Hillary Frank | Realm
312 episodes listed below
Family stories without the tidy ending.
The Longest Shortest Time treats family life as a set of vivid human stories, not a pile of advice. Its conversations move from postpartum rules and breastfeeding panic to perimenopause, IVF, parenting, custody, and the quiet pressure to have children.
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The Longest Shortest Time is built around the private moments where family life turns strange, funny, painful, or impossible to explain cleanly. It is often about parenting, but its real subject is the body and the social pressure around it. A postpartum story can begin with a hoagie, a giant coffee, and a desperate wish to shower, then become a tug-of-war between a new mother, her own mother, breastfeeding fear, and inherited rules. A fertility story can move through IVF numbers, embryo attrition, biochemical pregnancy, and the fragile confidence that comes with one promising test. A conversation about perimenopause can be blunt about painful sex, elusive orgasms, hormones, blood flow, and the ways aging changes what once worked. The show does not make these subjects sterile. It keeps them attached to marriages, mothers-in-law, bedrooms, kitchens, courtrooms, and the humiliating little details people remember because they mattered. Its archive also stretches into larger questions of kinship. Tristan and Biff’s Accidental Gay Parents story follows two men who became dads suddenly after taking custody of Biff’s niece and nephew to keep them out of an abusive household and away from foster care. That story carries legal fear, queer family vulnerability, and the ordinary shock of becoming responsible for children overnight. Other episodes trace the pressure to have a baby, or two, when a relationship and a culture begin leaning hard in that direction. The pacing is patient. The questions are simple enough to let guests answer from memory instead of performance. There is humor, but it usually comes from human awkwardness rather than jokes. There is medical language, but it is grounded in what a person is feeling and deciding. The show suits listeners who want parenting stories without the lecture tone. It also suits people who are not parents but are interested in how families get made, strained, defended, and reimagined. Its strength is emotional specificity: one domestic detail opens into a bigger question, and the show lets that question breathe.
Made for: For listeners drawn to intimate stories about parenthood, reproductive health, fertility, sex, family pressure, and complicated family. It especially suits people who want warmth and candor without being handed a lesson plan.
What sets it apart: The show turns private family material into narrative rather than advice, staying close to bodily detail, awkward conflict, and emotional contradiction. It can be medically frank and deeply tender in the same conversation.
Stories about the surprises and absurdities of raising other humans—and being raised by them. But you don’t need to be a parent to listen. Created and hosted by Hillary Frank.The Longest Shortest Time is back after a 5-year hiatus! New episodes drop every other Wednesday. Join LST+ for community, ad-free listening, and access to You Know What, our premium show featuring college students speaking candidly about sex, dating, and relationships.If you’re new to the show or want to get reacquainted, check out some of our classic episodes:• #27 Rewriting Your Birth Story• #88 W. Kamau Bell Asks His Mom About...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Hilary Frank pairs candid family stories with clear explanation, making reproductive health and parenthood feel specific, complicated, and recognizably human.
The Longest Shortest Time gives family life room to be medically complicated, emotionally unruly, and funny without flattening any of it. Hilary Frank builds episodes around candid personal accounts, using attentive questions and concise narration to keep the human story clear…
Hillary Frank makes a postpartum shower standoff feel like the family story you did not know you needed.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A frazzled postpartum story that finds humor in the strange rituals of new parenthood.
This episode lingers in the uneasy first days after birth, when even a shower is not a given and small choices carry real weight. Jessica comes home from the hospital, is told not to shower, and struggles to get breastfeeding started, while her mother brings in a string of murky…
A direct, grounded conversation about pain, hormones, and the body changing.
The episode opens with Hilary Frank in a familiar, human register, then narrows into painful or uncomfortable sex, menopause, and the medical factors that can change sexual response. Dr.
A clear-eyed IVF story that keeps the medical process close and the emotional stakes even closer.
It follows an IVF journey with enough clinic detail to make the process feel immediate: eggs are retrieved, embryos are made, numbers are checked, and the losses at each step stay in view.
A relationship story that turns an Olive Garden blowup into something unexpectedly warm.
The piece turns a heated Olive Garden dinner into a small domestic story with a clean emotional line. It keeps the joke heavy back and forth between Andrew and his partner front and center, then lands on the crying in the car, the refusal to stop teasing, and the later warmth of…
A family TV ritual becomes a tender way to stay connected as kids grow.
Hilary Frank centers the episode on a familiar parenting question: how a family keeps making time to watch together as a daughter gets older. The living-room picnic memory gives the piece an immediate, lived-in feel, and the path from Peppa Pig, Gravity Falls, and Caillou to…
A pregnancy scare told with warmth, nerves, and dark humor.
This episode starts with an ordinary day of shopping and movie plans, then turns fast as a pregnancy scare gives way to bleeding, a rush to Cedars, and the long wait for answers.
Jessica comes home wanting one basic thing: a shower.
Hilary Frank starts with bodies and parenthood.
This episode introduces a series featuring archived baby stories from The Longest Shortest Time podcast, alternating with new episodes, while emphasizing that listeners don't need to have children to enjoy them.
This episode introduces a series where host Hilary Frank shares favorite baby-related stories from The Longest Shortest Time archive, alternating with new episodes, emphasizing that listeners don't need to have children to enjoy them.
Helena wanted something uncomplicated.
This episode revisits Tristan and Biff's journey as accidental gay parents who gained emergency guardianship of Biff's niece and nephew to protect them from an abusive household.
Holly says she went through 15 embryo transfers and 6 retrieval cycles before having 3 children, and she also paid about $70,000 plus medication for part of the process.
Host Hilary Frank announces new merchandise for Mother's Day and reflects on the show's focus on parenting and baby stories.
Host Hillary Frank invites listeners to join LST Plus and shares a personal anecdote about her daughter's swim lessons, promoting Goldfish Swim School.
Host Hillary Frank promotes LST Plus membership and new merchandise, including temporary mom tattoos, for the parenting podcast The Longest Shortest Time.
The host invites listeners to join the LST Plus club, offering community, story suggestions, and a bonus show about college students discussing sex, dating, and relationships.
This episode promotes LST Plus membership and previews a series of archived baby stories from the Longest Shortest Time podcast, focusing on parenthood and reproductive health.
This episode promotes the Longest Shortest Time podcast's membership club and introduces a story about Maya Molina Schaefer growing up with a single, low-income mother.
This episode promotes the LST Plus membership club for listeners interested in parenthood and reproductive health stories, while featuring sponsors for financial planning and travel.
Host Hilary Frank announces Mother's Day merchandise and shares a personal anecdote about her daughter's swim lessons.
This episode features a story from the archive about Alex, who is navigating her relationship with Ben while grappling with questions about having kids and the unique challenges due to her disability.
This episode promotes the LST Plus membership club, offering exclusive community access, story input, and additional content about parenthood and reproductive health.
An archive favorite begins with anticipation.
Friday night starts on the living room floor.
Hilary Frank starts with babies.
Host Hilary Frank introduces the show's return, shares plans for archive baby episodes, and promotes Mother's Day merchandise including temporary tattoos.
Host Hilary Frank introduces the podcast's return, featuring archived baby stories and new episodes about parenting and reproductive health.
Host Hilary Frank introduces the show's return, featuring archived baby stories and new episodes about parenting and reproductive health.
Host Hilary Frank announces new merchandise for Mother's Day and reflects on the show's focus on parenting and baby stories.
Host Hillary Frank invites listeners to join the LST Plus club and announces new merchandise, including temporary mom tattoos.
A promotional episode for Dr.
A podcast sharing stories and experiences about the surprises and absurdities of raising children, with a focus on babies and parenting.
Host Hilary Frank introduces the show's return with archived baby stories and a sponsored segment about Goldfish Swim School.
Host Hillary Frank invites listeners to join the LST Plus club and shares that the show covers stories about parenthood and reproductive health, including archived baby episodes.
A parenting podcast sharing stories about the surprises and absurdities of raising children, with archived baby episodes and new content.
A podcast sharing stories about the surprises and absurdities of raising children and being raised by them, with a focus on parenthood and reproductive health.
Host Hilary Frank announces new merchandise for Mother's Day and reflects on the show's history of sharing stories about parenthood and babies.
Host Hilary Frank promotes Mother's Day merchandise and shares stories about parenthood and reproductive health.
Host Hillary Frank promotes LST Plus membership and new merchandise, including temporary mom tattoos, while highlighting the show's focus on bold and funny parenting stories.
A podcast sharing stories about the surprises and absurdities of raising children, with a focus on parenting and reproductive health.