Almost nine years ago, a Minneapolis writer revealed a family skeleton to a podcast host.

Steve Marsh had a “secret sister” — an older sibling his parents had placed for adoption before they were married, when they were not ready to raise a child. He wanted help finding her.

Luckily for Marsh, his thorny problem fit neatly into the premise of a new podcast: “Heavyweight” was dedicated to ultra-personal quests, confronting regrets and healing resentments. It was hosted by Jonathan Goldstein, a longtime audio journalist who blanketed the show’s vulnerability in dry humor.

“This conceit of having this nervous Jewish fellow who has to insert himself into the most sensitive parts in people’s lives — it’s just entertaining,” said Marsh, whose episode took almost three years to produce, as (spoiler alert) his family contacted and got to know his sister.

“Heavyweight” was an early hit, reaching No. 1 on Apple Podcasts shortly after its 2016 debut and earning wide critical acclaim. A co-host of the “Longform” podcast called it “one of the most compelling and moving things that anyone puts out in media anywhere.”

The podcast was canceled by Spotify in 2023, as the audio giant made significant company layoffs. And as more time passed after the final episode of “Heavyweight” — about stoic twin brothers tracking down their deceased younger brother’s pet parrot — it seemed more unlikely the show would return.

But last week, the media company Pushkin Industries, co-founded by Malcolm Gladwell, announced that “Heavyweight” had joined its podcast network and would release new episodes this year.

Pushkin’s investment is a bet that narrative audio can still win audiences’ hearts, even in a landscape now crowded with year-round interview shows. Although documentary storytelling thrived in the early 2010s, led by “This American Life” and “Radiolab,” today the most popular and influential podcasts are lengthy (and easier to produce) interview programs, many released as videos. Some are very lucrative: Alex Cooper, Joe Rogan and the Kelce brothers have turned their chat shows into diversified media empires.

“I listen to a lot of interview shows myself,” Goldstein said. “I just feel like there should be a different name. It’s unfortunate that they all fall under the banner of ‘podcasts,’ because what we’re doing is more documentary.”

Pushkin’s deal with “Heavyweight” does not resemble the kind of eye-popping contracts that make headlines when a top podcaster sells off rights to advertising and distribution, with figures exceeding $100 million or $200 million.

Rather it involves making Goldstein and his two longtime producers full-time employees of Pushkin, with benefits and access to technical, research, legal and operations support. (Advertising and distribution for Pushkin’s shows are supported by iHeartPodcasts.)

Goldstein, now 55 and based in Minneapolis, created “Heavyweight” with Gimlet Media, a narrative-focused podcast company founded in New York City that Spotify acquired for $230 million in early 2019 — a boom era for podcasts.

By 2023, Spotify’s podcasting division underwent a “strategic realignment” as the advertising market faltered. Later that year, “Heavyweight,” which had expanded from focusing on Goldstein and his circle of family and friends to his listeners, was canceled.

While the show has an eager fan base (on Reddit, listeners still swap their “teariest” episodes), it is complicated to produce, Goldstein said. Fewer than half of all story leads become full episodes, he said, and each unfolds on a different timetable. “Heavyweight” hinges on the emotional stakes of confrontation and resolution, which are difficult to capture if, for example, the confronted party refuses to cooperate.

Goldstein first met Cohn last year at South by Southwest. An Apple Podcasts executive introduced them at the iHeartPodcast Awards, where Goldstein was being honored, and where they “sneakily” watched actor Kyle MacLachlan tear up a dance floor, Cohn said. Pushkin did not make an offer until months later.

“The shows are investigative, but they’re so intimate,” Cohn said. “When you think of investigation, you might think of crime or hard news. He’s taking that style and that depth of craft but applying it to human relationships.”