What’s making me happy this week is the podcast, Heavyweight.
I LOVE podcasts and often hop around from one show to the next when I’m in between audio books.
Heavyweight’s host, Jonathan Goldstein, helps his guests tackle a moment from their pasts that has haunted them or the moment that changed their lives. The topics are heavy for the guests, but Goldstein handles each episode with the perfect blend of humor, insight, compassion, and lightness, too. The title seems to come from the heaviness each guest has been carrying around before bringing the issue to Goldstein. (You can submit your “heavyweight” story here.)
I especially loved episode #17, titled, “Skye.” Skye’s 11-year-old son wants her to confront the girls who dropped her in middle school. They dropped her in a particularly cruel way. The juxtaposition of what Skye wants to teach her son and what one of those former “mean girls” wants to teach her own daughter is a beautiful moment in Goldstein’s writing on the show.
If you read and enjoy my friendship column, I think you will like this podcast for the same reasons I do.
I also like that Heavyweight, produced by Gimlet Media, is recorded in Goldstein’s studio in Minneapolis.
What are you listening to these days?
Latest posts by Nina Badzin (see all)
- #214 – Are We Giving Up on Our Friends Too Quickly? - October 5, 2026
- #213 – Friendship “Flings,” Uneven Effort, and Being Stuck in the Middle - September 28, 2026
- #212 – What Your Behavior May Be Saying to Your Friends - September 22, 2026
- #211 – You Don’t Have to Be Fully Secure to Have Good Friendships - September 14, 2026
2 Responses
Currently loving heavy weight also!!
Would definitely recommend the one about his father and uncle
oooh! Thank you!