Fiasco

Here's episode 3 of Leon's new series, Death of an Artist. There's still 3 more episodes to go. Find the rest of Death of an Artist wherever you get podcasts and binge the full season now by subscribing to Pushkin+ on the Apple Podcasts show page or at pushkin.fm/plus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here's episode 2 of Leon's new series, Death of an Artist, a story about the joint suicide of a beloved children’s book author and her photographer husband that left behind an uneasy fellowship of friends and family caught between grief, confusion, anger, and envy.  Michael and Petra Mathers 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.  Find Death of an Artist wherever you get podcasts. And get early, ad-free access to the entire season now by subscribing to Pushkin+ on the Apple Podcasts show page or at pushkin.fm/plus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leon here bringing you a preview of a new series of mine, Death of an Artist. Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing a few episodes with you right here on the Fiasco feed. In February 2024, celebrated children’s book author and illustrator Petra Mathers and her husband, photographer Michael Mathers, mailed letters to dozens of friends and family members to let them know they had died by suicide. Petra and Michael were by all accounts healthy, happy, and deeply in love. As much a love story as one about death, it begs the question: what did that decision do to the people left to mourn them? My wife, journalist Alice Gregory, and I set out to interview everyone who got one of Petra and Michael’s letters—as one married couple trying to understand another. Through intimate conversations with Petra and Michael’s friends and family about their own relationships to aging, grief, death, and the friends they thought they knew, Death of an Artist weaves together a portrait of a community grappling with the Mathers’ deaths and the final words they left behind. Here's episode 1, where we visit Oregon to begin putting together the pieces of Petra and Michael’s shared life: the start of their love story, and the end. Search for Death of an Artist wherever you get podcasts. And get early, ad-free access to the entire season now by subscribing to Pushkin+ on the Apple Podcasts show page or at pushkin.fm/plus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this provocative investigation into OnlyFans— the adult platform where subscribers around the world spent more than $7 billion in 2024— journalist Leon Neyfakh teams up with comedian and OnlyFans creator Gracie Canaan for a one-of-a-kind exploration into the current state of human connection. Captivating and tender, OnlyFantasy is about the cost of loneliness, the seductive power of desire, and how the rules of human intimacy are being rewritten online. Is what’s happening on OnlyFans real? Or is it only a fantasy? Find OnlyFantasy wherever you get your podcasts, or binge all episodes ad-free on Audible. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Tea Party takes over the search for the truth about Benghazi, while the FBI pursues a Libyan militia leader suspected of planning the attack.For a list of books, documentaries and resources we used to research this episode visit: bit.ly/fiascopolitics  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.