The last episode of was released in December 2023, though there have been short update episodes over summer as it geared up for its new season. The 20-month layoff was due to becoming a victim of the shifting podcast landscape.
Nick Quah at explained: “Launched in 2016, Heavyweight was one of Gimlet Media’s crown jewels and one of the last survivors of the so-called golden age of narrative podcasting.”
Gimlet was bought by and subsumed into Spotify, but as podcasts shifted from narrative to bantercast and audio to video, got lost in the shuffle. It was cancelled as Spotify laid off one sixth of its staff.
We’ve featured plenty of times since it launched in 2018. As its bio explains, host Jonathan Goldstein embarks on road trips, thorny reunions, and tricky conversations, backpedaling into the past like a therapist armed with a time machine. It’s often moving, wrenching, and might even inspire a listener to confront a long-buried regret of their own.
Newly signed to Pushkin Industries, co-founded by Malcolm Gladwell, Goldstein told “I just want to make work, you know? I want to be able to do enough to make it sustainable, but not such that it’s going to compromise the ability to achieve some sort of excellence.”
returned for episode 59 last week, Etta, named after a parent of one of the show’s most acclaimed guests/episodes, Gregor. Of course it begins with a call to old friend Jackie, of course things get emotional. It’s just what we wanted from
Another podcast that returned recently after a two-year break is hosted by Aoife Barry and Lauren Murphy, two journalists who feature regularly in the Irish Examiner. Named after a lyric by Arthur Russell, it’s a “culture podcast for curious people” with episodes asking questions like ‘Why is Gen-Z so obsessed with the show ’
Barry says the duo restarted the podcast was because they really missed it. “It felt like a natural thing for us to do, given our friendship, our interests and our careers.”