Welcome to this Season 4 update for BetterPears and The BetterPears Podcast. I am Dr. Jason Fugikawa, founder of BetterPears and managing member of FugiCor, LLC, its parent company. This blog post and podcast will include updates on Season 4 of The BetterPears Podcast, an option to Lock-In support for BetterPears Leaves contributors, and our new Fellowships coming this summer.
Season 4 of The BetterPears Podcast
At the time of this update, episodes of The BetterPears Podcast have been downloaded over 115,000 times. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to our growing audience who have subscribed to the BetterPears newsletter and social media channels. Each episode usually runs under 15 minutes and captures insights, reflections, and fruitful wonder. Our intended schedule for Season 4 remains “an episode every two weeks” as it takes time to properly edit and ruminate over each episode in a sustainable way. Using this schedule, Season 4 will take us into summer 2025. The topics to be addressed will remain episodic, that is, accessible as standalone works, but there will be some themes woven into the series.
Season 4 will begin with three episodes on the four causes. “Τέλος Terminus” on final causality was the Season 4 premiere available now at BetterPears.com and your favorite podcast platform. It will be followed by “Agent Instrument” and “Form/Matter, Potency/Act.” Mid-season will begin with insights on the number 10 with “Decimation Dignity” followed by an episode on belief and symbol, “Catholic Heresy” and an inquiry into heaven titled, “Paradise.” The second half of the season offers reflections on the ancient roots of modern words, “Insidious Invidious,” “Honor τιμή,” “Cryptography,” and “Addiction Anonymous.” The penultimate episode of the season will return to the quest for causes with “Quietus Quere.” The season will culminate by identifying our cosmic bearings with “Oriens Horizon.” To see the whole schedule and follow links to past episodes, visit: BetterPears.com/Schedule.
Support The BetterPears Podcast
Again this season, there are two main ways you can assist the work of BetterPears with respect to the podcast. 1) Please share the Podcast with your family and friends. We do not pay for podcast promotion and so our shows grow through their popularity on their platforms and personal recommendations from readers and listeners like yourself. 2) Please comment on episodes that you find insightful, agreeable, or perhaps even disagreeable. Our online offerings are designed to fit into the margins of your life so as not to intrude on the key human relations that should rightly fill your day. Your comments are our best form of feedback on episodes and another way for media platforms to see that our episodes are worth presenting to additional audiences.
Lock-In Your Support for BetterPears and Receive Thank You Goldbacks.
Our crowdfunding program, BetterPears Leaves functions similar to Patreon but sends monthly contributors fractional gold in the mail instead of “Behind the Scenes” clips and gag reels. For the month of April 2025, the minimum contribution to receive a monthly Thank You Goldback is $12. This minimum threshold will increase in May and moving forward given the rising spot price of gold and the market price of Goldbacks. Begin your monthly contribution of $12 or more by the end of April 2025 and lock-in this minimum support level for your Thank You Goldback regardless of gold’s climb relative to the dollar for the next 12 months.
Just like the ideas presented in BetterPears episodes and in-person fellowships, Goldbacks are designed to spark wonder and interest in intentional living. The ownership of monetary gold, even a small fraction of an ounce, changes perspectives and invites further questions about our οἶκος and economy.
If you have been on the fence about supporting BetterPears financially, now is a great time to begin contributing. Your federal reserve notes help keep BetterPears operational and allows us to further develop our online and in-person offerings. The expenses of operating BetterPears still exceed our monthly contributions and sales revenue. The good news is that, on account of our bootstrapped budget, your contributions have an exceedingly disproportionate effect in securing and growing BetterPears relative to other media, culture, and thought leaders in this space. If you have not already, please visit BetterPears.com/Leaves today and join us in forming this cultural empire.
BetterPears Lord of the Rings Fellowships are Commencing in May 2025!
BetterPears is dedicated to offering Fruit for the Human Soul. Genuine community, fellowship, and friendships are often overlooked in our pursuits of leisure and recreation. BetterPears LOTR Fellowships focus on the reading of classical works in their original language together as a community of those seeking what is true, good, and beautiful in life. This is not your normal “Book Club,” it is a participatory reading fellowship. Fellows do not squeeze in reading “Homework” prior to each session. Fellows will read together the selected chapter or chapters from J.R.R. Tolkien’s 20th Century classical tale set at the end of the Third Age in Middle Earth. Each 2-hour session will end with an open discussion of the work thus far in the reading. BetterPears LOTR Fellowships are designed for both long-time fans and those new to Middle Earth who want something more than a private reading, an audiobook performance, or Peter Jackson’s live action take on Tolkien’s tale. Our fellows desire a community to share the quest, their reflections, and enduring questions about life, courage, honor, and duty.
How the Fellowship Works
Like BetterPears Greenhouse Fellowships, pre-registered Fellows arrive at the Host’s home or hobbit hole, and settle in with some light refreshments including fresh pears. The Guide begins the session on time with the Fellows selecting characters with speaking parts in the session’s chapter(s). The selection of individual characters at each session gives a unique voice to the epic dialogue and mundane bickering of hobbits, while the role of narrator will rotate throughout the session. Again, each session ends with an open discussion led by the guide over the tale thus far and the interpretations offered by the fellows. To provide the consistency needed for the success of each Fellowship, there is a minimum of 9 Full Fellows who commit to attending all the sessions. We do acknowledge that a White Wizard or a Balrog might detain you for a spell from time to time, but we also take fellowship seriously and count on your continued presence and contributions to the whole. That being said, there are also registration options for latecomers and single session fellows, who are curious and are considering upgrading from NPC status in future fellowships.
Culture Cultivated
To recap, The BetterPears Podcast has returned, BetterPears Leaves is adjusting its minimum contribution level to match the rising price of gold (Lock-In Your Support Today), and in-person participatory reading fellowships for The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien are starting up in OKC in May. To learn more and register, visit: BetterPears.com/LOTR
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