It's odd that he will refer to this situation on the podcast, but I don't remember him offering an explanation. He just says it's false or exaggerated reporting by another site. Or maybe I just missed it
I wasn't sure how much if at all he touched on his "financial struggle" in the podcast. I have listened to excerpts where he mocked the claims he has a gambling problem but I thought he didn't solicit during the podcast and tried not to address his donation appeals in the podcast itself.
He seems fine emailing his forum members asking for money, but at the same time he quashes mentions of the topic on the podcast. Just post the subject lines from some of his emails there and the post will be deleted. Simultaneously when he used to aggressively counterattack in blog comments he'd claim he knows of no one else who faces such harassment for asking for donations, etc. etc.
I've seen him act like anyone with a donate via PayPal to support us! button on a web page for their podcast is doing exactly the same as Gene day after day saying he needs money to pay for the most basic living expenses. He acts like there is no distinction but at some level I think he knows what he's doing is hardly the same thing as having a Patreon or doing occasional 'fund drives' or what have you.