Heavyweight by Jonathan Goldstein
September 18, 2025
HAVE YOU HEARD the good news? Yes, friends, the neurotic Jew with a cult following and an obsession with other people’s sins, Canada’s own Jonathan Goldstein, is returning.
On the podcast, Goldstein acts as a kind of nudgy, meddlesome life coach. Each episode focuses on a guest who wants to resolve some moment from their past: a falling out, a withheld secret, an unsolved mystery. In a way, it is a show concerned with teshuvah, returning to some broken piece of the past in the hopes of repair.
Goldstein is an audio storyteller whose career is a kind of microcosm of the entire industry. Much like the industry, his podcast has suffered its own slights, most notably being acquired by corporate audio giant Spotify, which then cancelled Heavyweight in a round of mass cuts in 2023. Its welcome return signals some hope for the type of earnest, narrative storytelling shows that have all too often been squeezed out. Zachary Kauffman
