Here we go!
When we first started doing this show, we had no idea what it was or how long it would last. Nearly one year later we still don't, but we've been surprised by how many people have found us and delighted that so many of them are obsessed with the weird things we are.
We're still new to this whole podcasting thing and we feel a bit weird about asking our listeners for money. You probably feel even weirder about being asked! So in the interest of transparency, we want to tell you why we're doing this.
First, people asked! We genuinely were not expecting this, but a bunch of listeners have written to ask how they can support the show. Now they can!
Second, we've also gotten inquiries from production companies and advertisers. As weird as we feel about this, we feel much weirder about reading ads and would love to stay connected to our listeners directly.
Third, this will help us do a bunch of stuff we've been talking about for ages but haven't made happen yet. We mean things like live shows, meetups, coffee mugs and (especially) engraved pencils.
Fourth, we want to do this as our jobs someday! We love making this show and we think it would be cool to do it for a living. This is a tiny step toward making that happen.
So we'd love it if you supported us, but we're also people who look around the world and see a lot of other things that deserve your time and money and affection. It's been so special to make the show so far and we think this will make it even more so.
Thanks for listening,
Sarah and Mike
Comments (79)
This podcast is total comfort food for my soul. Please keep making it! Sending love from Australia x
I just found you guys last week via Conspirituality and I’m obsessed. I’m very much enjoying your show “Decoding the Weinsteins” (oh wait, is that not what this podcast is called?). In all seriousness, great job. I’m working my way through all the episodes, which is no small feat with long-form podcasts. Thanks for a great show
Started binging awhile back, an now I have arrived at my last episode! I don’t know how i will survive without your awesome humor, and voices! Thanks for proving me wrong.
SO glad I found your podcast -- my "gateway," oddly, since I really don't much care about royal family stuff, was hearing about the Diana "miniseries." Then I began from the beginning, and fell for your show and really, for both of you, Michael and Sarah! I've never been so happy to fall down a rabbit hole--your research, your ongoing tagline fun, but overall--the nuance and thoughtfulness of your casts, and really, your ability to have such compassion and hold such complexity of human experience always informing every topic-- I heart you and your show real, real big. Thank you!
I don't recall how I stumbled on this podcast, but yours was literally the first one I ever listened to, and I'm hooked. Absolutely love your wit and intelligence, I am learning so much but also smiling and laughing throughout the episodes. Keep up the amazing work!
Also just need to say that I LOVE all your Seinfeld references, Sarah!
Canadian listener here, I totally love you guys (you're like-minded souls!) I am almost done all the episodes and I am so bummed!! Keep up the amazing work!
started listening in March 2021 and finished all eps by April 2021. Ya I’m autistic af when I want something I must have it 🤣🤣I just love you both so much and I’m proud to be a new patron. All eps are gold but I want to flag that your autism content is excellent and important. Sarah’s why are dads rainman, also, hits many talking points that even my therapist is not really hip to yet. Especially about empathy (we’re too empathetic sometimes it hurts 😭). Thanks for everything ❤️
So excited for these bonus episodes! I listened to your back catalog in about 3 weeks and couldn't wait for more episodes! 😊
Oh, hi! So happy to have become a patron. The show is just delightful in every way. Wit and compassion, we love to see it! Much love
Just joined your patreon!! Thank you for all you guys do!! I tell every body I know about this amazing podcast
The empathy and compassion in this show are everything. You have no idea how much I needed you both. Thank you!
Binging your podcast was definitely in the top 3 highlights of life in Lockdown. Probably number 1, but I’ll say top 3 just incase. Thank you xo Hannah in London
This show is what gets me through work every day. I listen my whole shift to tune out the Christmas music and when I get off I tell everyone I know every interesting thing I’ve learned through my Bluetooth earbud while making smoothies for rich white hippies. I wish there were an endless supply of episodes to listen to and probably talk about you guys more than any people I know in real life. I’m more than happy to give you a few dollars a month of my paycheck, and more importantly y’all deserve to be compensated for the phenomenal research and analysis you put into every episode, but also I’m selfish and want y’all to be able to create as much content as possible for as long as possible. Wouldn’t have survived the last month of work without you, which probably is weird to read, but if capitalism is the secret villain y’all are the unsung hero (maybe that’s a bit too much, whatever you’re my hero at least)
I love this podcast so much! It’s literally a convergence of my undergrad degree in journalism and my past 6 years doing research for a prominent law firm. Thank you to you both for all you do! 💚💚💚💚💚
Just joined, would very much like an engraved pencil some day. No rush. I'll be here.
As a learning professional I especially appreciate how you both embrace learning and curiosity. Your chemistry and sheer thoughtful articulateness are a delight to witness and I tell literally everyone about your podcast and encourage to listen. Keep up the great work and I'm happy to help in any way I can, including leveraging my own platform & mailing list/community at SkillsLeap.com 💪💙
I love you both so very much! Muah!!!
I've being taking a lot of long walks during covid and stumbled upon the podcast when looking for new content. Over the past month, I've listened to every single episode chronologically and just got to April 2019 and learned about the Patreon. I can't imagine many better ways to use my dwindling money supply in this broken world. Thanks so much for creating this - it's made pandemic life so much better!
YOU. ARE. PERFECT! Don’t change a thing. The chemistry you share can never be copied or duplicated because it is so genuine and gentle & somehow also kick-in-the-pants, if necessary. Like a big brother or big sister. You are my absolute favorite podcast since forever. (I discovered you rather early.... maybe only 4 episodes along. I went back & binge-listened to those.) I look forward to the next podcast all week. I’d love it if they were longer & more frequent. Yes! I’m trying to work you to death! LOL. Now that I know that your goal is doing this for a living, I will contribute as much as possible. And I ask you to tell me if there’s anything I can do to help you reach your goal!! Pipe up! Just say the word. I’d be honored to be able to help in any way! Thank you for this marvelous podcast!! MJ (Mary Jean, but my friends call me “MJ.”).
I don’t know how I stumbled upon your podcast, but I am super grateful. Love it!!!
Sarah and Michael! My sister and I are so in love with your podcast. We check in about every new episode. We share our thoughts and appreciate your take on issues. We agree that there isn't another podcast that we like as much because we love your chemistry. We agree that we would love to listen to you talk back and forth all day. You've brought us closer in a way and we love that!! Thanks!!
From one Sarah to another - you are awesome!
Into the third episode of Michelle Remembers. I love that Michael busts out laughing throughout all of these. It is great. I love the compassion you both express even while de-bunking this story. The other thing that is great is that you are reminding us that when we read non-fiction, we should question what we read.
Anyway love the show, but in times like these I humbly suggest content about what we will be wrong about in the future. With the most important election of our lives coming up in the mist of the biggest human crisis of the last 100 years, with a proto-facist on the ticket, i would welcome your insights. I would also welcome someone looking for the whistle blowers (3) at Deutsche bank that have seen Trumps financials and understand why he would be a valuable customer Wealth Management there and what DB has been doing in Russia for over 100 years. This laundry has been blowing in the wind for years. keep up the good fight and stay safe.
Or a huge miss on the Enron episode failing to tell the story of J. Clifford Baxter who is probably the most interesting character of that whole corporate saga. His suicide and causes of it encapsulate that whole corporate era. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Clifford_Baxter. Obviously I am showing my boomer stripes with the return key so you know this is honestly heart felt. As a cold-blooded, heartless banker with an independent political streak I would love to show you how you are wrong about capitalism and how it is fundamental to the human existence as sex and insurance.
To wit: Anyone who has actually driven a Ford Pinto can easily spot this inexperience. Those cars were truly POS's and "planned obsolescence" is no explanation for camshaft metal to wear out at 87K miles.
Evidently it is ! Dear Sarah and Mike, Well I am in the process of becoming a patron of the show. What a delight! In full disclosure you two are almost exactly the ages of my children and bring that millennial wit, insight and despair to the show. Love the well chosen content and subject matter. But as true millennia, I find that you both lack some perspective that only a curmudgeonly, white privileged, straight male OK Boomer dad type can bring to the table.
is it possible to write a comment if you are not an active social media user?
Dear Sarah & Mike, thank you for your wonderful podcast. I love the mix between you examining the stories spliced with type cultural reflections. No idea if you'll read this, but please please keep doing what you're doing during this weird covid-19 situation. I'm SO happy to hear a podcast that is not suddenly either 1. All gloomy and introspective 2. Only about other apocalyptic stories that they've done before and are now re-hashing at lack of better. There's no precedent for our generation, and we're all looking for words but I need the distraction of your podcast so badly. It's emotionally exhausting being pointed out every 5 minutes that we're locked up in the house and that I have to fear for the lives of me and mine due to a virus that I can't see and therefore have no control over. Much prefer to listen to you guys bringing a good story with the context it deserves. I'm putty a few pennies in your piggy bank, hope it helps to keep you guys going. Stay safe!
Since last Friday I've been isolating and working from home. Someone told me about this podcast and I was hooked from episode 1. As I said in my iTunes review, you two are like the world's greatest coworkers gabbing in the next cubicle while I work on my deadlines. I am now on the Preppy Murder, and as soon as you mentioned your Patreon I signed up, as I'd been hoping there was some way to pay you actual money for the service you provide. Sarah and Mike, thank you for making the world a smarter place because, damn, do we need that right now!
I appreciate the show. I would like to make a suggestion to you both that it might be a good idea to make it more clear that the support for this podcast comes from listener contributions. Okay, maybe I am a bit dense because i didi not get this until recently. It should be evident because we listeners do not have our installments interrupted by commercials.
I have been teaching a course on crisis rhetoric at the university where I work and, thanks to you two and your excellent podcast, I have to really resist not just making it a 1990s class in which we debunk all the crises, media waves, moral panics, etc. of that era! Obsessed with your current OJ series. "Fastest boy" might be a contender for merch phrases.
I really appreciate that you guys don't want to have ads; some podcasts incorporate them pretty well, but they can really interrupt the flow of an episode. I just bought a t-shirt and I'm happily signing up as a patron too. It's interesting how many women we're wrong about-I think Marie Antoinette would make a fascinating episode.
Just heard the Preppy Murder episode and your awesome Patreon announcement so here I am. Let's be implicated together. Love you guys! Keep up the amazing work.
I’m so delighted to have discovered YWA and found a way to support it! Please take my money. I know you’ll use it well.
When I started listening to You're Wrong About I couldn't believe this great, long, well-researched podcast didn't have ads, a patreon, or a sponsorship. I was a little worried about you guys and what it might meant for the longevity of the podcast. I'm glad to hear you enjoy making YWA, and thrilled to have the opportunity to support it. This is my favorite podcast and I appreciate all the time and effort you put into making it.
I agree with everything Sara said here! I thought I was the only one worried about your longevity & dying to throw some money your way!
Just listened to The Wardrobe Malfunction episode and had to increase my Patreon support because I'm always so delighted by you guys. Strongly suggest you start selling t shirts with "Super Time Half Bowl" on them. Or a hoodie! I would probably only take the hoodie off for work if you guys sold those! Would love to see you live... I'm in South Bend but would for sure travel to a more fun city such as Chicago or Indy!
i love this podcast and when i got to the episode about the patreon, immediately signed up. thank Mike and Sarah! Idea for a podcast: the "overdiagnosing of ADHD" in the 90s for kids...and how many adult women are undiagnosed with inattentive type ADHD today
I just recently got into this show myself and I'm binging it like mad. I'd really, really like to hear about the under-diagnosis of women/girls with ADHD as a ADHD-C lady who was not diagnosed until 31. This podcast has been so informative and interesting. I'm so glad I can contribute a little bit to it!
So in love with this podcast! I thought my reaction to finding YWA was unique, but like everyone else, I: devoured each back episode and was totally bereft when I caught up (now waiting for new episodes is terrible) and had a cleaner house than ever before when I was binging eps (I ironed and I never iron!). Love it and happy to support Michael and Sarah. Also, like everyone else, I think I have a great idea for a podcast--just as you can always blame capitalism for every bad thing in the 90s, I think there's an interesting argument about lead and it's role in the crime spike of the 70s, 80s and 90s (which affected and affects everything). Here's a roundup from Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/02/an-updated-lead-crime-roundup-for-2018/https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/02/an-updated-lead-crime-roundup-for-2018/
I have a little Dukakis tidbit after listening to the Gary Hart episode! My great-grandmother, Catherine, was an Irish immigrant in the Brookline/Allston–Brighton area. She was a housekeeper for many years, and the Dukakis family were among her longtime clients. She had no idea who Michael Dukakis was when she began working for him (I believe this was before he was elected governor for the first time, when he was a member of the MA House of Representatives and a working attorney), but she and her family became devoted supporters as his star rose. Catherine retired about 3 years before his presidential run, and she always spoke very highly of him! :)
I just discovered this show, and it is my favorite thing! I am happy to be a patron because I can’t get enough. I am fascinated and horrified to learn the truth behind all of these news stories from my childhood and beyond. You guys are brilliant researchers and great story tellers! I would totally be interested in merch! That logo made a great vinyl sticker :o)
Really excited to be able to support one of my very favorite podcasts!
If I'd had kids, I like to imagine they might have been you. Thanks for entertaining me and keeping me so well-informed. Keep up the good work.
So happy I stumbled on a podcast that expresses everything I have been telling my friends and family for years - media incites short term terror and then the subsequent generations pay the price for the legislation that results! If people were actually aware of the statistical truth of some of our fears, maybe this fear would stop making us do such stupid things! Child abductions, holloween candy and satanic panic- I'm looking at you! Thank you for this podcast and as I work for the courts, I will continue to brow beat everyone I know to listen too!
Love the podcast, and I want to be you guys when I grow up!
So so happy that this podcast and you incredible people came into my life. So nerdy, feminist, well-researched and fun. Wish I could bring you both to dinner with my parents or other awkward life situations. PS will you consider doing an episode on the War on Drugs? Lots of great 1970s outtakes there, and you know Lee Atwater will make an appearance. But my hope is that this would convince Michael it would be okay to legalize heroin (per his thoughts in the Roe v Wade episode). Our country did it before, but then, of course...racism.
I just discovered your podcast a few days ago, thanks to a friend's suggestion, and I'm in love! Your witty banter combined with solid journalistic research makes my heart sing! Keep up the great work.
Being the kind of person who gives all kinds of fandom a withering sideeye, I never saw myself becoming a patron of anything, let alone a product so ephemeral as a podcast. But with the suggestion of a butch-lesbian version of Quantum Leap (Stonewall episode) all that changed. My resistance melted away. I knew I had finally come home. Take my dollahs, mes enfants, and spend them wisely: coffee, silly string, perfumed socks. No judgement here - the choice is yours.
Coffees for you both, and also good vibes 💓✌🏼⭐ I've been meaning to donate for so long, so thanks for the reminder at the start of this episode. This has quickly become one of my favorite podcasts.
I was listening to the Gary Hart episode, and that prompted me to comment here: I go to the same laundromat as Michael Dukakis! I live in Brookline, MA and on occasion see him there waiting for sheets to dry or whatever. I enjoy the Dukakis love on the podcast. :)
Episode idea: The autism "epidemic". As a middle aged woman with autism who has two kids with autism, I might have some useful input for you.
I'm so glad I can support your amazing work! I am an Italian living in Australia and I absolutely love your podcast!! I am learning so much about America and It's helping me a lot with my English as well :) The best is when I crack up in the middle of the street while walking alone with my earphones on though.
PS. Episode idea...octomom. Or multiple-birth stories as far back as the quints in Canada.
Re: Homelessness episode: Excellent! Excellent! Excellent job!! I’m a nurse & worked in a women’s homeless shelter in Pittsburgh PA for several years. You really did a fantastic job of portraying the issue accurately and, of course, with compassion. Michael, here’s something you might be interested in learning about. In the shelter, I had the honor of working with Dr. Jim Withers, who basically reinvented street medicine. He goes out at night & finds the homeless individuals under the many bridges in Pittsburgh as well as other “camps.” He is an incredibly intelligent, kind, & humble man. Check this out: https://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/May-2011/A-Man-and-His-Mission-Dr-Jim-Withers/index.php?cparticle=1&siarticle=0&requiressl=true#artanc
Better link to article re: Dr Jim Withers in Pittsburgh: https://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/a-man-and-his-mission-dr-jim-withers/
This is my first time as a patron of a podcast, even though I've listened to hundreds of them. I've never related to a podcast so much before. Not just the premise of 2 people wanting to dig into something they previously dismissed and really embrace the fact that they were once WRONG and totally uninformed, but also the hosts themselves, their perspectives -- they say things that tap right into my heart, in a way that I never could have myself. I'm so honored to be able to support this work!
I live in NZ and let me tell you when I am walking my dog, it is like having the best company, smart, funny, knowledgeable and they are slowly educating me about the US. You feel like my friends so I wanted to support you, it's not much but that is a reflection of my wallet rather than my want! Please keep going you're both awesome!
I listen to a lot of podcasts, and I've never considered any patreon for any others really (you know, student loans and capitalism and whatnot), but I'd always thought "if You're Wrong About ever gets a patreon, I'll do it." I guess I was holding out for my heroes... I've loved every episode, constantly tell people about the podcast and I'm probably pretty annoying for about 48 hours after each one hits my ear buds. THANK YOU!!!!
kelley we're sobbing over here
Glad you guys are getting support so you can keep making this amazing podcast. I tell everyone about it because it's the best. Thank you!
sidenote love the 70s dinner party header photo gr8 work !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So happy to have a chance to support the podcast aside from obsessively listening! Thank you for creating such a wonderful podcast.
This show has really shown just how ignorant I have been keeping the news in the background noise of my life so far. :)
More than happy to support this podcast I so look forward to. My first patreon! Thank you for your great work.
Merlin Mann has been talking about this show for a few weeks on his shows and that's how I found it. I've been loving catching up on the backlog. Happy to be a supporter now. :)
Definitely worth a small monthly subscription to keep the podcast ad- and sponsor-free!
Mike and Sarah provide a better education on the media, the courts, our government, the healthcare-industrial system and other questionable national institutions in one hour than the U.S. public education system does from K through 12. I stopped supporting NPR after the 2016 election and am glad to redirect my financial support to this wonderful podcast that should be required listening for every American!
First and only podcast I've ever given money and I'm happy to do so. Love everything about it and have learned so much about people and events and so much more that I didn't even know I cared about. Thank you both so much for doing the podcast and being the good people you clearly are. Please, please, keep up the great work!
I've really enjoyed this podcast. I find I'm not able to anticipate what Sarah is going to say and it is fun to be surprised by her intelligence and wit. Great topics. Love that there have not been ads.
I love this podcast!
I'm happy to be a supporter. Your podcast is my new favourite and I like it's not weighed down by ads. Keep doing what you're doing
A brilliant podcast! So happy to contribute. Thanks for asking for support! It seems like a bargain for how much joy this show gives me!
I listen to and love a lot of podcasts, but I get the giddiest when I see a new ep of YWA pop up. THANK YOU for the work that you've been doing, and please never feel guilty for asking to be compensated for your labor! Y'all deserve to be paid and I'm happy to kick in to keep this project going. Love you both!! xOxOx
Yay!
LOVE U SO MUCH THIS IS THE BEST THANK YOU FOR TAKING MY MONEY LOVE YOU XXXXXX
It makes me super happy to give you guys money! You put in so much work and greatly enhance my life and I think my therapist is really enjoying the recaps.