In early 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 in love. Why did they choose to die together? And what did that decision do to the people

left to mourn them? On the new season of Death of an Artist, journalists Leon Neyfakh and Alice

Gregory 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. Listen to Death of An Artist

wherever you get podcasts. And if you want to hear the full story right now, ad-free, you can

binge the entire season with a Pushkin+ subscription—sign up on the Death of an Artist show

page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus.

 

In early 2024, celebrated children&rsquo;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 in love. Why did they choose to die together? And what did that decision do to the people
left to mourn them? On the new season of Death of an Artist, journalists Leon Neyfakh and Alice
Gregory set out to interview everyone who got one of Petra and Michael&rsquo;s letters&mdash;as one
married couple trying to understand another. Through intimate conversations with Petra and
Michael&rsquo;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&rsquo; deaths and the final words they left behind. Listen to Death of An Artist
wherever you get podcasts. And if you want to hear the full story right now, ad-free, you can
binge the entire season with a Pushkin+ subscription&mdash;sign up on the Death of an Artist show
page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus.
&nbsp;

Behind every Bone Valley season is a conviction: the right story, told with purpose, humanity, and craft, can have an enormous impact. Award-winning investigative documentaries from the fault lines of America's justice system.

Bone Valley Season 5 | The Devil’s Quarry is the latest podcast from Lava for Good. It is hosted by Paul Solotaroff, award-winning investigative journalist and longtime contributing editor at Rolling Stone. For Paul, who has been digging at this story for 5 years, the devil has always been a myth, until now.

The bones of a twelve-year-old girl are found by a hunter in the woods.  A young woman lives inside a real-life horror movie, ignored by everyone she turns to for help. Corrupt cops turn a blind eye to the evil lurking in their midst. The wrong people are convicted of a crime. A drug dealer works tirelessly for justice from jail. Records are hidden. Fingers are pointed. Lives are at stake. In Carmel, NY, the heroes are humble, the power is corrupt, and the devil is real.

Bone Valley Season 4 | Earwitness chronicles the case of Toforest Jonhson. In 1995, Deputy Sheriff William G. Hardy was murdered behind a hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. Toforest Johnson was four miles away at the time and no physical evidence linked him to the crime. But he has been on Death Row for 25 years.

Bone Valley Season 3 | Graves County is a new story about a new case. Maggie Freleng, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and one of the hosts of Lava For Good’s Wrongful Conviction, takes us to a small town in Graves County, Kentucky, where a terrible discovery on the front lawn of a middle school invites a string of amateur and professional investigators to try to solve a murder.

In Season 2, Jeremy Gilbert King brings us a story about her actual killer, Jeremy Scott, fighting to prove his guilt. The State of Florida does not believe either man.

In Season 1 of Bone Valley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gilbert King tells a story of a man, Leo Schofield, fighting to prove his innocence in the case of his wife Michelle’s murder.

Bone Valleyis a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

Behind every Bone Valley season is a conviction: the right story, told with purpose, humanity, and craft, can have an enormous impact. Award-winning investigative documentaries from the fault lines of America's justice system.
Bone Valley Season 5 | The Devil&rsquo;s Quarry is the latest podcast from Lava for Good. It is hosted by Paul Solotaroff, award-winning investigative journalist and longtime contributing editor at Rolling Stone. For Paul, who has been digging at this story for 5 years, the devil has always been a myth, until now.
The bones of a twelve-year-old girl are found by a hunter in the woods.&nbsp; A young woman lives inside a real-life horror movie, ignored by everyone she turns to for help. Corrupt cops turn a blind eye to the evil lurking in their midst. The wrong people are convicted of a crime. A drug dealer works tirelessly for justice from jail. Records are hidden. Fingers are pointed. Lives are at stake. In Carmel, NY, the heroes are humble, the power is corrupt, and the devil is real.
Bone Valley Season 4 | Earwitness chronicles the case of Toforest Jonhson. In 1995, Deputy Sheriff William G. Hardy was murdered behind a hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. Toforest Johnson was four miles away at the time and no physical evidence linked him to the crime. But he has been on Death Row for 25 years.
Bone Valley Season 3 | Graves County is a new story about a new case. Maggie Freleng, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and one of the hosts of Lava For Good&rsquo;s Wrongful Conviction, takes us to a small town in Graves County, Kentucky, where a terrible discovery on the front lawn of a middle school invites a string of amateur and professional investigators to try to solve a murder.
In Season 2, Jeremy Gilbert King brings us a story about her actual killer, Jeremy Scott, fighting to prove his guilt. The State of Florida does not believe either man.
In Season 1 of Bone Valley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gilbert King tells a story of a man, Leo Schofield, fighting to prove his innocence in the case of his wife Michelle&rsquo;s murder.
<a href="https://lavaforgood.com/bone-valley/">Bone Valley</a> is a production of<a href="https://lavaforgood.com/"> Lava for Good&trade; Podcasts</a> in association with<a href="https://www.signalco1.com/"> Signal Co. No1.</a>

Bone Valley

Introducing - Death of an Artist: Petra Mathers and Her Michael

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/4bb12bd8-b617-4742-8702-b4b0013a522b/transcript