Thank you for your support! Now you're in the running for free stuff!

Dear Patrons,

Citations Needed is now in its sixth season. Over the past five years, we've dropped 170 episodes and over 125 news briefs. We've been joined by hundreds of amazing guests. We've done live shows, AMAs, newsletters and special interviews. Our small team does all the research, writing, recording, editing, pre-production, production, post-production, transcription, promotion and distribution. We love doing the show and we have more great episodes on the way.

Since we started, we've always been listener-supported. We've never run ads or had corporate sponsors. It's the way we want it - to stay totally independent. And for that, we rely on you, our listeners, fans and supporters.

That's you! You've made all this possible. We can't thank you enough for your support.

As a way to say thanks, we're doing some merch giveaways next week!

As a supporter of the show, you're automatically in the running for a piece of official Citations Needed swag.

In honor of our sixth season, we're sending out six mugs to Cynic-level supporters, six tote bags and six t-shirts to randomly-selected supporters. Nine lucky (different) folks will get copies of recent pod guest Brandi Collins-Dexter's new book, "Black Skinhead: Reflections on Blackness and Our Political Future." It could be you!

Here how it'll work:

Our patrons at each support tier (Cynic, Skeptic and Critic) will be eligible for different things:

Mugs for Cynics. Tote bags for Skeptics. T-shirts for Critics.

Also, we'll be giving out one Citations Needed sweatshirt to a new Critic-level supporter (either a current supporter who  moves into that tier by 12am ET on Monday, Oct 24 or someone new who signs up at that support level) and one sweatshirt to a current Critic-level support.

We'll select and announce the winners on Wednesday, October 26. Only one prize per eligible supporter, of course.

And again, thanks for all your support. We can't do this without you.