WHAT IS THIS SHOW?

Founded in Kaitlin Prest’s bedroom in 2014, The Heart is the culmination of many years of audio experimentation and play. The show features personal documentary stories made by host KP and her friends. Home to the widely lauded “NO” series, Peabody Finalist “Silent Evidence”, Third Coast Gold Award winning “Mariya” and Prix Italia awarded “Movies In Your Head”. The Heart has been a force of queer feminist audio art making in the podcast industry.

HERSTORY

IN MONTREAL 2008 | CKUT 90.3 FM offers up an hour at drivetime to a group of queers. Kaitlin Prest, Jess Grosman, Nora Rohman, Britt Wray and Linda Tsang are the new collective of a sex positive radio show called Audio Smut. CKUT gives them the space and the freedom to experiment and find their own voice. Wildness ensues.

IN NEW YORK 2012 | Mitra Kaboli moves to New York to join KP, who has big dreams of making the show into a real job instead of a passion project. They go independent from the radio station and relaunch the show as a podcast. Jen Ng, Rider Alsop and Rae Dooley join the ranks. 

IN KAITLIN’S BEDROOM 2014 | KP receives a call from the Radiotopia network. The Heart is born. Wildness ensues. Sharon Mashihi, Samara Breger and Phoebe Wang join the team. The show wins awards. They become pros. And then they get tired. 

IN TORONTO 2018 | The Heart is quiet. KP, Phoebe and Sha make a fiction project called The Shadows with the CBC. Mitra gets a pro job at ESPN’s 30 for 30. Jen takes a self-care vacay. Samara starts lifting weights and writing a lesbian romance novel. Rider lives the artist commune poet life. 

IN LOS ANGELES 2019 | Kaitlin decides to revamp the show and introduces artists Nicole Kelly and Phoebe Unter (PU/NK) of bitchface. 

EVERYWHERE COVID 2021 | The show goes quiet again.

IN TORONTO AGAIN 2023 | With the support of CBC Podcasts, KP creates a new season of episodes inspired by the time she spent with her family during the pandemic.