“I would've screamed. I would've shouted. I would've cried out. I would've protested. I would've given a million reasons to not leave this world.”

Michael and Petra 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.

Get early, ad-free access to the entire season of Death of an Artist by subscribing to Pushkin+ on the Apple Podcasts show page or at pushkin.fm/plus.

&ldquo;I would've screamed. I would've shouted. I would've cried out. I would've protested. I would've given a million reasons to not leave this world.&rdquo;
Michael and Petra left their house and the logistics of their afterlife to their friend Patty&mdash;unbeknownst to Patty&rsquo;s sister Virginia, who considered herself one of Michael and Petra&rsquo;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.
Get early, ad-free access to the entire season of Death of an Artist by subscribing to Pushkin+ on the Apple Podcasts <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/death-of-an-artist/id1628639926">show page</a> or at <a href="https://www.pushkin.fm/join-pushkin">pushkin.fm/plus</a>.

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 in love. Why did they choose to die together? And what did that decision do to the people left to mourn them? 

In season 3 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 back to season 2, where Katy Hessel offers an inside look at how Jackson Pollock and his wife, Lee Krasner, changed everything about the landscape of modern art. And in season 1, host Helen Molesworth revisits the artist Ana Mendieta’s death and the trial that followed—interrogating both the silence and the protest that have accompanied her story ever since. 

Death of an Artist Season 1 is a co-production between Pushkin Industries, Somethin’ Else, and Sony Music Entertainment.

Death of an Artist Season 2 is a co-production between Pushkin Industries and Samizdat Audio.

In February 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?&nbsp;
In season 3 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 back to season 2, where Katy Hessel offers an inside look at how Jackson Pollock and his wife, Lee Krasner, changed everything about the landscape of modern art. And in season 1, host Helen Molesworth revisits the artist Ana Mendieta&rsquo;s death and the trial that followed&mdash;interrogating both the silence and the protest that have accompanied her story ever since.&nbsp;
Death of an Artist Season 1 is a co-production between Pushkin Industries, Somethin&rsquo; Else, and Sony Music Entertainment.
Death of an Artist Season 2 is a co-production between Pushkin Industries and Samizdat Audio.

Death of an Artist

Episode 2: It’s Lonely Without You, Friends

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/7c6e8e04-90d3-46d3-8888-b4ad011d97f1/transcript