Best Familystories Podcasts (2024)

1
A childhood like mine 27:04

1+ y ago27:04

27:04

"Maybe my story can be a tiny beam of light in a large, dark cave," says Anneke Lucas in the podcast that begins to tell her story, from her book QUEST FOR LOVE. "Elite pedophilia is the world’s best protected secret.By Anneke Lucas as voiced by Caitlin Hicks

1
MeetingSebastian Unexplained Vertigo 15:42

1+ y ago15:42

15:42

Your eyes cannot help but see what is here: the sight of someone like yourself And then you think: How can this be? Is that really all the time there is left? A chance encounter in the dark winter days of December 2022. A benevolent energy in a hospital room with snaking tubes and mystery signs, the face of a newborn and a lifetime of important peo…

1
AlwaysPackACandle 26:50

1+ y ago26:50

26:50

Naïve but adventurous, twenty-two years young and fresh out of university, Public Health Nurse Marion McKinnon accepts an assignment for a four day, multi stop, two-hundred mile trip from Williams Lake to Anahim Lake into the vast Cariboo-Chilcotin country of British Columbia. It’s December and the first snow has fallen across the land. The year is…

1
The Night Shift 14:45

1+ y ago14:45

14:45

A flight attendant with 25 years seniority works through the early pandemic. An essential worker with close family ties and lots of friends. Suddenly, her life is upended.By Caitlin Hicks (for Erin Em)

1
The Face of My Grandparents Killer 20:12

2y ago20:12

20:12

BC author Claudia Cornwall’s discovered almost 30 years ago that she was descended from family murdered in the Holocaust by a Waffen SS Sargent named Arlt. The remaining details were shrouded in the mystery of her grandparents’ last moments, one historical May day in a forest in Minsk. 80 years after their death, Cornwall received their executioner…

1
31 days in 2022 16:33

2y ago16:33

16:33

What happens to a robust 49-year old with Omicron in a BC hospital in 31 days? A Mother's account of her son's care in a British Columbia hospital between November 2021, and a few days before Christmas.By Lena's story narrated by Caitlin Hicks

1
Nievelina, Mother of Twins 35:50

2y ago35:50

35:50

At 19 weeks pregnant, a young Indigenous woman must make an excruciating decision - within hours - to save the lives of her unborn twins. "I remember being so afraid." This story has it all: fear, love, pain and alienation. Courage, community, and resilience. A generous, joyful storyteller.By Nievelina Carmona, presented by Caitlin Hicks

1
I have been pregnant twice 18:50

2y ago18:50

18:50

Forever changed by her two pregnancies, Amanda Snelson tells of the unpredictable and complicated process of 2 births. As part of the discussion around Women's Choice and Roe v Wade, Amanda's story introduces new considerations to the complex picture of individual soverignty over our bodies.

1
My Mothers Story 21:45

2y ago21:45

21:45

My Mother's Story is a project that encourages everyone to write the facts of their mothers’ lives. It's a series of anthologies begun by Marilyn Norry. This is the story of DORIS, told by her daughter, Colleen Winton. My Mother's Story: Gone Too Soon is the latest anthology in the series and is now available.…

1
Cynthia Jones & The Union Steamship 19:51

2y ago19:51

19:51

How would your life be different if you couldn't drive a car? If once a week, a steamship arrived at the dock with supplies to keep you going for the next week? If your husband and the father of your children came home on "The Daddy Boat" once a week? Cynthia Jones Meets The Union Steamship at 1 AM tells of a much simpler time on the Sunshine Coast…

1
Wilderness Mother 16:24

2+ y ago16:24

16:24

It’s 1980, two days from the summer solstice in the wild landscape of Northwestern British Columbia. Deanna and her husband, Jay Kawatski, tend their food garden carved out of the wilderness in the Ningunsaw Valley when Deanna realizes that their first child will be born very soon. The couple must hike difficult mountain & bog terrain through cloud…

1
We Got One! 24:53

2+ y ago24:53

24:53

We Got One! celebrates moments that, whatever else happens in life afterwards, we have, as artists, in those moments, all the meaning we will ever need. It marks the Cinderella achievement of having been chosen, of having hit the bulls-eye on the dartboard of current social and artistic reality. We can now stand on the world stage and beam our happ…

1
Six Palm Trees 14:36

2+ y ago14:36

14:36

Six Palm Trees is the journey of a family through the emotional landscape of their shared past. Annie Shea, the family clown, provides stand-up entertainment.Annie Shea, the family clown, provides stand-up entertainment. Annie Shea, the family clown, provides stand-up entertainment at a family reunion, where everyone has gathered to celebrate 24 ye…

1
The Procedure 18:22

2+ y ago18:22

18:22

High school graduate Teresa Feeney becomes pregnant from one encounter with a trusted priest Father Sully, who is leading a choir of students in a showcase of songs from the radical hippie production of HAIR. Annie Shea, herself from an enormous Catholic family where abortion is unthinkable, reluctantly becomes Teresa’s confidante. When Annie reali…

1
Magdas Odyssey 26:33

3y ago26:33

26:33

What if you suddenly discovered that you had a twin? A person who grew beside you in your mother’s womb, whose heart beat right next to your own for nine months. A person identical to yourself, born on the same day to the same mother. Suddenly, your questions are endless: Who are you? Where is she?By Deanna Barnhart Kawatski with Caitlin Hicks

1
Mad Hatter 22:37

3y ago22:37

22:37

Your father - a threat to national security? Imagine when men in heavy boots came to your home, your garden, to claim him. An introduction to the story of a family, during World War II, living with the abrupt loss and the mystery of their father.By Amanda Hale with Caitlin Hicks

1
GOING CRAZY 13:01

3y ago13:01

13:01

"This morning, Lisa gave way to an anxiety she'd been stifling the past several weeks. She was afraid if she got behind the wheel of her red Toyota Tercel wagon, and drove onto the highway, she was going to give into the temptation she'd had lately to steer herself into a telephone pole."By Caitlin Hicks

1
Esters Wedding 26:08

3y ago26:08

26:08

Gramma Ester flies from Wisconsin to California to help with a big family wedding in 1976. Flowers, frozen turkey, chocolate groom's cake. Guests fill the church with summer: pastels and hats, ties and shiny shoes. The congregation murmuring, waits. And waits. If the music would just start to play, if the bride would just walk up the aisle on Daddy…

1
My Big, Fat American Family @ Dinner '63 33:33

3y ago33:33

33:33

A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE = a big Catholic family 1963 in Pasadena. Chapter 7 is set on a warm California night at an enormous event: dinner. Clashing are the noisy and urgent desires of each child in a sprawling group of sixteen. Everyone is famished. And then, there’s the guest. Who represents everything. God, Church, Community, Family. Everyone …

1
Grammas 1st romance 14:59

3y ago14:59

14:59

Before Gramma Ester was Gramma, when she was just a little six- year-old girl, in first grade, she had a crush on a family friend named Walter Gaulke (who was 13 years older). She carried this secret hope in her heart for almost two decades before she could have the moment with her sweetheart that she wished for all her life. And yet that moment qu…

1
Grandpa On Transport 18:57

3y ago18:57

18:57

I ached for them, and for the nearby ultimate loss I anticipated feeling when they died. But I brushed it aside, because it wasn’t my issue right then. Far from it: we were on opposite trajectories and I was so excited about mine: getting ready to go into the world!By Caitlin Hicks

1
A Womans Body 15:51

3y ago15:51

15:51

What is it about this story? The benign nature of the tanning salon? The casual event of some man walking in the front door? The front-desk training, Be friendly, smile at the customers? What was so haunting?The kindness on her beautiful face? Or was it the closeness of his face right up against the cash machine? It was 1995. It happened in our sub…

1
Sharky: Freakish Ordinary 16:06

3y ago16:06

16:06

Sharky died on the same day the pope died, and two days after Terri Schaivo was finally allowed to. Even though, as the Dalai Lama says, we all suffer and are going to die someday, there never seems to be a good day to die. As we slid him out of a shoe box into a hastily-dug hole out in the daisy garden under a dark sky and a pelting spring rain, I…

1
George Goes 4 a Walk 23:52

3+ y ago23:52

23:52

And out of his comfortable life. It happens in an instant. A deafening clap assaults his ears. It takes a second, but George rallies. He can see he's the only one who has stepped into the intersection, so he must be the one. He puts his other foot forward.By Caitlin Hicks

1
Me & Ted Hughes 1:23:36

3+ y ago1:23:36

1:23:36

In 1983, I left my husband, my home, my friends, my family and my country to live with my lover, an artist from Toronto. In the months while waiting for his divorce to come through, we produced a show there, the first Canadian production of LETTERS HOME, by Rose Leiman Goldemberg. It was the story of Sylvia Plath's life from 1950 to 1963, when she …

1
Niagara Daredevil2 18:18

3+ y ago18:18

18:18

This story features Zoe, a 'spark plug' who works with her father at a used car dealership near Niagara Falls. On this fateful day, Lenny comes to the lot to buy a jalopy. Lenny and Zoe are on the same hockey team -- both dream of following in the wake of other daredevils, who made history trying to outwit the roaring strength of Niagara Falls. Who…

1
SHEA FAMILY MOTORS 21:12

3+ y ago21:12

21:12

It's June 15th, 1963 in Pasadena, California. Yesterday, school let out for the summer. Two weeks ago Pope John XXIII died; today, a Soviet astronaut was launched into space. But for the enormous Shea family, it's the Grand Opening of SHEA FAMILY MOTORS and everyone is there. From pimply John-the-Blimp to Baby Jude to a statue of the Blessed Mother…

1
Lost at Disneyland 15:00

3+ y ago15:00

15:00

"Can you imagine how many kids get left behind at Disneyland every year? There have to be a few of them. Among all those hundreds of cars in the parking lot, there's probably enough to form a club. Maybe the club could be called "The Left Behinds" or "Disney Orphans". How many of the stories could possibly have a happy ending? "The weird part is, w…

1
Two Questions 16:03

3+ y ago16:03

16:03

Once we understand the astounding lottery of our own existence, how can we acknowledge our infinite disappearance? A story of two lives lived, the music between, and the sound of a mother's voice.By Caitlin Hicks

1
JOE NOV 25 16:11

3+ y ago16:11

16:11

An everyday interaction with profound reverberations. An almost-missed opportunity. Life, circumstance, death. How do we find our meaning?By Sharon McInnes

1
THEORY Chapter 20 LILY 19:11

3+ y ago19:11

19:11

Annie Shea, 12 yrs old trapped in an enormous Catholic family in Pasadena, California in 1963. In this excerpt, Annie & her sisters Madcap & Clara visit Bee Bee. Just yesterday, Bee Bee gave birth to a baby girl, and was pressured to sign adoption papers. Now she desperately wants to see her newborn. Annie is sent to scout the nursery and meets a c…

1
audiobook Theory chapter 1 17:39

3+ y ago17:39

17:39

Chapter One of A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE, the award-winning debut novel written by Caitlin Hicks. Reviews here: https://www.caitlinhicks.com/wordpress/reviews-for-a-theory-of-expanded-love/By Caitlin Hicks

1
EXIT Stage Left 16:50

3+ y ago16:50

16:50

A parent disinherits his beloved child. Or so the child believes she is beloved. Where does it begin, the decision to punish someone irrevocably? How forms this secret betrayal of forever with lasting, public consequences? Where does it begin, the chain of events that bring about a reversal of fortune? A denial of love? In this podcast, "Exit, Stag…

1
THE EULOGY 14:35

3+ y ago14:35

14:35

How can you capture the life of a man? Especially the patriarch of a family with 14 children and 42 grandchildren. It's in the DNA, it in the details!By Caitlin Hicks

1
Love at last 22:51

3+ y ago22:51

22:51

What a relief, my father is still alive! Of course, I forgive him everything.By Caitlin Hicks

1
Arrivederci 29:01

4y ago29:01

29:01

My enormous family. My ailing father. In the midst of a trip to France & Italy and an opportunity of a lifetime for my artist husband — with news coming in via email daily from my siblings — "he’s going to die" "he’s better!" "he’s had a setback" — I struggle to decide: Should I cut our trip short to be present for my father’s final moments? Or fol…

1
One Mans Family 25:23

4y ago25:23

25:23

The patriarch of an enormous Catholic family turns 88 with children & grandchildren celebrating him. Details of a family still intact just prior to the family's demise are captured through the lens of one child, returning after years of absence. "Here, as long as the rules were obeyed, the world was kept at bay. 'Say grace, stack the dishes, don't …

1
Carousel 20:54

4y ago20:54

20:54

In 1961, an enormous family crowds into their VW bus to go to Disneyland. In the midst of the magic and chaos, the sixth child attracts a moment of attention from her mother, a moment that lasts the distance of galaxies. SEASON#5: A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVEBy CAITLIN HICKS

1
The Resilience of Karissa Williams 34:03

4y ago34:03

34:03

Meet Karissa Williams, a resilient woman who loses a baby at 13, and gives birth at 15 while trapped in an abusive relationship with an addict & drug dealer. When she tries to escape through suicide she is literally saved by her child. She marries a ‘great guy - he doesn’t beat me’ - and gains more than a hundred pounds. Soon she loses her self-res…

1
A couple of criminals 18:27

4y ago18:27

18:27

A journey towards an awareness of racism in 1968: On the night of the assassination of RFK, and through the eyes of 17-year-old Annie Shea, a Catholic high school white girl from a conservative family, (a volunteer for Robert Kennedy's campaign for presidency), she awakens to the racism all around her, invisible to her until this fateful trip in th…

1
Change Gonna Come 16:39

4y ago16:39

16:39

On the day Martin Luther King, Jr. is murdered, at the Wilshire Blvd. offices of KENNEDY FOR PRESIDENT, white, Catholic high school senior Annie Shea, and volunteer for Robert Kennedy for President, begins her awakening to the powerful racist forces that drive white society in 1968.By Caitlin Hicks

1
A Grape Drink in Phoenix 12:51

4y ago12:51

12:51

The year is 1983. Meet Karen, a successful commodities trader at The Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the mistress of Sam, a high-stakes market maker and billionaire trader in the S & P 500 pit. Meet Dorothy, Sam's wife, and the mother of their twin daughters. These two women are the last guests at a lavish, decadent party at Dorothy and Sam's home.…

1
Outrageous Gertie 9:03

4y ago9:03

9:03

Here is Gertie!, the the most 'outrageous' character I have written and performed, other than the pivotal moment in Six Palm Trees, when Annie Shea accuses her father in front of the entire family. Gertie is outrageous because she speaks the unspeakable. And she's good with it. Gertie! is not for everyone. Listen at your own risk. You may choose to…

1
Nicht meine kinder 12:59

4y ago12:59

12:59

This podcast tells the story of the last moments of a mother’s life and how she saved her child in an unexpected moment of kismet and courage. It’s the sorrow and hope in the hearts of thousands of people one day, at the end of World War II, when they were asked ‘give us the best you have – give us your children’. This monologue is part of Singing …

1
Gladys The Pig Man 14:51

4y ago14:51

14:51

These are the words of Pixie Daly, a lovely woman who lived her life here on the Sunshine Cost and had many friends until she died in her nineties in 2011. Her stories touch on the early days: one road, no cars, being a nurse at St. Mary's Hospital, fishermen lost at sea, frozen lakes, the perils of long distances between logging camps, hazards of …

1
WINDOW to the Universel mp3 - 2020-04-20 12.46 PM 12:15

4y ago12:15

12:15

There are few moments in life when we're privileged to witness the open window to the universe. Birth is one of those moments - when the line between life and eternity is thin and permeable. When, without words, we can feel the bigness of the universe and the connectedness of absolutely everything. When anything can happen. When every detail matter…

1
Women of Essondale 16:03

4y ago16:03

16:03

How can you know the person you love? No matter how close, there are still mysteries and secrets — hidden things that can reach up and steal someone right out from under you. The following is a true story. A nurse falls in love with a man in uniform. And marries his best friend few months later. She works at Essondale Mental Hospital, during World …

1
STORMY NIGHT ON SEYMOUR NARROWS 21:41

4y ago21:41

21:41

On a late, winter afternoon in the Fifties, the travelling dentist and his assistant daughter, Dolly, take a dangerous boat trip across Ripple Rock to a sore tooth at Mrs. Davis' house on Quadra Island. While her father tends to Mrs. Davis, Dolly meets Chuck, on the pretence of studying, but is distracted by falling in love. Years later, in the fac…

1
Shes not screaming 17:49

4+ y ago17:49

17:49

A heart breaking but beautiful story about a teenager, estranged from her family at that vulnerable and powerful time of her life - when she begins to step into the world. An almost unbelievable 'one in a million' event happens to her and she holds on for the ride. Only to be stopped by the face of a newborn in a moment she describes as "you know y…

1
Wind Water 11:35

4+ y ago11:35

11:35

Serendipity. A magical birth, a death in almost the same breath. Midwife Wendy Clemens opens her heart and rural practice to support a mysterious woman she knows nothing about who insists she will not go to hospital. This encounter, lasting no more than an hour, holds everything in the universe.By Caitlin Hicks

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