About Living Blindfully Plus
Hi, this is Jonathan Mosen, the host of Living Blindfully. Thank you very much for coming here to learn more about Living Blindfully Plus. On this page, I’ll give you as much information as possible about why I am seeking your financial support for Living Blindfully, what you’ll get, and plenty of info on how it works technically, so you can make the most of your subscription. I encourage you to explore this page as there is a lot of useful information here.
I’m proud of what we’ve built together. Every week, our community gets together to discuss a wide range of issues from a blindness perspective. It’s our place to share news, tips, challenges and encouragement, and to have respectful debates about issues of importance to us. I spend many hours on every episode to ensure that the podcasts are professionally produced and well-researched. That takes a lot of time and effort.
Does Living Blindfully add value to your life? If you’re someone who agrees that we’ve all built something very special with this community, joining Living Blindfully Plus is a way to show your support and gain exclusive member benefits. When you become a member, you’re helping bto fund the cost of people to perform tasks like editing the podcast and writing our human-generated transcripts, leaving me more time to research and conduct interviews.
And in the spirit of living blindfully, my pledge to you is that everyone we contract with to do work on the show will be blind themselves, so we’re keeping the revenue within our community.
What do I get with my Living Blindfully Plus membership?
Well, you get my profound thanks for helping to keep this podcast and community thriving, and making strong, independent blindness media viable. But the primary benefit to you is you get every episode early, a full 72 hours before the episode is available to non-members. We often cover issues that are topical. Your Living Blindfully Plus membership ensures you’re in the know as soon as possible. And we get the episode to you in the weekend, which is often a more convenient time to listen.
Cool! How do I sign up?
There are two ways to subscribe to Living Blindfully Plus. Our recommended way is to subscribe via our podcast host, Pinecast. There are real benefits of activating your membership this way.
- You can listen to your premium content on any app or device you like. If it plays podcasts, Living Blindfully Plus via Pinecast will work with it.
- You can even have your subscription on multiple devices, such as your desktop, laptop, Victor Reader Stream and your favourite iOS app, including Apple Podcasts. No need to stick to one device whenever you want to hear Living Blindfully.
- Using Pinecast, you can choose what you pay for your membership. Money’s tight for many of us, while others may wish to support us generously. Using Pinecast, you set the price of your membership. Adjust it up or down whenever you want.
We also offer Living Blindfully Plus through Apple Podcasts.
- Subscribing via Apple Podcasts is familiar and easy.
- The subscription is billed to your Apple ID.
- You can check or cancel it any time using the usual method for all your other Apple subscriptions.
- With Apple Podcasts, we give you the option of paying yearly rather than monthly if you’d like.
- You get a machine-generated transcript as part of your Plus subscription through Apple Podcasts. While nowhere near as accurate as our human-generated version, this is a way to get a transcript early.
There are some downsides of using Apple Podcasts.
- You can only take advantage of your membership on the devices logged into your Apple ID, and with Apple’s own apps. This means that if you sometimes listen to podcasts on other apps or devices, such as a Victor Reader Stream, Overcast, Castro or PocketCasts, your Living Blindfully Plus subscription won’t be available to you.
- What you pay is not flexible. The price is set in each country for monthly and annual subscriptions. If you’d like to pay more to support us, or you find the price too high, you would be better using the more flexible Pinecast option.
- Finally, Living Blindfully keeps much less of the revenue when you subscribe through Apple Podcasts than we do from the Pinecast option. So when you use Pinecast, more of what you pay goes to supporting us. This has influenced the pricing we’ve set for Living Blindfully Plus in Apple Podcasts.
While Pinecast is our preferred and recommended method for Living Blindfully Plus, we’ll cover Apple Podcasts first, as it is more straightforward to set up.
How do I become a member of Living Blindfully Plus in Apple Podcasts?
These instructions apply to Apple Podcasts for iPhone and iPad. If you use a Mac or Windows, hopefully these instructions will be sufficient to help you subscribe on those platforms.
- Using iPhone, open the Podcasts app. The simplest way to do this is to say to Siri, “Open Podcasts”.
- Find the Search tab at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, and double-tap to select it.
- Once in the Search field, double-tap to activate the text field and type, or dictate, Living Blindfully.
- As you type, the search results will update. Swipe right, and you should find the Living Blindfully show. Double-tap to select it.
- On the Living Blindfully screen, swipe right and you will eventually find reference to Living Blindfully Plus. You can get a 14-day free trial of Living Blindfully Plus.
- An important note. Apple Podcasts defaults to the yearly subscription. VoiceOver will confirm that this is selected. If you would prefer the monthly option, you can double-tap it. Unfortunately, VoiceOver will still tell you that the yearly option is selected, but in fact the monthly option does get selected after you double-tap it. I have reported this accessibility bug to Apple, and we hope it is addressed.
- Once you confirm your subscription, you will need to use Touch ID, the Side Button, or your password to finalise the purchase. Apple will send you an email confirming the subscription.
- You can cancel the subscription any time from within the subscriptions section of Apple’s Settings App.
How do I become a member of Living Blindfully Plus through Pinecast?
While there are some initial set-up steps to go through, becoming a Living Blindfully Plus member through Pinecast gives you maximum flexibility, and is our recommended option. Listen on any device you want, and on as many devices as you want.
If you decide to join Living Blindfully Plus through Pinecast, you’ll receive your own secret RSS feed that belongs just to you. Shhhh it’s a secret. You paste this feed into your podcast app, and as long as your Living Blindfully Plus subscription remains active, you’ll get the early, commercial-free episodes. If you ever decide you want to end your Living Blindfully Plus subscription, the RSS feed will stop working once your subscription expires, and you’ll be able to keep listening to the public episodes in the usual way. Need more step by step instructions? You’ll find plenty of detail on the page after you subscribe, but there is even more detail further down this page.
How much does it cost to join Living Blindfully Plus through Pinecast?
You’re waiting for some big number, right? But the answer is, it costs whatever you like. Yes, seriously! I know this is a risky strategy, but I also know that many in our community are unemployed and finding it hard to make ends meet. So please subscribe by contributing whatever you think the podcast is worth and what’s comfortable for you to afford. I’m just grateful that you’re willing to consider it.
Subscriptions through Pinecast are monthly, and you can either sign up for a commitment that expires at the end of each month, requiring you to make another commitment to remain current, or nominate a monthly amount to be billed to your credit card until you opt out. If you opt for a recurring subscription, it’s easy to cancel it any time.
Pinecast uses Stripe as its payment processor. They are a reliable, trusted way to pay and are used by many companies globally. You can pay with any major credit card and they support ApplePay.
If you’re in a position to give a generous subscription to compensate for the fact that others won’t be able to, I really do appreciate that.
Please also keep in mind that the subscription is billed in New Zealand dollars, which is generally good news if you are outside New Zealand. It will actually cost you less than you may realise. For example, as I write this page in July 2024, one New Zealand dollar equals 59 American Cents. So a 10 New Zealand dollar monthly subscription is only going to cost just $5.99 USD. You can check the current exchange rate by asking your personal assistant to convert one New Zealand dollar to whatever your local currency is.
Don’t worry, all the conversion is handled automatically when you sign up.
All the technicals
How do I get my secret RSS feed once I subscribe?
You’ll receive an email confirmation of your subscription from Pinecast. That email contains your personal RSS feed, so it’s a good idea to store the email in a safe place. That way, you can refer to it whenever you want to add your subscription to any new app or device you are using.
If you ever lose that email, or you want to log in and change your subscription, you will also find the RSS link on the Pinecast site. Here’s how that’s done.
Visit tips.pinecast.com.
You may need to log in using the email address you provided when you subscribed to Living Blindfully Plus, but if you’re using the same device you subscribed with, you’ll probably be logged in already. If you do need to log in, Pinecast will email you a confirmation link. Activate the link from the email to continue.
You’ll see a list of Pinecast podcasts you’ve provided financial support to. Living Blindfully may be the only one. Choose its link, then choose the link called “See what is available”.
You’ll then find your RSS feed, which you can copy to your clipboard so you can then paste it into your podcast app.
After the feed is displayed on the page, you’ll find a link to copy it to the clipboard. It’s a long URL, so using this link to copy it ensures you have it on your clipboard with no extraneous spaces. Depending on the device you use, you may be asked if it’s OK for Pinecast to copy something to the clipboard. Confirm that it is, and you’ll have the URL on your clipboard ready to work with.
Can I listen to Living Blindfully Plus content on the web?
You sure can. Log into tips.pinecast.com using the email address you used when you signed up to Living Blindfully Plus, choose Living Blindfully, then the link called See what is available. Episodes are displayed on that page.
How do I add my private Pinecast RSS feed in Apple Podcasts on my iPhone or iPad?
Even though we offer a unique version of Living Blindfully Plus for Apple Podcasts as outlined above, you can use the Pinecast version in Apple Podcasts too. The big advantage here is that you can also use it on any other app or device. First, I recommend unfollowing the public Living Blindfully podcast feed, so you don’t have duplicates. Your personalized feed will provide both public and private episodes.
Next, be sure to follow the steps described in the relevant section of this page to obtain your personal RSS feed and copy it in full to the clipboard.
To add your feed URL to Apple Podcasts while VoiceOver is on, double-tap the Library tab at the bottom of the screen in the Apple Podcasts app, then double-tap the More button at the top of the screen. Choose the “Follow a show by URL” button, and paste your private RSS feed into the edit field. If you have the feed on the clipboard, you do this by double-tapping the edit field asking for the URL, then performing the rotor gesture to choose Text selection. With the Text Selection rotor active, flick down until you hear Paste, then double-tap.
Finally, having confirmed that the URL is in the edit field, double-tap the “Follow” button to complete the process.
How do I add my private Pinecast RSS feed in Overcast on my iPhone or iPad?
First, I recommend unfollowing the public Living Blindfully podcast feed, so you don’t have duplicates. Your personalized feed will provide both public and private episodes.
Next, be sure to follow the steps described in the relevant section of this page to obtain your personal RSS feed and copy it in full to the clipboard.
To add your feed URL to Overcast while VoiceOver is on, double-tap the “Add Podcast” button towards the top of the screen.
On the Add Podcast screen, double-tap the button called “Add URL”.
If you have your RSS feed copied to the clipboard already, Overcast will detect this, and ask if it is OK to paste from your clipboard. Choose the Allow Paste button.
It is not necessary to fill in the username or password fields, so at this point, having verified that the feed is in the edit field, you can simply double-tap the Done button.
How do I add my private Pinecast RSS feed in Downcast on my iPhone or iPad?
First, I recommend unfollowing the public Living Blindfully podcast feed, so you don’t have duplicates. Your personalized feed will provide both public and private episodes.
Next, be sure to follow the steps described in the relevant section of this page to obtain your personal RSS feed and copy it in full to the clipboard.
To add your feed URL to Downcast while VoiceOver is on, double-tap the “Add” tab, which is part of the tab strip at the bottom of the screen.
Next, double-tap the “Add Podcast Manually” button, located towards the top of the screen.
If you have your RSS feed copied to the clipboard already, Downcast will detect this, and ask if it is OK to paste from your clipboard. Choose the Allow Paste button.
It is not necessary to fill in the username or password fields, so at this point, having verified that the feed is in the edit field, you can simply double-tap the Subscribe button.
How do I add my private Pinecast RSS feed on my Victor Reader Stream second or third generation?
First, I recommend unfollowing the public Living Blindfully podcast feed, so you don’t have duplicates. Your personalized feed will provide both public and private episodes.
Next, be sure to follow the steps described in the relevant section of this page to obtain your personal RSS feed and copy it in full to the clipboard. Since you will use the Stream Companion software, you’ll be using the Windows Clipboard for this task.
Insert the SD card for your stream into your computer (or card reader).
Open the HumanWare Companion app, then select Tools, Export Podcast.
HumanWare Companion will prompt you for the URL of the RSS feed for the podcast. Paste the feed URL from the Windows Clipboard by pressing CTRL+V.
HumanWare companion will store the RSS feed in an XML file on the SD card for the Stream to read.
Next, remove your SD card from your computer or card reader, and insert it in the Stream.
On the Stream, visit the Online Bookshelf, press the 7 key repeatedly until the Stream speaks “podcasts”.
Next, press the 8 key to move down to the selection that says, “import podcast feeds from file”. Press the hash (confirm) key, and the stream will read the info from the
XML file on the SD card.
You are done, and the new podcast will show up under podcasts.
How do I add my private RSS feed on my SensePlayer?
Start by having the Living Blindfully Plus link copied to the clipboard.
Open notepad and paste the link into an empty file.
Press Control S to save the file. Select all files as the file type and name the file podcast.url exactly as shown.
As of this writing, the current firmware doesn’t allow the podcast.url file to be directly copied when the player is connected to a computer via USB, so you must copy it to a flash drive or SD card.
On the SensePlayer, open the File Manager and use the down arrow to find USB or SD card.
Press right arrow to view the files on the drive and then down arrow to the podcast.url file.
Press the menu key and select copy.
Press the left arrow to back out of the SD card or USB drive and use up arrow to navigate to the flash disk.
Press the right arrow and then down arrow to podcasts.
Press right arrow to enter the podcasts folder and then menu. Select the paste option.
Once the file has been copied to this folder, you can open the podcast application and it should import the Living Blindfully Plus or any other custom feed for that matter.
Alternatively, you can export your podcast feeds from a podcast app and use the same steps to copy the opml file to the podcasts folder.
We will be providing more detailed instructions for other scenarios over time, but even if you are using a different app or player, I hope this points you in the right direction.
I have other questions
Sure! Please get in touch and I’ll be pleased to help. Thanks for your interest and for being a part of this amazing community.