TLP Interview with Helena De Groot, Audio Producer and Sound Artist

April 7, 2026·1 hr 36 min·7 clips

Helena De Groot's audio series Creation Myth asks whether to have kids, but reveals it's really about the messy, universal creative process.

Control is where the episode starts. The cold open puts Tamar's own unease with surrender right next to Helena DeGroote's work on Creation Myth, a CBC Personally series about choosing whether to have kids. That question does not stay small for long. In Tamar's hands, it turns into a conversation about making life, making stories, and learning how much care the maker owes to the people inside the work. Helena talks from the middle of that process. The best stretch hangs on a tiny production choice: what should music do when someone is sad but not performing sadness? The answer is less than you might expect. Do not pour sad music over grief just because grief is present. Trust the listener to hear what is already in the voice. That choice gives the conversation its spine. Tamar reaches for an acting comparison, the force of someone trying not to cry, then brings it back to audio's responsibility to the person speaking. No one gets turned into set dressing. Even when a speaker has to live inside a larger story, the episode keeps worrying at the risk of treating them like a puzzle piece. Empathy is not a mood here. It is part of the craft. Helena describes audio as a medium that can make a world feel dimensional, then asks, plainly, why anyone would choose to make it flat. Music has to earn its spot. Tamar notices when it does not, and she notices when it carries the story with care. The ending stays personal. Tamar points listeners to Creation Myth, then admits her own time away from The Lonely Palette with the candor of someone easing back in. It is a gentle return, and the interview ends up less like promotion than a close listen to how makers give up control without ducking responsibility.

As heard by us

A thoughtful Arts conversation about audio memoir, restraint, and how sound can deepen a story without flattening it.

The Lonely Palette turns its interview with audio producer and sound artist Helena De Groot into a close, generous conversation about control, care, and the making of audio stories.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want a conversation about craft and care that stays restrained, layered, and attentive.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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