Heavyweight (podcast)

Heavyweight is a podcast created and hosted by American-Canadian humorist Jonathan Goldstein where he helps people try to resolve a moment from their past that they wish they could change. The show was produced by Gimlet Media, which was absorbed into Spotify Studios.

Goldstein told The New Yorker that the name "Heavyweight" is meant to suggest the emotional burdens that each of us carry around.

The podcast was first released in 2016, and ran for eight seasons. Gimlet and Spotify announced in December 2023 that the podcast would not be renewed, and would discontinue production after its final season.

Podcast format
In each episode, host Jonathan Goldstein attempts to help a guest—typically an ordinary person, not a celebrity—find closure for an unresolved question in their lives. The New York Times described it this way: "Jonathan Goldstein climbs inside the stories that shape people’s lives to see if he can help them create better endings." The Atlantic described the podcast by saying, "Each episode finds the host Jonathan Goldstein moderating a fraught moment intensified by years of distance: a time when someone broke a promise, or another person’s heart. The hurt is still there—sometimes for everyone, sometimes for just one person who can’t let something go. Goldstein leads special-ops soul-searching missions, seeking common ground between the aggrieved and the blissfully ignorant."

As described in the Financial Times: "The first episode featured Goldstein’s 80-year-old father, Buzz, and his estranged brother. When he got them talking you could feel the temperature plummet. The second episode revolved around Goldstein’s friend Gregor, who once loaned the pop musician Moby a box of CDs. In this collection, Moby found the songs that he sampled for his mega-selling 1999 album, Play. Now Gregor wanted his CDs back, along with the life he thought he could have had."

Reception
Heavyweight has been positively reviewed in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Financial Times, The Irish Times and The Guardian. Writing in the Financial Times, Fiona Sturges called the show "terrifically moving".

The New Yorker wrote: "With gumption, empathy, and comic awkwardness, [Goldstein] ventures into people’s lives and tries to help them resolve things from the past: an unsolved human mystery, lingering guilt, a falling-out, hurt that’s turned to grievance." The Guardian wrote: "Goldstein leads his subjects back to that crucial moment when things went wrong and then helps them confront it so they can move on. Enthralling."

Over the years, Heavyweight has appeared on numerous critic's lists as one of the best podcasts in the industry. The show was named the Number One podcast of 2016 by The Atlantic, one of the best podcasts of 2019 by The Economist, and one of the best podcasts of 2023 by The Week and The New York Times.

The show spent 4 days at #1 on the US iTunes podcast charts in September 2016, following its series premiere. In Canada, the show was at #1 for thirteen days.

Awards
Heavyweight has received 6 podcast industry honors, including 2 nominations for the Best Society and Culture Podcast through the Ambies. In 2020, the episode "The Marshes" was nominated for an IDA Documentary award for best audio documentary, and the Third Coast International Audio Festival gave the episode "Gregor" the TC/RHDF 2017 Skylarking Award in 2017. That episode was produced by Jonathan Goldstein, Chris Neary, Wendy Dorr and Kalila Holt.