The Heart is a podcast created by Kaitlin Prest and produced by Radiotopia.
Background
The show started out in 2008 as a college radio show on CKUT-FM.[1] Before the show was picked up by Radiotopia, it was called Audio Smut and focused on sex from a female perspective.[2] Seasons are composed of 4 to 15 episodes.[3] The show had more than seven million listens between 2014 and 2017.[4]
Prest has stated that the show is partly a "feminist urge to document the private sphere, the realm of emotion, what sex actually is, what love actually is".[5] The show had a miniseries called Pansy, which focused on femininity in men.[6] In an episode titled Meat, a man named Jonathan Zenti discusses how society mistreats him as a fat person, but Zenti loves himself and his body anyway.[7]
In 2023, Prest did two miniseries called Sisters and Dad each of which focused on her relationship with her family.[8]Sisters was co-created by Prest's younger sister Natalie.[9] Fiona Sturges wrote in the Financial Times, that the miniseries is some of Prests best work.[10]
The show took a two year break and returned in 2020 with new hosts Nicole Kelly and Phoebe Unter.[11]