Stilgherrian

[Update 22 April 2025: This campaign is over, but if you’d still like to support The 9pm Edict or Another Untitled Music Podcast, please go to to stilgherrian.com/tip. Thanks so much.]

Hello, I’m Stilgherrian. Guess what? It’s time yet again — actually it’s a few weeks overdue — to organise more special-guest episodes of my inappropriate and often disturbing podcast for grown-ups The 9pm Edict and other projects.

I really must update that photo. Anyway, I’m determined that the podcast should never have those terrible, badly-placed adverts. But that means I need income while I produce them. Thanks to you generous supporters, I’ve been able to do that for several years now. Let’s continue, shall we?

Target One $2700 ACHIEVED: Four special-guest episodes in May–August

The core of this campaign is a minimum batch of four podcasts. They’ll feature special guests to discuss what’s on their mind, current events, and whatever topics you choose for them — just like these recent episodes from The 9pm Summer Series 2024. Warning: There’s often explicit content.

I’ve already started contacting potential guests. I’ve already started to pencil them in here. More will be added. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

• Friend of the pod, Scottish author and social researcher David F Porteous will have an update on everything British and beyond.
• My good friend Snarky Platypus will be joining us again for a mid-year review of our 2025 Bingo Cards. (This episode will not count toward the total.)
• As always there will be a look at space with space archaeologist Dr Alice Gorman aka Dr Space Junk and astrophysicist Rami Mandow.
• ... and more to come. It’s election season, so there may well be some Australian politics too.

Previous guests have included author and columnist John Birmingham, satirists Mark Humphries and Dan Ilic, AI sceptic David Gerard, climate communicator Ketan Joshi, infectious diseases physician Dr Trent Yarwood, AI researcher Professor Toby Walsh, journalist Erin Cook on South-East Asia, and digital rights enthusiast Justin Warren.

Just check out The 9pm Edict in your usual podcast app to see more.

Target Two $4000 CLOSE ENOUGH: Two more podcast episodes, so six in all

Get us to Target Two and there will be two more of these excellent conversations. That’s six episodes between now and the end of winter! As usual, I will slot in a pro rata fifth episode if we split the difference. And now that Another Untitled Music Podcast is a thing, as people buy the relevant rewards we’ll make the episodes.

Target Three $5300 YEAH NAH: Two more podcast episodes, so eight in all

I think the easiest option with just 24 hours left in the campaign is to go for another two special-guest episodes of the Edict. With people buying the rewards for Another Untitled Music Podcast, they’ll happen too, but they’re in addition.

Target Four: TBA

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. But previous campaigns have led to episodes of The 8pm Quiz video livestream, and live Public House Forum episodes of The 9pm Edict. It’ll be up to you to make my choices.

A Note on the Rewards

These are the standard rewards I offer for podcast projects. Further rewards may be added as the campaign progresses. Suggestions are welcome.

Everyone who pledges to support the project will also get access to a secret stash of photographs and other treats. The set-up of this trove is long overdue, but we’ll get there. Sure.

Your contributions will provide me with a net income of $2200 while producing those first four podcasts. Pozible’s fees, bank fees, and other administration costs take about 9% of any total funds raised. On top of that there’s 10% GST, which brings the total for Target One to $2700, rounded up.

The figures for Target Two are calculated the same way, with my net income being $3300 from the gross total of $4000. 

The Fine Print

All up, each regular episode of The 9pm Edict takes a little over a day to research, prepare, record, edit, and post. Based on the MEAA award rate for casual freelance journalists that's about $1100 per episode. As a casual rate, that includes allowances for superannuation, leave, and the like, as well as equipment costs.

I discount this figure by 30% to $770 per episode because some of the work involves copying and uploading files and other mechanical tasks, so I can do other things at the same time. And because I love you all, I discount it another 20% down to $550 per episode. Maybe I should stop doing that.

If you want to see my working, check version two of the numbers (PDF).