Love Me Introduces: Creation Myth

February 10, 2026·41 min·3 clips

Helena admits that saying 'I don't want kids' publicly required a firmness she didn't always feel privately.

Helena de Groot opens by describing the doubts that flooded in after her husband left, prompting her to consult therapists, friends, and strangers to answer one question: does she want a child? She recounts meeting David in Paris after a painful relationship, going to the Centre Pompidou and a nearby café, and then to his Airbnb where, after a kiss, he tells her he doesn't sleep with anyone he couldn't imagine having a child with. She finds him kind, attentive, and unlike anyone she expected. The two lose touch for three years before she visits the US and they reconnect, embarking on a road trip through California using a New York Times list of questions designed to make people fall in love. She describes herself as emotionally cautious—needing structure, routine, and the ability to walk away from people—while David is adventurous, having studied tectonic plates, worked in Antarctica, and learned capoeira in Brazil. They marry spontaneously at San Francisco City Hall; Helena warns him in the queue not to marry her if he wants children, and he says he'd rather be with her. She moves from Brussels to San Francisco, gives up her job at Belgian public radio, and struggles with isolation, an inability to work legally while awaiting her green card, and a city she finds hard to connect with. She is frustrated by income inequality and what she sees as structural barriers to motherhood in America. Her friend Sigrid gently challenges her, suggesting she is finding external reasons to avoid confronting a simpler internal uncertainty. Helena eventually gets her green card, works briefly as a line cook, and the couple move to New York, where she quickly finds community and work on podcasts she loves. The pandemic hits New York hard, and David, raised in California sunshine, begins to struggle. He tells Helena he wants a child with her. Helena describes conversations with Sigrid in which Sigrid reflects on the distinct consciousness of each of her own children and her curiosity about who they are as people—a framing that resonates with Helena. A grieving nine-year-old neighbor begins visiting Helena when he has outbursts, and she discovers she is unexpectedly calm and capable around him. After one of these visits, she notices her period is late and discovers she is pregnant.

As heard by us

A tender first episode about breakup, doubt, and the work of starting over.

This first episode is shaped by a breakup, the question of whether to have a child, and a move from Belgium to San Francisco. The narrator has lost her husband, starts thinking about a baby, and moves between therapists, friends, family, and even a stranger while trying to sort…

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Why you'd press play

A husband gone, a baby question, and a move from Belgium to San Francisco all collide here.

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