Death of an Artist

I finished season three a couple days ago and thought about what to say for a while. I support euthanasia. That being said I never even once considered it as a means to end life for fear of becoming frail and losing the dignity you had become so used to. I still don’t think their reasonings were very wrong especially when the episodes of their family histories came up. I could very clearly see, at least in Michael’s case, why he would’ve wanted to make that choice. However we all know that death is more painful for those left behind and in this case my god what a huge mess they left for their loved ones. Not in a legal sense or housekeeping sense as it seemed they had given that so much thought and care. But in an emotional sense. The sending of the letters and how some got ones with more obvious personal touches while others received cold formal messages. The flag with a question mark and the gravestones. The inside joke they seemed to be sharing. What really stuck with me though was the treatment of Till. I had assumed they did not have children until the episode when he was revealed. I remember the pain I went through when my father got into a new relationship. The obsession he had with my stepmother was like first love. It hurt so deeply to not get along with her and to not feel comfortable in my father’s house anymore. I felt so alone and adrift. Petra seemed to have felt about Michael the way some people feel about a guru or religious icon. I think there was plausible enough evidence to suggest she was not completely on board with this idea but Michael’s sway on her life was too strong to have ever allowed her to say no. The fact that her family feels she was murdered by him says a lot. I came away from it with a strong distaste for him. But I did feel a lot of empathy for how his parents had crumbled in their old age. In the end I do agree with the general thesis of the podcast which is that this was a kind of darkly comedic secret joke for them and that they or at least Michael relished in the keeping of it and the planning for it. I did not feel that Petra was much represented and that is something that I feel will haunt me. I read her books as a child but of course took no notice of the author. I enjoyed the hosts framing with their own daughter and felt it really added to the tapestry of the story. That these were somewhat public facing people but also they were deeply unknown even in the end by the people closest to them. And really isn’t it true about all of us. My only critique is this channels choice of ads. While trying to experience something so deeply reverent I was then jarringly thrown into ads for Chat GPT and other ridiculously stupid stuff. The irony of Josh Goldstein crowing about noted anti semite and Hitler favorite, Henry ford’s accomplishments and the couching it with “well what if he had chat gpt” was especially poignant. A true dishonor to the art and brevity of this podcast series.

I was gob-smacked by S3; the story unfolded so naturally and didn’t shy away from the difficult aspects of their choices. The brave interviewees opened up in a very real way and the parallel story of the hosts grounded the whole season beautifully. Special shout out for the sound design. Great work!

This is such a tender, poignant and compelling podcast. Perfect interviewing - very attuned to the speaker, but completely willing to ask difficult questions. I loved it and I love the hosts!

Season 3 is one of the most beautiful and haunting pieces of audio journalism I’ve ever heard - intimate and deep, a meditation on romance, friendship, old age, and death.

What a garbage approach to telling a story. A third of the running time is advertising, then add in the preview bits of what you’re about to hear later, and the recapping of where you left off last episode. The actual content of this entire season could have been cut into a single 45min standalone episode. I’ve never heard this high of a ratio of advertising to content in any podcast in the entire history of the medium. I was excited to hear about Lee Krasner but disappointed with the experience at hand.

A murder mystery set within a substantive analysis of art world dynamics. Be prepared to go for a paid subscription because the frequent, loud, and intrusive ads will annoy the heck out if you and detract from an otherwise high quality experience.