Introducing - Death of an Artist: Petra Mathers and Her Michael
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.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Speaker 1: Paul here. Today we're bringing you a preview of a new podcast, Death of an Artist. Like Bone Valley, it covers a gripping story, one told with integrity and craft and humanity. In early 2024, Petra and Michael Mathers, a married couple in Oregon, died together by their own hand after nearly 50 years of marriage. She was a beloved children's book illustrator. He was a documentary photographer. They mailed letters to friends, family, and neighbors beforehand, explaining they'd always planned to go together on their own terms rather than face life without each other. Family and friends were left with many questions. Why did they both do it? Was it an act of courage or cowardice? And were they both really on board? Hosts Leon Nafok and Alice Gregory, journalists and a married couple themselves, Build the whole story out of interviews with the people who knew Petra and Michael and are still feeling grief, anger, and admiration all at once. If you've ever sat with a case long after the facts were settled, still turning over how you're supposed to feel about it, this one will stay with you. 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 Plus subscription. Sign up on the Death of an Artist show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm slash plus. Thanks for listening.
