed for a specific number of episodes, so even if something changes publicly, the ads that were already agreed upon must continue until that term ends. And lol at the Voldemort comparison the way they keep referring to “a certain company” definitely makes it sound much more dramatic than it probably is.
Bella Cooper
2026-01-30 00:57:06 +0000 UTCSurprised I haven’t seen anyone mention this but there’s still Adobe ad reads in the episodes?? Is it like a situation where a contract was already signed for X amount of weeks and it can’t be canceled before that? Unless I misinterpreted the video and it’s only the TurboTax ads that are getting dropped (I understand why this is the case but it’s VERY funny hearing you guys mention “a certain company” like the name is Voldemort or something)
m v
2026-01-29 09:44:37 +0000 UTCSame, I thought it was an interesting discussion for the most part, but then I read the comments and found out that I'm supposed to hate him.
Anything Random
2026-01-29 06:51:48 +0000 UTCTouch grass. Holy parasocial, Batman. They owe us nothing. I am satisfied with their explanation, and despite never literally saying the words "I'm sorry", they seemed pretty damn apologetic to me. All of this over an ad is crazy.
Bret Wilde-Webster
2026-01-28 23:07:30 +0000 UTC"We got some deserved feedback" "The feedback was intense" "We all got stressed about it" "We feel bad about the situation" "We have the ability to say yes and no... we failed to do that adequately a few weeks ago" Fun fact! They don't apologise a single time in this video. It's mostly just three millionaires mansplaining their weak morals.
morocco1
2026-01-28 21:59:38 +0000 UTCThat’s what I thought about all the hate on the done add.. I feel like acrobat is a great product and I love to use it. It all but gave me cancer when I tried to unsubscribe but it is a really useful product
William
2026-01-28 21:13:22 +0000 UTCBecause most viewers ultimately don't care and anyone that does will be down to click a link - Aiden
Lemonade Stand
2026-01-28 21:09:40 +0000 UTCJust don't do gambling
Red Bear
2026-01-28 20:42:50 +0000 UTCI think this video would save you a lot of grief if you published it in yt. Is there a reason you guys didnt?
Julio Cubillas Flores
2026-01-28 17:57:30 +0000 UTCGet the bag boys~ I support y'all 😎
Appollochan
2026-01-28 08:58:06 +0000 UTCi appreciate the work y'all put into this show. i finally deleted twitter in 2026 (yay) and that was at least a little bit easier bc i knew i would have this podcast as a tether to global political and economic topics. ads are a part of the experience of listening to podcasts - your only mistake was not introducing them for so long that people feel entitled to the content without them lmao. the transparency about it is nonetheless appreciated.
bee
2026-01-27 12:14:43 +0000 UTCI liked the Shopify guy✋😬🤚
Shane
2026-01-26 23:45:56 +0000 UTCI just don't understand people that take content creator ads seriously. Also it's the nature of the beast, the podcast is free every week and I don't understand people that get mad when there's ads in their free content, that's how the world works.
Redtiger
2026-01-26 17:27:36 +0000 UTC
