A 101-Year-Old Rediscovers a Love Lost to War
Death, Sex & Money
Slate Audio
4.6 • 7.7K Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Anna talks to Jonathan Goldstein, host of the Pushkin podcast Heavyweight, about the show getting a second chance after a long period of uncertainty, and how that time helped some of the stories they had been working on find a proper conclusion.
Then we share one of our favorite episodes of Heavyweight, their recent season finale titled “Deborah.” At 101 years old, Deborah discovered a box she'd stashed away a lifetime ago. What was inside reignited an old love and turned her life upside down.
Heavyweight production by Phoebe Flanigan and Jonathan Goldstein.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | As we've turned the corner between 2025 and 26, we at Death, Sex, and Money have been thinking about art, making it and appreciating it. |
| 0:10.1 | My audio colleague Sharon Mishie talked about her guide to unlocking creativity. |
| 0:16.2 | A hallmark holiday movie screenwriter told us about the Hollywood budget realities that nudged him to write |
| 0:22.7 | sweet crowd pleasers. And New York's finest theater talent read us short stories. If you missed |
| 0:29.4 | any of those episodes, you can pull them up at deathsexmoney.org. But I want to acknowledge, |
| 0:35.0 | we've been sharing all this when the news each day keeps challenging our sense of order and morality and justice. |
| 0:44.3 | It is a scary and unrelenting time. |
| 0:47.3 | And sometimes when I'm curling up with my latest novel instead of reading in on the latest headlines, a part of me wonders if |
| 0:55.5 | it's indulgent to cocoon into stories at a time like this. |
| 1:00.6 | This week's episode shows that is a false choice. It comes from our friends at the podcast |
| 1:07.5 | Heavyweight, which is one of my favorites. Jonathan Goldstein and team introduce us to a woman named Deborah, |
| 1:15.5 | who at 102 years old shared a love story that's also about war |
| 1:21.1 | and the senseless losses that come with war |
| 1:24.7 | and how long those losses shape our lives after. |
| 1:32.4 | This is death, sex, and money. |
| 1:37.2 | The show from Slate about the things we think about a lot, |
| 1:42.0 | and need to talk about more. |
| 1:45.0 | I'm Anna Salle. |
| 1:47.0 | Hi, Jonathan Goldstein. |
| 2:00.0 | Hello. Nice to be here. |
| 2:02.6 | I want to thank you for introducing me to Deborah, who we're going to meet in this episode. What a woman. |
| 2:09.5 | Yeah, yeah, she is. Quite, quite, yes. Yes, indeed. A woman she is. |
... |
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