5 Questions With: Jonathan Goldstein of Gimlet’s “Heavyweight”
There’s no better way to make everyone on your morning commute think you’re absolutely insane than to listen to Heavyweight from Gimlet Media in your earbuds.
It’s one of those podcasts that will make you chuckle one minute, then swipe away tears the next, all resulting in some funny looks and a quick mascara touch-up in the work bathroom. While most of us try to actively avoid awkward memories from our past, host Jonathan Goldstein is on a mission to help his guests, who include his own friends and family, to not only unearth and unpack old rifts, but take steps towards mending them. Raw and riveting, the podcast is a must-listen for anyone who’s even experience the sting of a grudge. Or, you know, just someone who wants Moby to return their CD collection, damn it.
Goldstein and co. wove us through two seasons of Heavyweight before taking a brief hiatus. Now, Gimlet is bringing the beloved show back for another round in the ring of confronting regrets.
TuneIn caught up with Goldstein to talk about Tupac and Biggie, whiskey tears, and what’s new in season three (the return of Gregor??).
TuneIn: Which of your episodes do you stay up at night thinking about?
Goldstein: All of them. They are all my children. I worry about them as I make them, worry that they’ll ever be worth people’s time, worry that they’ll fully live up to their potential; and then when they’re done, I find myself thinking about them in a different way. My thoughts return to a particular thing a subject might have said, something wise, something honest, that moves me, that continues to echo, that I continue to learn from.
TuneIn: What have you learned about humans and human nature from doing the first two seasons of the show?
Goldstein: I think the idea that keeps being reinforced is that the past is never really over, that it stays with us and we continue to live it, feel it in our bones and blood all through our lives. There’s an aspect of human beings that exists beyond chronological unravelling, in a way, a part of us that remains unmoved and unchanged. And to hear a person speak in sympathy with the person they were as a kid, from a place of vulnerability, is pretty inspiring.
You can’t help but be moved by a middle aged person talk about how much it hurt them that their foster mother forced them off the basketball team when they were 14 and that they still think about it all the time. This was the case with one story. And to then hear her ask her foster-mom, now 95 years old, why she did it, you can’t help coming away feeling like our pain lies a lot closer to the surface then we let on.
TuneIn: If you could bring together any two historical figures to resolve their grudge, who would you pick?
Goldstein: I like to see people at completely opposite ends of the spectrum politically, morally, coming together to find common ground. Those are my favorite documentaries, favorite books and movies. Bringing my father together with this brother as I did for one episode felt like that. The two brothers, now in their eighties, hadn’t spoken in forty years. One was a prison warden; the other a school teacher. For them to sit down in the same room, in a space where the natural human tendency towards compassion can emerge… was pretty great.
But I guess bringing Tupac and Biggie back together would be nice, too.
TuneIn: When was the last time you cried?
Goldstein: I had gone years without crying. It comes easier these days. I cried a few nights ago. My family was out of town and I watched a TED talk about people dealing with dying. I had been drinking whiskey so that helped.
My friend James said that after his first kid was born, he lost a layer of irony and at the time I didn’t quite understand, but now with a toddler, I get it. When I think about death, it’s different. Instead of the loss of ego, it’s my son I think about. Not getting to be there for him. Thinking about that can make me cry. And the tears go so well with whiskey.
TuneIn: Any teases for what we look forward to in season 3?
Goldstein: I’ll say that two of the episodes are the longest ones we’ve ever done. I also think they’re two of the best we’ve ever done. Aside from that, we also do one of the more serious ones we’ve ever done… a story about a juror on a capital punishment trial who meets years later with the mother of the man he sentenced to death.
I also team up with an eleven-year-old boy who wants to help his mom confront the girls who bullied her over thirty years ago. And, fan favorite and dear friend Gregor returns. It’ll be funny and sad. You know the drill.
Heavyweight is TuneIn’s Binge This September pick. Catch seasons 1 and 2 in full here. Season 3 begins October 4.
Previously on the TuneIn Blog:
Unpacking the Clinton Impeachment with Season 2 of Slow Burn
5 Questions with Chris Hayes, Host of Why Is This Happening?
Erin Ryan On Hysteria, The Crooked Media Audience, & Who’s The Dennis Reynolds Of The White House
