The Heart is a podcast created by Kaitlin Prest and produced by Radiotopia.
The show started out in 2008 as a college radio show on CKUT-FM. Before the show was picked up by Radiotopia, it was called Audio Smut and focused on sex from a female perspective. Seasons are composed of 4 to 15 episodes. The show had more than seven million listens between 2014 and 2017.
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". The show had a miniseries called Pansy, which focused on femininity in men. 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.
In 2023, Prest did two miniseries called Sisters and Dad each of which focused on her relationship with her family. Sisters was co-created by Prest's younger sister Natalie. Fiona Sturges wrote in the Financial Times, that the miniseries is some of Prests best work.
The show took a two year break and returned in 2020 with new hosts Nicole Kelly and Phoebe Unter.
| Award | Date | Category | Result | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peabody Awards | 2017 | Radio/Podcast | |||
| Third Coast Festival Awards | 2016 | Best Documentary | |||
| Prix Italia | 2015 | New Radio Formats |