The Stories We Don't Tell About Motherhood

The Stories We Don't Tell About Motherhood

From Immigrantly by Saadia Khan | Immigrantly Media

April 14, 2026 · 1h 14m · Episode 342

About this episode

Saadia Khan and Helena de Groot discuss the complexities of motherhood and grief in this intimate conversation.

Apply for the Vilcek Foundation Creative Promise Awards in Culinary Arts to win $50,000 in unrestricted grant money. Click on Vilcek.org for more information What do you do with grief for something that never was? Helena de Groot spent years circling one of the most quietly radical questions a person can ask: whether or not to have a child. The result was Creation Myth — an 8-part audio memoir for CBC that became a Tribeca Festival Official Selection, landed on the New York Times Modern Love podcast, and earned praise from Death, Sex & Money to The New Yorker. In this conversation, Helena and Saadia go to the heart of it, not the podcast, but the ache underneath it. They talk about whose grief Helena was holding while making it, what people were willing to say on tape, and what she knows now that she wishes she'd known at the start. This episode is for anyone who has wanted, lost, chosen, or is still deciding. The grief rhymes, even when the stories don't match. Join us in creating new intellectual engagement for our audience. You can find more information at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://immigrantlypod.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Please share the love and leave us a review on…

People in this episode

Host: Saadia Khan

Guest: Helena de Groot

Topics covered

  • motherhood
  • grief
  • personal stories
  • decision making
  • audio memoir

Keywords

  • motherhood
  • grief
  • audio memoir
  • decision making
  • Creation Myth

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Vilcek Foundation, CBC, New York Times, Death, Sex & Money, The New Yorker

Books & works: Creation Myth

Places: Tribeca Festival, Apple Podcasts, Spotify

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