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Death of an Artist: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Pushkin Industries
You’ve heard of Jackson Pollock but you may have never heard of Lee Krasner. Krasner was an artist, Pollock’s wife, and the woman who made him famous. She also changed everything about the landscape of modern art. This is a story about love, power, alcoholism and an ill-timed death. Hosted by curator, author, and broadcaster Katy Hessel, this 6-episode series offers an inside look into two of the greatest artists of the 20th century, and how their vision impacts ours. And listen back to season one, where host Helen Molesworth revisits the artist Ana Mendieta’s death and the trial that followed– interrogating both the silence and the protest that have accompanied her story ever since. Death of an Artist Season 1 is a co-production between Pushkin Industries, Somethin’ Else, and Sony Music Entertainment. Death of an Artist Season 2 is a co-production between Pushkin Industries and Samizdat Audio.
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- 5 days ago43 min
Episode 5: We Are Without Fear
“I wrestle with: Was it courage, or was it cowardice?” This question animates a memorial service for Michael and Petra, held several months after their death. Alice and Leon want to understand it as well: Was Michael and Petra’s suicide a move toward something, or away from something else? To figure it out, they reach out to Michael and Petra’s families, to find out what examples they had from their own parents’ end-of-life experiences that might have led them to this choice.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- 1 weeks ago41 min
Episode 4: Bird on a Wire
“It brought up all the things I've never done. All the risks I haven't taken. It was always about trying to be free, you know?” According to Michael Mathers’s first true love, he was always a romantic. Was the death orchestrated with Petra the ending of a love story he’d been trying to craft all along? Get early, ad-free access to the entire season of Death of an Artist by subscribing to Pushkin+ on the Apple Podcasts show page or at pushkin.fm/plus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- 2 weeks ago43 min
Episode 3: The Train Has Left the Station
“I have never regretted my decision, only the amount of unhappiness it caused you. Still, unforgivingness is the product of those who feel it.” When Petra and Michael died, they left everyone in their lives behind. But it wasn’t the first time: When Petra first fell in love with Michael, she left her son Tillmann to be with him. In an interview with Alice and Leon, Tillmann reckons with his mother's choices and the marks they left on his own life. Get early, ad-free access to the entire season of Death of an Artist by subscribing to Pushkin+ on the Apple Podcasts show page or at pushkin.fm/plus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- 3 weeks ago46 min
Episode 2: It’s Lonely Without You, Friends
“I would've screamed. I would've shouted. I would've cried out. I would've protested. I would've given a million reasons to not leave this world.” Michael and Petra left their house and the logistics of their afterlife to their friend Patty—unbeknownst to Patty’s sister Virginia, who considered herself one of Michael and Petra’s best friends. Patty and Virginia have different perspectives on what Michael and Petra did, but they agree on what it was like to be around them as a couple: awestruck and a bit excluded, something even Alice and Leon pick up on while looking at their dozens of photo albums. Get early, ad-free access to the entire season of Death of an Artist by subscribing to Pushkin+ on the Apple Podcasts show page or at pushkin.fm/plus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- 3 weeks ago39 min
Episode 1: Dear Honeys
DISCLAIMER: This podcast is about suicide. Listener discretion is advised "When Michael and I got together some 40 plus years ago, we’d always planned on checking out together." In February of 2024, a letter arrived at the pharmacy in Astoria, Oregon. It was from local residents Petra and Michael Mathers, and they wanted to let the pharmacists know that they had died—by suicide. Petra was a celebrated children’s book author and illustrator. Michael was a photographer. And as police investigated their deaths, they discovered a whole network of people around the country who had received similar letters. Journalists Leon Neyfakh and Alice Gregory, who have themselves been married for more than 10 years, visit Oregon to begin putting together the pieces of Petra and Michael’s shared life: the start of their love story, and the end. And they set out to interview everyone who received a letter from Michael and Petra, to try to understand why a couple who was seemingly so happy and in love would want to end their lives. Get early, ad-free access to the entire season of Death of an Artist by subscribing to Pushkin+ on the Apple Podcasts show page or at pushkin.fm/plus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Aug 18, 20263 min
Introducing Death of an Artist Season 3: Petra Mathers and Her Michael
When Alice Gregory and Leon Neyfakh started building a library for their infant daughter, they stumbled across a name in an obituary that Alice recognized from her own childhood: celebrated children’s book author and illustrator Petra Mathers. Petra had died by suicide alongside her husband, Michael Mathers. Both were in their late 70s, seemingly happy and healthy. The details of Petra and Michael’s deaths pulled Alice and Leon down a rabbit hole that neither were expecting—a plan many years in the making, dozens of letters mailed out across the country, friends and family caught between betrayal and envy, and a community grappling with their own feelings around aging and death. Death of an Artist drops weekly on Tuesdays starting August 25. Get early, ad-free access to the entire season of Death of an Artist by subscribing to Pushkin+. Subscribers also get bonus episodes, exclusive binges, full audiobooks, and early ad-free listening for all Pushkin shows. Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkinSubscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- May 18, 202637 min
From Deep Cover: The Family Man
Deep Cover's new season, The Family Man, tells a story about how families can deceive each other and the lengths we’ll go to to protect our loved ones Elise and Marissa grew up in a seemingly normal house in the suburbs of St. Louis, but it was a house built on secrets. There were things their father never told them—like how he really made his money. One night, the police showed up, raided their house, and seized boxes of evidence. Hours later, the sisters turned on the TV and saw something surreal: their father in the middle of a police chase. The local news identified him as “The Boonie Hat Bandit”. The girls were stunned. They struggled to accept the truth: Dad had been living a double life. How long had he been lying to them? What had he done? And who, exactly, was their father? Find Deep Cover: The Family Man wherever you get podcasts. If you want to know how the story ends right now, binge the full season by signing up for a Pushkin+ subscriptions on the Deep Cover show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Aug 23, 202416 min
Bonus: The Women on the Scene with Audrey Flack
Artist, musician and writer Audrey Flack shares her firsthand accounts of the downtown New York City art scene in the mid-twentieth-century and a song she and her band, The History of Art, wrote about Jackson Pollock. Flack passed away in June. For more about her life, see “Audrey Flack, Creator of Vibrant Photorealist Art, Dies at 93.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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About Death of an Artist
You’ve heard of Jackson Pollock but you may have never heard of Lee Krasner. Krasner was an artist, Pollock’s wife, and the woman who made him famous. She also changed everything about the landscape of modern art. This is a story about love, power, alcoholism and an ill-timed death. Hosted by curator, author, and broadcaster Katy Hessel, this 6-episode series offers an inside look into two of the greatest artists of the 20th century, and how their vision impacts ours. And listen back to season one, where host Helen Molesworth revisits the artist Ana Mendieta’s death and the trial that followed– interrogating both the silence and the protest that have accompanied her story ever since. Death of an Artist Season 1 is a co-production between Pushkin Industries, Somethin’ Else, and Sony Music Entertainment. Death of an Artist Season 2 is a co-production between Pushkin Industries and Samizdat Audio.
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