Political betting podcast Election Profit Makers wants to ban all their listeners

• THE GOAL: ZERO LISTENERS BY ELECTION NIGHT 2020

• LISTENERS DONATE TO VOTING RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS IN ORDER TO BAN THEIR FRIENDS FROM LISTENING TO ELECTION PROFIT MAKERS

• NO OTHER PODCAST HAS EVER TRIED THIS YOU MIGHT SAY IT IS NOT IN THEIR BEST INTEREST BUT THE STAKES ARE TOO HIGH

Los Angeles CA, USA—The Election Profit Makers (David Rees, Jon Kimball and Starlee Kine) have once again disrupted, upended, and turbo-charged the podcast game with their 2020 Ban Wars.

Here’s how it works: Listeners donate money to a voting-rights organization of their choosing. They send the receipt to EPM via contact@electionprofitmakers.com along with the name of someone they want banned from listening to the podcast. Once that name is read on the show, that person (or animal) is banned.

What started out as a one-off joke has now raised more than $20,000. People have banned their friends, roommates, family members, children, dogs, guinea pigs, elected officials and spouses from listening to Election Profit Makers. Two brothers banned each other without the other knowing. A listener took out a missed connection ad, offering a ban to anyone who was feeling too unlovable to even be banned. One listener donated $666 to ban God himself from listening … until another listener countered with a $777 donation to UN-ban God from listening. The goal is to reach zero listeners and donate a staggering amount of money to voting rights organizations.

“It’s total ban chaos,” says co-host David Rees, “and I love it. The carnage is mind-blowing.”

“When we started the podcast, our goal was to build our listenership. Now with the Ban Wars, I guess our goal is to lose all of our listeners,” says co-host Jon Kimball, “I’m confident we can do it.”

“After a long career in the audio world, not having anyone listen to me will be a refreshing change of pace,” adds co-host Starlee Kine.

All three hosts are available for interviews concerning the selfless sacrifice of their entire audience for the greater good, as well as the PR jujitsu of trying to hype their podcast while simultaneously reducing listenership to zero.

About Election Profit Makers:

“Hands down” the best political podcast of 2016 according to the Financial Times, EPM returned for its second season to cover the 2020 elections. EPM covers political events and breaking news through the lens of online prediction markets, specifically PredictIt.org.

Each week Jon, David, and Starlee update their portfolios according to what they think will happen. They actively buy and sell shares in a variety of markets, from the Electoral College margin of victory to Senate races; from Supreme Court nominees to political indictments.

Unlike most political pundits, they actually put their money where their mouth is, and if they’re wrong, their wallets take a hit.

What motivates them? In a word, revenge. The EPM hosts collectively lost thousands of dollars on election night 2016, and in 2020 they’re trying to make their money back.

www.electionprofitmakers.com

About Jon Kimball

Jon Kimball is the founder and president of iCapital Holdings, a domain name investment, acquisition and development firm focusing on strong generic keyword domains. Jon has brokered the sale of multimillion premium domain names such as Email.com, Drugstore.com, Beauty.com and Divorce.com.

About Starlee Kine

Starlee Kine is the creator and host of the podcast Mystery Show. She is a writer on TBS’s Search Party. She’s also a contributor to This American Life, where she once wrote a break-up song with the help of Phil Collins.

About David Rees

David Rees is a comedian and entrepreneur. He co-created and co-starred in DICKTOWN with John Hodgman on FXX. He hosted Going Deep with David Rees on NatGeo and the Esquire Channel. He is the author of How to Sharpen Pencils, based on his artisanal pencil sharpening business.

About Radio Point

Radio Point is a new podcasting company from veteran producers Alex Bach, Richard Korson, Daniel Powell, and Houston Snyder. It is the sister company to the Emmy and Peabody award-winning production company Irony Point. Its first podcast was the scripted miniseries Ellie & the Wave starring Natalie Morales, Paul Scheer, and June Diane Raphael. Radio Point has since launched podcasts like Going to Bed with Garcelle with Garcelle Beauvais, Election Profit Makers with David Rees, Jon Kimball and Starlee Kine, Make My Day with Josh Gondelman, and most recently, Ruined with Alison Leiby and Halle Kiefer. Radio Point podcasts are produced at Great City Post in New York.