Podcast Corner: Jonathan Goldstein's welcome return to the ring with Heavyweight
Jonathan Goldstein of the Heavyweight podcast
Heavyweight (Gimlet Media) has returned for a long-awaited new season. The aptly titled podcast sees host Jonathan Goldstein make like Jeremy Kyle, going straight to the nub of a person’s problem in life and trying to find a solution: Adults dogged by what-could-have-beens confront their foster parents, Goldstein by their side prodding them along; a woman wonders why she was bullied at school; and in its most famous episode, the titular Gregor wants to get his CDs back from Moby.
The series serves as a reminder that all of us, no matter how good, bad, or otherwise it seems we are doing in life, carry our own heavy weights.
After 35 episodes, plus numerous “non-canonical” asides/shorties, the two episodes of the new season initially confirm that the show might have run out of ideas, before reminding us why it’s so good in the first place.
‘#36 Brandon’ wonders why he was asked to prom when he was a self-confessed misfit. Life worked out OK for him after school but he always wondered why. As he gets on a video call with Ellie some 15 years later, there’s, er, no great reasoning as to why she asked him to prom. And there’s also a very odd bit about Brandon not wearing underwear in a clothes shop.
But ‘#37 John’ is Heavyweight at its best. A specific, heartrending, and awful scene is set as Fault in our Stars author John Green tells Goldstein of wanting to become an ordained minister - he never made it to divinity school, however, because of his time as a chaplain at a hospital.
And one moment and person in particular: A young burns victim who comes into the emergency department. A social worker hands him a mask and a piece of gum. “Why gum,” asks Goldstein. Green’s voice wavers. “Because the smell…. of burns is so, ah… is so terrible.”
After further describing the scene, Green explains why he’s an author now rather than a minister: “I couldn’t see God in those moments.” He wonders if the child is still alive - and that’s where Heavyweight comes in.
Heavyweight, soon to be Spotify exclusive, promises two two-parters this season. It’s worth diving into its back catalogue too; while there is a lot of pain and broken dreams, what lingers are the moments of clarity, as people finally get to close a chapter of their lives and move on.
