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Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey
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Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey

Author: Pushkin Industries

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© 2026 2021 Pushkin Industries

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With Pushkin+ audiobooks, you'll get access to a new Pushkin+ audiobook every other month. That's 6 free audiobooks a year! From January 1 to February 28, listen to Heartbreak by Florence Williams. Pushkin+ subscribers also get access to ad-free listening, exclusive bonus episodes of podcasts like Cautionary Tales, full binges to our top true crime shows like Deep Cover and Valley of Shadows, and more. Sign up now on the Apple show page or at pushkin.com/plus.



When her twenty-five-year marriage unexpectedly falls apart, journalist Florence Williams expects the loss to hurt. What she doesn’t expect is that she’ll end up in the hospital, examining close-up the way our cells listen to loneliness. She travels to the frontiers of the science of “social pain” to learn why heartbreak hurts so much and why so much of the conventional wisdom about it is wrong.

In Williams’ search for insight as well as personal strategies to game her way back to health, she tries it all–and listeners can hear it all–including exclusive (astonishing) bonus material from Williams’ most intimate moments: live and unscripted therapy sessions, gab fests with girlfriends, and the making and breaking of new romantic relationships. Join her in the laboratory as she tests her blood for genetic markers of grief, hear every sound of the wilderness as she searches for awe as an antidote to loneliness, and be a fly on the wall as she is guided through psilocybin and MDMA therapy.

Narrated by the author and accompanied by in-the-moment diary recordings and interviews, Florence Williams’ Heartbreak audiobook is an immersive endeavor that taps into one of the most shared experiences in the animal kingdom: heartbreak.

14 Episodes
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Opening Credits

Opening Credits

2025-01-0300:36

From Casey Wilson and Jessica St. Clair, Pushkin Industries presents The Art of Small Talk. Dismissing the notion that small talk is a painful social obligation, these self-proclaimed small talk maestros share their gift of gab in this laugh-out-loud and instructive audiobook. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the full audiobook: https://apple.co/409b0NLSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Introduction

Introduction

2025-01-0311:48

From Casey Wilson and Jessica St. Clair, Pushkin Industries presents The Art of Small Talk. Dismissing the notion that small talk is a painful social obligation, these self-proclaimed small talk maestros share their gift of gab in this laugh-out-loud and instructive audiobook. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the full audiobook: https://apple.co/409b0NLSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
1 - Opening Credits

1 - Opening Credits

2025-03-0400:11

From New Yorker journalist Michael Specter, Pushkin Industries presents Higher Animals. Higher Animals explores how MRNA vaccines have transformed the scientific landscape and helped spark a biotechnology revolution. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the full audiobook: apple.co/pushkinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
2 - Introduction

2 - Introduction

2025-03-0412:07

From New Yorker journalist Michael Specter, Pushkin Industries presents Higher Animals. Higher Animals explores how MRNA vaccines have transformed the scientific landscape and helped spark a biotechnology revolution. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the full audiobook: apple.co/pushkinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
1 - Opening Credits

1 - Opening Credits

2025-05-0101:23

From Steve Martin & New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik, Pushkin Industries presents So Many Steves: Afternoons with Steve Martin. In So Many Steves, Steve Martin is more candid than he’s ever been about his creative life. This engrossing audio-biography was born from a series of conversations recorded over many afternoons at Steve’s home with his friend and neighbor, Adam Gopnik. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the full audiobook: apple.co/pushkinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
2 - Foreword

2 - Foreword

2025-05-0109:01

From Steve Martin & New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik, Pushkin Industries presents So Many Steves: Afternoons with Steve Martin. In So Many Steves, Steve Martin is more candid than he’s ever been about his creative life. This engrossing audio-biography was born from a series of conversations recorded over many afternoons at Steve’s home with his friend and neighbor, Adam Gopnik. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the full audiobook: apple.co/pushkinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
1 - Opening Credits

1 - Opening Credits

2025-07-0100:15

From veteran New York Times culture reporter and Royals correspondent Sarah Lyall, Pushkin Industries presents Unroyal: Three Women Who Shook the Monarchy.  Wallis Simpson, Diana Spencer and Meghan Markle all married into–and promptly challenged–the British royal family. In Unroyal, Sarah Lyall revisits the trio’s attempts to modernize the world’s most famous monarchy over the course of the last century. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
2 - Introduction

2 - Introduction

2025-07-0143:29

There are three notable people missing from the May 2023 coronation of King Charles III: Wallis Simpson, Diana Spencer, and Meghan Markle. These three outsiders each fell in love with a member of the royal family during different eras, created scandalous headlines, and ultimately challenged the monarchy’s core beliefs and enduring values. They offer a keyhole into the inscrutable inner workings of the royal family and provide a new perspective on what the monarchy could stand for in a modern era.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
1 - Opening Credits

1 - Opening Credits

2025-09-0101:08

From Malcolm Gladwell & Bruce Headlam, Pushkin Industries presents an intimate audio biography of one of America's greatest songwriters. Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon is part memoir, part investigation, and unlike any creative portrait you’ve ever heard before. Recorded over a series of 30 hours of conversation between Simon, Gladwell, and Gladwell’s oldest friend and co-writer, journalist and Broken Record podcast co-host Bruce Headlam, the conversation flows from Simon’s music, to his childhood in Queens, NY, to his frequent collaborators including Art Garfunkel and the nature of creativity itself. Gladwell and Headlam traveled from the mountains of Hawaii to Simon’s own backyard studio to record an artist they’ve idolized since childhood. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
2 - Prologue

2 - Prologue

2025-09-0116:17

Malcolm Gladwell and Bruce Headlam sit down with Paul Simon for an extended conversation about Paul’s career. Together they listen to music, discuss songwriting, tell stories, and Simon performs a live version of “Slip Slidin’ Away.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
1 - Introduction

1 - Introduction

2025-11-0304:03

From actor & director Lake Bell, Pushkin Industries presents Inside Voice. A humorous, insightful and personal deep dive into our most outward-facing, least-appreciated trait: our voice. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the full audiobook: apple.co/pushkinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
3 - Introduction

3 - Introduction

2026-01-0518:15

Florence invites the listener on her personal journey with heartbreak and provides an early glimpse of adventures to come. With Pushkin+ audiobooks, you'll get access to a new Pushkin+ audiobook every other month. That's 6 free audiobooks a year! From January 1 to February 28, listen to Heartbreak by Florence Williams. Pushkin+ subscribers also get access to ad-free listening, exclusive bonus episodes of podcasts like Cautionary Tales, full binges to our top true crime shows like Deep Cover and Valley of Shadows, and more. Sign up now on the Apple show page or at pushkin.com/plus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
1 - Opening Credits

1 - Opening Credits

2026-01-0501:16

When her twenty-five-year marriage unexpectedly falls apart, journalist Florence Williams expects the loss to hurt. What she doesn’t expect is that she’ll end up in the hospital, examining close-up the way our cells listen to loneliness. She travels to the frontiers of the science of “social pain” to learn why heartbreak hurts so much and why so much of the conventional wisdom about it is wrong.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
2 - Author's Note

2 - Author's Note

2026-01-0501:52

A note from the author of Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey, Florence Williams.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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