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4.1

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372 reviews

Description

Helena does not want kids. Her husband believes she’ll change her mind—she has so much love to give, she would be a perfect mother. That will never happen, she tells him. Again. And again. Until one day, he leaves. In the silence, doubt starts rushing in. So she asks her close friends, her mother, her sister, even a perfect stranger—did she make the right decision? What is the purpose of life? Center your pleasure, says one friend. Go for adventure, says another, and isn’t parenthood the biggest adventure of all? Be true to yourself, says a father who regrets his decision. But the voice she needs to hear is her own. Get lost in someone else’s life. From a mysterious childhood spent on the run, to a courageous escape from domestic violence, each season of Personally invites you to explore the human experience in all its complexity, one story — or season — at a time. This is what it sounds like to be human. Hear episodes early and ad-free on CBC Stories Premium on Apple Podcasts. Season 1 | Run, Hide, Repeat: a story of a childhood spent on the run. Season 2 | Welcome to Paradise: a courageous escape from domestic violence. Season 3 | Short Sighted: an attempt to explain what vision loss feels like by exploring how it sounds. Season 4 | Sorry About The Kid: an emotional, deeply personal meditation on the loss of a sibling. Season 5 | Toy Soldier: The unbelievable story of a Jewish boy amongst Nazis. Season 6 | Forever is a Long Time: Every living member of Ian Coss' family who has been married has gotten divorced. Can his marriage end differently? Season 7 | NO: Kaitlin Prest found herself wondering if the world forgot the lessons that shook 2017. Season 8 | Resurrection: The story of Dane Stewart, a Canadian playwright, and what he did with a cache of love letters by a playwright named Daryl Allen, who died in 1991 from HIV/AIDS.

Podcast episodes

Check latest episodes from Personally: Creation Myth podcast

Introducing: Creation Myth

2026/01/20

Introducing the new season of Personally, called Creation Myth. Helena does not want to have kids. Kid, child, baby - not for her. She’s just not parent material. So why is she obsessed with parenthood? Why does she ask her friends who are parents for every detail? She’s in her forties now. The door is almost closed. And suddenly, she wonders. Does she want a kid?

San Francisco, 1979

2025/11/03

Daryl Allen always wanted to be a playwright, but before his art found success, his life was cut short by HIV. Before he dies, he leaves one of his scripts with an ex-boyfriend, asking his ex to do something with the play. 25 years later, the script is given to Dane Stewart, a playwright living in Montreal, and he falls down the rabbit hole. The creation of this podcast was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Conseil des arts de Montréal, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Four Christmases

2025/11/03

Daryl and Dan were in love, until something happened that changed everything. This is the story of the evolution of Daryl and Dan's relationship; a queer love story set against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis. The creation of this podcast was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Conseildes arts de Montréal, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Kansas (Part One)

2025/11/10

In this episode, we go to Kansas. The creation of this podcast was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Conseildes arts de Montréal, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Kansas (Part Two)

2025/11/17

In the second part of our trip to Kansas, we go on a hunt for the Allen Family Farm. The creation of this podcast was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Conseildes arts de Montréal, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Janet

2025/11/24

Janet's side of the story. The creation of this podcast was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Conseildes arts de Montréal, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

What Happened in Vietnam

2025/12/01

This is the story of what happened in Vietnam. The creation of this podcast was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Conseildes arts de Montréal, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Mustang Zero-One

2025/12/08

We share Daryl's play with the world. The creation of this podcast was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Conseildes arts de Montréal, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

San Francisco, 2022

2025/12/15

The final chapter in our series on Daryl Allen. We end the story where it started. Email us at [email protected] The creation of this podcast was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Conseildes arts de Montréal, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Introducing: Resurrection

2025/10/31

In a moment of fate in 2017, Dane Stewart is gifted a bundle of love letters and theatrical scripts, written by a queer man named Daryl Allen before AIDS took his life in 1991. Along with the letters, Dane is given a task: tell Daryl's story and give his art the audience it lost when his life was cut short. Part investigation, part documentary, and part love story, Resurrection asks us what we leave behind when we go. Daryl proves that for every person lost to AIDS, there's a life story just waiting to be resurrected. The creation of this podcast was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Conseil des arts de Montréal, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

NO, Part One: Advance

2025/09/23

We meet Kaitlin in her youth as she learns to navigate her first sexual experiences along with the confusion of her desires. Kaitlin learns how to decline unwanted sexual advances and the difficulty of advocating for her needs. But what is she to do when her words are ignored and her agency is taken from her? "Advance" a non-psychedelic trip into my girlhood was originally produced in May 2017 and features sound design and composition by Shani Aviram. 2025 UPDATE: Drove by North Dundas the other day on a joyride. The smoking tree is not small anymore.

NO, Part Two: Inheritance

2025/09/23

In the second episode of the series, we catch up to Kaitlin while she is in her mid-twenties, waiting to fall in love. Over the years she has become an expert at advocating for her own pleasure. She has learned how to say no to the sex that she doesn’t want to have with tact and grace. Just as Kaitlin thinks she has figured out the art of sexual negotiations, another unsettling experience becomes a catalyst for a search for answers.

NO, Part Three: Answers

2025/09/30

The third episode of NO: Kaitlin’s search for the answer to why coercion is so omnipresent lands her in one obvious place. Straight, cis-gendered men. In this episode, Kaitlin consults the men in her life that she loves, her friends, her father, her exes to see if they had ever pressured someone into having unwanted intimacy. But she knows she cannot end her search here. She must reach out to the men who have transgressed her to get their side of the story.

NO, Part Four: Questions

2025/09/30

Many listeners were left with a lot of lingering questions and thoughts after the first three episodes. In the final installment of ‘NO’ we respond to some of the questions that we heard a lot of. What do I tell my kids? What if my no DOES mean yes? Additionally, some of the producers and trusted sex educator, Samara Breger unpack some of the blind spots and larger themes from the last three episodes.

Forever is a Long Time, Part 1: My Parents, Ellen and Tom

2025/06/16

My parents divorced when I was eight years old — young enough that I don’t have a lot of clear memories of it, but old enough that I was definitely watching, listening, and learning. So I asked them both to tell me what happened, and got two pretty different stories.

Read Personally: Creation Myth podcast reviews

4.1 out of 5

372 reviews

Heat8er 2026/01/08

Wow wow wow season 7

Amazing season. Such a raw and honest view of young sexual experience when you don’t understand what consent is (or even know it’s a thing) through to...

TaloStalo 2025/07/14

Well done, Ian

I commend Ian in Forever is a Long Time for his willingness to journey through his family’s divorce history, empathetically asking the tough questions...

Isaac’s Storm 2025/10/05

Kaitlyn story — ugh

I don’t need the X-rated self absorbed descriptions of how Kaitlin learned to say no. Frankly, here’s my “no”— No thanks.

Mbmac12584 2025/10/03

Awful

Kaitlyn is such an annoying person. Get over it

pearlymom 2025/08/07

Episode 4 is where I checked out

The lack of self awareness of these people is staggering. I listened to all these stories and the conclusion this brings the host to as well as that o...

Rigged spin wheel 2025/07/14

When you hear the host begin singing skip to something else fast

So so podcast but the host plugging and performing his music makes me want to jump into a wood chipper

shelnal 2025/06/13

Thank You

As a grieving mom to a murdered daughter and a grieving 16 year old, whose memories are blurry, this was so helpful. And very well done!

Chris' Sanity 2025/03/21

Run, hide, repeat the tall tale

If these people actually believe what they have been told by their mother and Mr. Sears, they are extremely gullible. This whole story is make belie...

..&&…8…@ 2025/03/13

Dip

Jerk

Teon77 2025/01/09

Just cant

Narrator personality problems

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