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.

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.

A bonus interview with journalists Martha Honey and Tony Avirgan. Honey and Avirgan tell Leon about their time reporting on the Contra war from the southern front in Costa Rica. For a list of books, documentaries and resources we used to research this season visit: bit.ly/fiascopolitics Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the entire season of Fiasco: Iran Contra, ad-free, right now. Find Pushkin+ on the Fiasco show page in Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin.fm. Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkinSubscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How the United States got involved in a not-so-secret secret war in Nicaragua.For a list of books, documentaries and resources we used to research this episode visit: bit.ly/fiascopolitics Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the entire season of Fiasco: Iran Contra, ad-free, right now. Find Pushkin+ on the Fiasco show page in Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin.fm. Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkinSubscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How a crew of amateur spies from Long Island helped the Reagan administration set the stage for Iran-Contra.For a list of books, documentaries and resources we used to research this episode visit: bit.ly/fiascopolitics Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the entire season of Fiasco: Iran Contra, ad-free, right now. Find Pushkin+ on the Fiasco show page in Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin.fm. Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkinSubscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Host Leon Neyfakh transports listeners into the day-to-day reality of our country’s most pivotal historical events, bringing to life the forgotten twists and turns of the past while shedding light on the present.  Fiasco: Iran-Contra exposes a secret war, a secret deal, and a scandal that threatened to destroy Ronald Reagan’s presidency—until it didn’t. Fiasco: Iran-Contra is available wherever you get your podcasts. Pushkin+ subscribers can hear the entire season, ad-free, now. Find Pushkin+ on the Fiasco show page in Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin.fm. Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkinSubscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Attorneys David Boies and Ted Olsen, who represented the Gore and Bush sides, respectively, talk about the unique challenges that came with representing their clients before the Supreme Court.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.