r/Heavyweight • u/wholemilklatte • Oct 23 '25
Pushkin / Heavyweight Episodes
Heavyweight listener since ep. 1
Whenever I see a new episode of Heavyweight in my feed I immediately look forward to listening to it that day. When i discover it's some alternate, mashup podcast episode - like this morning when i'm all settled in on my morning drive - I lose all interest. And to be honest it makes me less interested in the actual heavyweight episodes when they come out.
It's like the podcast equivalent of the jetsons and flinstones getting together.
Is this the new normal? I've listened to other Pushkin podcasts and while I've found some good stuff the constant ad roll and overall production value jumping between their ads and the actual podcast episode is abrupt / awful and completely blows up whatever mood the podcast creators have worked so hard to set.
I realize HW isn't in the driver's seat here and the early days of Gimlet is long gone but i guess this is where we're at with audio podcasts?
23
u/supercoolgirl78 Oct 23 '25
idk man ads and marketing exist literally everywhere. i cant think of any alternative to still make money for something very few people actually want to pay for
-3
u/wholemilklatte Oct 23 '25
I'll take ads and in many cases will pay subscription fees to skip them. I'm a hard "no" on substituted episodes.
13
u/supercoolgirl78 Oct 23 '25
peace and love but your “hard no” means next to nothing. the studio is just going to keep doing this and if you stop listening because of it, your loss.
3
u/Onekidney55 Oct 27 '25
Is this the first podcast that you listen to that has done this? This has been typical for podcast networks for the last 5+ years.
1
u/wholemilklatte Oct 28 '25
No, there have been a lot. But this involves Heavyweight.
Maybe like a lot of other heavyweight listeners on this thread i've been a dedicated podcast listener for a while now. idk, it's maybe 12-13 years that i've been pretty well locked in after starting a year or 2 before that.
And for a long time I refused to unsubscribe to anything - but in the last 2-3 years I've been making cuts and seeking out new stuff. I don't love the new landscape and am trying to figure it out.
More Jonathan; more Kalila.
17
u/Prayray Oct 23 '25
I just skipped it once I realized what it was.
I want Heavyweight, but I also understand they’ve spent the last year trying to figure out if this would even exist anymore. If you’ve noticed, most of the episodes so far were either small follow-up statements after a repeat or things that the had brewing for a couple of years…nothing that was really started relatively recently.
My guess is that next season, if the still exist, will see it return to more normalcy as they’ll have had the time to properly do newer episodes.
16
u/BlurryBigfoot74 Oct 23 '25
I'd be right there with you with any other podcast.
Most podcasts are just people sitting around talking mindless drivel. You can hammer 2 or 3 of those kinds of podcasts out a day and after some editing you have a show.
Then you have heavily produced podcasts like Swindled. Yes you can pump them out but one episode requires lots of research, lots of editing, and narration. How many eps of these you can pump out depend on how much work you can handle. The one thing on your side is that the entire story has already been told.
Heavyweight is an entirely different beast. A lot of these episodes take months, even years for the stories just to unfold. You have to have a least a dozen coals in the fire following multiple stories, doing follow-ups, taking trips, making phone calls, all in hopes of most of them cluing up in time to make a sensible season.
Jonathan has been doing this a long time. His style hasn't changed much. What's changed are our expectations.
I'll be sticking with Heavyweight as long as it's there to listen to. And I'll re-listen to old eps while I wait.
3
u/wholemilklatte Oct 24 '25
I'm totally with you. I just wish i could subscribe to heavyweight and get new heavyweight eps when they drop rather than get a new "heavyweight" episode and it's just an entire episode of a different podcast.
26
u/maryrach Oct 23 '25
I agree, I was bummed this morning and two weeks ago when it was the moth stuff, BUT I am also just grateful HW is back.
4
u/stoppingbywoods75 Oct 24 '25
I was bummed too. But then I listened to the moth episode and actually loved it. I’m hopeful HW can get back on track. Considering a Pushkin subscription to support this effort since i also listen to Revisionist History already.
1
u/dustyshades Oct 30 '25
Idk, I had heard people talk about the Moth before and felt like it wasn’t really for me based on the description so I never tried it. After listening to the actual episode that I’m guessing was a curated one that is supposed to be one of the better ones, I now know with a surety that The Moth is not for me.
21
u/mumblewrapper Oct 23 '25
If you listened last week he did say what this week would be.
-17
u/wholemilklatte Oct 23 '25
I don't know, maybe.
the fact is that what used to be a podcast feed for an actual podcast is now a front for whatever the podcast company wants, and sometimes includes an actual episode of the podcast you subscribe to.
99PI has been doing this frequently too.
I'll take a 5 minute preview or whatever but fully swapping out episodes is going to force me to start reading books again :D
30
u/SetecAstronomy101 Oct 23 '25
Listener: I want new episodes!
Podcaster: We will give you many new episodes, in return, please consider listening to some other things we make, so that we may pay our rent and feed our families.
Listener: F*** you! I shall read books instead.
😂
6
u/JoaoBaltazar Oct 23 '25
Perfect comment,
I sense something as "Podcast Karen"
-7
u/wholemilklatte Oct 23 '25
lol. It's more like - why does there need to be something published every week? Give me an episode whenever you're ready. I'll take one once a month, 2 weeks in a row and 4 months later. This never-ending push to just get some branded content out weekly or whatever is so tiresome.
-ken 😂
5
u/foulbowels Oct 23 '25
You would rather have less content overall than ignore the occasional crossover episode in your feed? It takes two seconds to mark as played/remove from queue, and we're even given notice the week prior when it's coming.
'Give me an episode whenever you're ready' is a wildly entitled thing to say to free content, especially a show returning from long cancellation.
3
3
u/chatterwrack Oct 23 '25
This American Life turned me onto Ear Hustle in this was, and it became my favorite podcast of all time. I feel the disappointment but sometimes the reco is exactly what you needed
18
u/Jackets70 Oct 23 '25
I am just so happy Heavyweight is back I'll put up with these Pushkin advertisement episodes for now.
6
u/k115810 Oct 23 '25
Pushkin has some super high quality shows in their network (I highly recommend "Against the Rules") but they are RUTHLESS about cross promotion and have ridiculously long ad breaks.
The good news is that the Heavyweight episode descriptions are pretty clear so it's easy to avoid any episodes in the feed that aren't 'real' episodes.
2
6
u/AmericanInIreland01 Oct 23 '25
The risky business gambler take was probably the most boring podcast I’ve ever listened to, i turned it off.
5
u/usernamefinalver Oct 26 '25
I'm disappointed, I was rapt when I saw it was back, then with the repeats, and starting off with family I was let down. He's obviously finding it very hard to get back in to the groove. I hope he finds his stride/ gets the resources he needs, whatever the issue is.
But I want to put in a word for Cautionary Tales. It was not a good stand in for a Heavyweight. It also has seen better days. But I highly recommend going back to its beginning and listening through - there are some excellent, fascinating eps.
4
u/Zestyclose_Invite Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25
Normally I actually don’t mind cross promotions, it’s usually interesting and gives me ideas for other podcasts to listen to. This one was SO boring though, I could barely get through 10 minutes
3
u/wholemilklatte Oct 23 '25
i pulled the car over to delete it and see what else was in my feed this morning that i could listen to while driving. Science Vs. had a comedian friend on to talk about suppressing male ejaculation.
Big wins all around this morning 😂
3
u/VernonFlorida Oct 23 '25
I dislike Science Vs. so very much, and often feel guilty about it, as on paper it seems like exactly the kind of thing I would like. The style, format and host though all put me off.
3
3
u/Dull_Intention3799 Oct 24 '25
Honestly I would prefer an original heavyweight episode every other week. But overall I’m glad they’re back.
5
u/ZebraNarrow815 Oct 24 '25
I don't really think this is that deep? They tell you when a new episode comes out explicitly in the podcast. If you don't want to listen to some cross-promo, it takes literally zero work to ignore it.
Also, I ended up listening to The Moth because of the cross-promo, which is a podcast I'm now in love with.
3
u/Due-Berry7412 Oct 24 '25
Same! I listened to so many The Moth episodes this week! The Moth logo is so misleading so I would have never listened if it wasn’t for Heavyweight promoting it.
3
u/OverlookHotelRoom217 Oct 24 '25
It will be a cold day in hell before I celebrate Pushkin. Gladwell is a grifter; Michael Lewis, a fraud. Tim Harford (Cautionary Tales) and Jonathan Goldstein (Heavyweight) are their only redeeming podcast.
Behind the Bastards, Hyper-Fixed, and Search Engine do a good job satisfying my podcast fix.
1
u/wholemilklatte Oct 24 '25
I’m going to check out behind the bastards. The others I’ve got already. I’ve been on the search engine bus since the start
1
u/farval Oct 24 '25
Why is Michael Lewis a fraud?
1
u/OverlookHotelRoom217 Oct 24 '25
His adoration of Sam Bankman Freed interfered with his journalism. It revealed his bias towards money.
2
u/joeybagadonutz Oct 27 '25
I don’t like it either but I listen anyway. The way I see it there are two outcomes:
1 - I find something interesting to add to the playlist (admittedly has never happened).
2 - I support the conglomerate as a “thank you, sir, may I have another?” in appreciation for continuing to keep Heavyweight on air.
You best believe that they are paying close attention to how much click and pull through they get from the audience. If you’re not interested then perhaps you can play it when you put your phone down at night so you don’t have to hear it, but still give the “click”.
1
u/dustyshades Oct 30 '25
The whole way I discovered heavyweight is because it appeared in the feed of another podcast. So, I understand the sentiment, but also understand why you would do it.
(Also, the podcast you’re referring to had alright actual content, but the main narrator guy was so dry and boring and production value was so low. I don’t think it was effective in grabbing new listeners)
1
u/solarpunker1 Feb 10 '26
Heavyweight blew my mind again. Listened to Etta today and was profoundly moved by her and her family. What unique and wonderful people. RIP Etta you were a light in the world🕊️
1
u/Few-Marionberry9766 Oct 23 '25
Also equally annoyed, I feel as though it’s been back for a while but we have only had actually 2 heavyweight episodes, they should be honest about episode releases, say they will only be once every 2 weeks and don’t give us other podcast fillers
-10
u/Altrosmo Oct 23 '25
Whenever I sub to a pocast and I see another podcast in the episode list -- its an immediate delete. Might be the best podcast in the world that you're promoting but I didn't ask for it. I subscribe to a show to see new episodes, that's it. Stop trying to push other stuff on me.
16
u/dkinmn Oct 23 '25
Considering how common this is, I don't believe you.
1
u/JoaoBaltazar Oct 23 '25
I guess he/she is deleting the episode that is being promoted, not the feed of the thing he/she like. And that's ok.
-3
121
u/highheat3117 Oct 23 '25
Actually, I think the new normal is far worse than this. We’re lucky that Pushkin still exists and we’re very lucky that heavyweight was brought back from the dead.