Heavyweight

When Jenna was eight years old, she was taken from her mom and placed with a foster family called the Grizzles. For two and a half years, she built a life with them, and when they asked to adopt her, Jenna was thrilled...

Heavyweight returns on September 17.   Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Pushkin+ subscribers can get all episodes ad-free! Sign up on the Heavyweight Apple show page or at pushkin.fm/plus . See...

James’s father’s dying wish was for his ashes to be spread on the 18th hole of a fancy private golf course. That was 16 years ago. In this episode, James, Jonathan, and their friend Howard attempt a golf...

Jonathan and Kalila go toe-to-toe as guests on the children’s debate podcast, Smash Boom Best , where they debate the merits of phone calls vs. texting. We had a lot of fun doing it, and—if it’s not...

In grade 8, Julia was bullied so badly by a group of girls that she changed schools without telling anyone. Soon after, the girls from her old school showed up at her house and rang her doorbell. She didn’t answer...

Throughout high school, Brandon was a misfit. Then one day, out of the blue, one of the school’s prettiest, most popular girls asked him to prom. Fifteen years later, Brandon wants to know: why him? Four years...

Maia found a painting in the garbage and took it home. But as it turned out, it wasn’t just any painting. In this update, Kalila learns that she might have been looking at the painting all wrong. You can sign up...

When Christina was in 11th grade, her foster mother made her quit playing basketball. After that, she felt like her life never got back on course. And so, she’s always wanted to ask her foster mother: why’d...

When Skye was in middle school, her best friends showed up at her home one night and wrote “f*ck you” on her garage door. After that, they never spoke again. Decades later, at the urging of her...

This week, Jonathan joins the ranks of A-list celebrities as a guest on NPR's Wild Card with Rachel Martin . Death, ghosts, the pleasures and perils of talking to strangers... Rachel and Jonathan talk about it all. See...

When Elyse was 21, her father, Billy, disappeared without explanation. When Elyse finally learned of his whereabouts, she was shocked by the new life he was living. Seven years after the release of this episode, we...

Today, we speak with Jonathan's longtime friend Tony. A lot's changed in his life since the episode came out ten years ago.  Tony messed up his relationship with each of his three godchildren owing to three...

What to expect from Heavyweight this year. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In part one, Jonathan and his wife, Emily, check in. In part two, the story of a family forced into hiding after an ICE shooting. Places to donate: Yamelis's GoFundMe Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota Immigrant Defense...

The Heavyweight team is hard at work on some episode updates for later this spring, as well as a brand new season, which will be coming this fall. But in the meantime, we wanted to “wet your whistles,” so to...