Love Me

Personal Best is a podcast that celebrates small ambitions, half-wins and the quiet satisfaction of getting less bad at things. Each week they help ordinary people work through the little things they'd never bring to a life coach — like having the courage to dine alone at a fancy restaurant or getting less awkward at handshakes. Let them be your self-improvement sidekicks! More episodes from the brand new season of Personal Best are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/LiOW9E00

A special episode of Love Me.In 2019, Julie Piñero lost her boyfriend Jose. It was sudden. He was 26 years old. A virtual reality video-game designer.When he died, Julie and Jose were still in that honeymoon phase of their relationship. They hadn't had their first real fight. Julie's dad—who has been helping her cope with her grief—never even got to meet Jose. The future was ripped away, leaving Julie with no path to follow…Until she remembers Jose's idea for a video game called “Delejos”, or From Afar—a fantasy world where players can reunite with what they've lost. And Julie becomes obsessed with making it real.“Delejos” is a meditation on grief and the power of creation. It's also an official selection of the 2024 Tribeca Audio Festival.Do you have a story that could be a good fit for Love Me? Read our Call for Pitches to find out!

From one of the creators of Love Me, Mira Burt-Wintonick comes a new series about grief and memory. How do you forget your favourite person in the world? Alex remembers everything about the day a speeding police car killed his brother. But his brother, alive? Those memories are lost. And now, 30 years later, Alex wants them back. In this emotional four-part series, Alex unearths his childhood grief — with help from family, friends, and a therapist who witnessed his brother's death. What happens when trauma and memory collide? Sorry About The Kid is a deeply personal meditation on the losses that define us. Hosted by Alex McKinnon. Produced with Mira Burt-Wintonick. More episodes are available at hyperurl.co/sorryaboutthekid

What's the difference between seeing a therapist and trusting a therapist? Dr. Hillary McBride and her clients want you to hear for yourself in Other People’s Problems. After working together for years, they want to demystify the long game when it comes to mental health and let us hear what years of therapy really sound like. More episodes are available at hyperurl.co/otherpeoplesproblems

We’d like to share a new podcast we think you’ll really like. It’s called Goodbye To All This from the BBC World Service, a Falling Tree production. “He blows a kiss and now I see it – there’s exhaustion in his eyes. How didn’t I notice it before?” Sophie and Russell never expected anything bad to happen – not to them. But then Russell had some blood tests and scans and they started to feel scared. It all begins at a coffee shop in Sydney, Australia.

A series of furtive glances on the subway spark an unspoken love affair and a GPS navigates emotional loss... From the CBC archives, Heavyweight's Jonathan Goldstein and the producers behind Love Me, comes WireTap. WireTap was a podcast... before there were podcasts. The program, which ran on CBC Radio for 11 years, invites listeners to eavesdrop on Goldstein's phone calls with his friends and family. Subscribe and listen to WireTap at smarturl.it/cbcwiretap

We want to share an episode of a show we love called Here Be Monsters. It’s a podcast about the unknown from KCRW. This episode is called Waiting for Earth from producer Bethany Denton. She gets personal about wrestling with the idea of a life without children after having been raised in the Mormon faith to believe that her primary purpose was to become a mother.

Lu gives a quick update about the show. Plus, introducing a special episode of Chosen Family. Hosts Tranna & Thomas talk to progressive rabbi Lisa Grushcow for a candid conversation about faith and how she’s found surprising connections to her personal story (lesbian, divorced, mother of three). They also talk about Judaism’s takes on sex and gender (polyamory and being trans), pop culture morality in a time of great chaos (Harry Potter + jedis!) and how spirituality and technology can co-exist harmoniously. Tranna also engages Rabbi Grushcow on her side-hustle: romantic matchmaking.

One of our favourite podcasts is back for its second season. Personal Best turns tiny goals into grand adventures. Here’s one of their latest episodes that Love Me listeners might like: it's about Fan, an avid writer of love letters who wants to learn to love cooking.

A man falls in love with a mysterious woman... in a painting. And a note slipped into the back pocket of someone's jeans leads to a surprising late-night encounter. Plus, Lu's grandparents document their lives in very unique Polaroids.

A woman goes to an ornamental shrimp society meet-up on a one-of-a-kind first date. Plus, the former president of Kiribati worries for his island nation's future as sea waters rise. And a poem about finding the courage to move deeper into a relationship.

A mini episode where Lu shares her feelings about the holidays... and the movie Groundhog Day. And a daughter navigates grieving in public.

A man obsessed with meet-cutes falls for all the wrong men and winds up in one mind-boggling situation after another. Will his dream of a fairy-tale romance come true? Plus, a poetic reflection on home, distance, and being your lover's pet whippet by Phil Smith.

A woman tries to live her life while a stalker pursues her for over a decade; and a former U.S. Navy sailor is haunted by the memory of a woman he killed when he discovers a song has been written about her death.

A woman with Alzheimer's dreams of returning to her childhood home as she lies in bed, staring at the ceiling; two adult siblings find themselves sharing their old room again after years apart; and a daughter navigates the loss of her childhood house after her father's death.

Have you heard the tale of the little girl who lost her leg while horsing around at the fair? A safety-obsessed father tells his daughter bedtime stories about freak accidents from around the world. Plus, one grandson remembers the tall tales his grandfather used to tell him, while another grandson searches for the truth about a grandmother he never new.

Hotline volunteers at the world's oldest suicide prevention network share how they respond to crisis callers through the practice of active listening. How can you empty your mind and be fully present during someone's call for help? Music and voice intertwine in this documentary about bridging the gap between strangers who will never meet face to face.

Sara collects sounds of her son, her second child, during the first year of his life. Laughter, cries, shrieks of joy... Her first child never made much sound and died three days after she was born. The story explores Sara's connection to both children as she listens to the sounds of her family and grieves for the sounds that are missing.

The Shadows is a fictional series about a young artist, as she struggles to make great work and find great love.

Mansoor Adayfi remembers the romance classes he and fellow prisoners held while at Guantanamo Bay detention camp. How do you imagine falling in love when you know you might never get the chance to? (A story we almost couldn't bring you as the audio was temporarily confiscated by authorities.)

Love Me asks for help on a new story and catches up with Tracy, the young woman who tries to meet girls through the art of punning.

With raw honesty, Michelle Parise takes you along on her winding journey from lust to heartbreak, through loneliness and despair, to eventually finding the courage to face the question mark of life, alone. The series is available Sept. 19.

Teenage punster Tracy talks to Lu about meeting girls through wordplay. Then, a young woman obsessively reads her boyfriend's diary to find out what kind of person to be. Plus, an artist charts the scents of her disintegrating relationship.

Host Lu shares the story of an Icelandic sweat lodge experience that catches her off guard. Plus, a woman navigates the waters of a devastating betrayal.

A family of four examines their sleep habits, vying for the spare bedroom. And a 90s teenager's dreams come true when she visits the set of "Beverly Hills 90210" and meets her crush: Luke Perry.

An ex-inmate is haunted by a man he knew in prison. And a pathway at the bottom of the sea reveals secrets of childhood.

A murky relationship between a man, a woman and the fungus that lives in the woman's knee. Plus, a recipe for heartbreak. Featuring Seth Morris and a story by Tim Kreider.

A man fields an unusual request from his father-in-law, and the story of a very special cherry tree.

A man reminisces about a transformative nocturnal encounter, and the story of a lifesaving friendship with an overweight, toothless chihuahua.

Mo and Tamim find themselves in the Jungle for very different reasons. When their paths cross, they develop an unexpected connection.

Season 2 of Love Me launches July 10! Love Me explores the messiness of human connection with stories that will punch you right in the heart... in the very best way. Check out this sneak preview of the new season!

Pen Pals is a new series from Love Me producers Mira and Cristal. In Ep 1, a posthumous textathon between Romeo and Juliet reveals he somehow wound up in Heaven, she in Hell. Featuring Paul Rust and Noël Wells. (Hear more eps on Stitcher Premium).

Have a story about a relationship you want to share? Get in touch for a chance to be featured on the upcoming Season 2 of Love Me. Plus, while you're waiting for our second season, check out another new CBC podcast, Someone Knows Something.

A little boy looks for love in all the wrong places. An introvert gets trapped in a room with 11 strangers. And a nurse works a night shift that turns her world upside down.

A young woman reminisces about the friendship she once shared with the imaginative little boy she used to babysit. A dark cloud hangs over her memories as she recounts the incident that put an end to their fantasy world.

After losing his mom to breast cancer, a young man befriends a series of older women. And after a dark time in her life, Donna, age 61, tracks down a suitor from her youth? who became a priest after she turned him down.

Three sisters wrestle with the tensions of birth order as they reminisce about the worst family car ride of all time. A family tries to take one simple group photo but all hell breaks loose. And a son shields his father from a painful family secret.

Have you ever had a puzzling encounter with a stranger that you just couldn't wrap your head around? In this behind-the-scenes peek, producers Mira Burt-Wintonick and Cristal Duhaime join host Lu Olkowski to discuss the origin of the show.

After a whirlwind romance, Brian and Vanessa get married and move to Kinshasa. Everything is going well until she shows up. It's a love triangle between the most unlikely trio. Plus, a mother wrestles with feelings of resentment towards her newborn baby.

The journey of a son trying to figure out how to mourn his father: a millionaire turned convicted felon who committed suicide. And a short story by Pasha Malla about Dads with a capital D.

Two best friends have never met in person and one of them insists they keep it that way. Plus, a 1970s dating game show helps self-loathing Marsha learn to love herself again. All she has to do is choose between 3 suitors from her damaged psyche.

Two strangers who don't speak the same language meet in Haiti and sparks fly... through Google Translate. Plus, untranslatable words of love, and a pair of robots navigating a tumultuous affair.