ANNOUNCEMENT: Season 2 Finale Update and APN's official statement for a Free Palestine

Donate to Operation Olive Branch here: https://linktr.ee/opolivebranch Donate to Palestinian's Children's Relief Fund here: https://pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/gaza-recovery

Transcript: Hi, everyone. Eli Ramos here, creator and editor of Under the Electric Stars and Head of Aster Podcasting Network. Hello! It's been a really long time since I've talked to all of you, and I really want to thank you for your patience while I was finishing grad school. Because, if you didn't know, I was in grad school for nine months and I just graduated earlier this month. That is why it's been pretty radio silent on our end, because the program was nine months and it was super intensive and I couldn't work on anything APN related.

But we actually have had all of Season 2's finale recorded. It's just a matter of me editing it. So here's the news about the S2 Finale. First of all, it's too long. I thought it was going to be one episode. It's actually going to need to be split into two parts. So part one of "Change of Heart" will be coming to you and wherever you listen to podcasts in the beginning of July. And then part two of "Change of Heart" will either be at the end of July or in the beginning of August, depending on how busy my workload is with my current internship that I'm doing.

Then we are going to go into pre-production for Season 3. I will do some recasting if necessary, and then we'll cast some of the final roles for Under the Electric Stars, because Season 3 is going to be our final season, so we'll hopefully start production on that and have an episode for you either by the end of December this year or by January next year, more likely January.

I also wanted to thank you all again for your continued patience in us creating this. I am the only person who does things behind the scenes, so I do, as I've said before, all of the directing, editing casting, writing. Audio engineering, sound effect, hunting, music composition. I kind of just do the all of it. So when my life's busy, I appreciate that y'all are willing to wait. I especially wanted to say thank you to our Patreon supporters who were still contributing while I wasn't making a whole lot of content for the Patreon, those funds... well, I mean, like in the immediate time they were going to helping me to pay my rent, but I kept careful track of how much we earned each month. And those funds that I have now are set aside for paying actors, paying off the website, paying myself, obviously, because I do so much of the labor on the back end of these things. So thank you for making that possible for me to even pay my actors at all. That is like something that I feel is really important to me as a creative person. But if you aren't able to donate your funds, or if you'd like to donate your funds for a little bit to a different thing, obviously I would really suggest that you donate them to any of the families on Operation Olive Branch or to any of the organizations that are helping Palestinian people. I really do think that that's a good place to put your funds, and I would not mind at all if you took your funds that you give to us and you donated them in that direction instead. I think that that is more important even than me getting to pay my actors is helping people who are in great need.

I didn't really have the time to make an official statement for Palestine on my creative project because I was really focusing on again, my grad school life and also on doing activism in real life. But this is my official statement because this is still an issue. I created Under the Electric Stars pretty specifically as an anti-colonial project. As something to remind myself that people of color, especially Asian people, can exist in this world, do exist in this world. And we, as our many multifaceted selves as people of color, as disabled people, as queer people, all the intersections of who we are, we are necessary to create a new future. I believe in a future where there is a free Palestine, and I believe that future is possible within our lifetimes. But that means that we have to act.

So I am imploring you as the creator of this show, if you care about this show in any way, if you have listened to it, if you've read the transcripts, if you have engaged with it in any way, and if you really believe in the message of this show, I am asking you to stand in solidarity with Palestine and to support them in whatever way you have possible.

Thank you for listening. I'll see you in Cair Mallplex soon and free Palestine.

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