Helena de Groot, the winner of the 2024 RESONATE Pitch Party, recently launched her podcast Creation Myth with the help of VPM!
Each year since 2022, the ICA at VCU has hosted the RESONATE Podcast Festival where VPM has served as the sponsor of the event’s ‘Pitch Party.’ After a national call for submissions, three finalists are selected and then present live pitches of their respective podcast ideas to a panel of judges. The winner of the ‘Pitch Party’ receives $10,000 from VPM to create a pilot episode of their podcast, and Helena won the 2024 edition of the event.
“I am so grateful for the support VPM has given me. That ‘Pitch Party’ was the start of all of the luck that has since come my way,” said Helena. “So, thank you, many times over! I hope you keep supporting the Pitch Party and changing audio creators’ lives for many years to come!”
In Creation Myth, Helena tries to decide whether or not she wants to have children, as her husband, friends and even strangers try to pressure her into having them.
While this latest podcast is a relatively new project for Helena, she’s been working with audio for over a decade.
“I started working at the Belgian public radio 15 years ago, said Helena. “My first job was making jingles, the kind that you hear at the top of the news or the start of a program. Playing with sound alone was liberating. It was only later that I branched out into creating radio stories, where I did research, interviewed people and wrote narration.”
Helena has also made several seasons of the Paris Review Podcast, created an audiobook about Mary Oliver, Wild and Precious, and made a biweekly interview podcast for the Poetry Foundation, Poetry Off the Shelf.
Interest in Creation Myth continues to grow as Helena has appeared on the Modern Love podcast from The New York Times, Death, Sex & Money and is scheduled to appear on several more podcasts in the future.
Helena continued, “My inbox and DMs are overflowing with messages from listeners who recognize themselves in my story, even when their lives are completely different from mine, and feel helped by the questions I ask. As one person told me: ‘You’ve made a mirror.’”
As for what’s next for Helena? “I will continue to make the Poetry Off the Shelf podcast,” she said. “I’m working on an audio guide for the Met Museum. I’m working with a novelist on adapting one of her books into a radio play. I may even write a book! Most of all, I am excited to keep following my curiosity.”
At the heart of this partnership between the ICA and VPM is the belief in the power of community storytelling and the ability to provide access to resources to help tell those stories. This was also reflected when the VPM + ICA Community Media Center opened its doors for the first time in 2021.
The 2026 RESONATE Podcast Festival will once again be held at the ICA at VCU from Oct. 15-17.
