When she was 20 years old, something terrible happened to Vienna Luke. And for more than a decade, the truth of that night remains buried. But when Vienna becomes a mother, she realizes she must confront the past and uncover the truth – whatever the consequences for her family. Her sister Shawnessy comes aboard in the role of dogged detective and Vienna plays the secret agent in a relentless search for answers and justice. Personally: Agent Layla is a gripping true story about memory, family and how far one woman must go to set the record straight. Hosted by Jodie Martinson.
Episode one is available wherever you get your podcasts, September 21.
---ABOUT PERSONALLY---
Get lost in someone else’s life. From a mysterious childhood spent on the run, to a courageous escape from domestic violence, each season of Personally invites you to explore the human experience in all its complexity, one story — or season — at a time. This is what it sounds like to be human.
Latest episodes
Showing 20 · updated from the feed
Episode 1: The Sin That So Easily Entangles
Vienna Luke grew up in a loving Christian family. All that changed when her brother-in-law entered the picture.
Can’t wait for next week’s episode? Hear all episodes of
Sep 20 39 min
Introducing: Agent Layla
Vienna Luke became an undercover police operative to figure out what really happened to her on the worst night of her life.
Make sure you follow Personally, so you know
Sep 14 2 min
Discount Dave (and the Fix), Episode 5: The Good Girl
Becca tries to find out more about Discount Dave. But the more she learns about him, the more she questions her own behaviour. She attends his trial, and as she listens t
Jun 29 33 min
Discount Dave (and the Fix), Episode 4: Crazy from the Heat
Back home in Vancouver, Becca gets a job in a debaucherous French restaurant where they encourage their staff to drink. One day, Talia comes to town. Talia, now a nurse,
Jun 22 18 min
Discount Dave (and the Fix), Episode 3: I Liked it
Becca is on a mission and The Plant Lady is calling the shots. Unsure of what she really wants, she tries out New York City because, because, because… that’s what actors
Jun 15 16 min
Discount Dave (and the Fix), Episode 2: Sweet Boyfriend
Two years before Becca gets duped by Discount Dave, she falls in love with Sweet Boyfriend. They are young and wild. Loving hard and partying harder until tragedy strikes
Jun 10 26 min
Discount Dave (and the Fix), Episode 1: I Runneth with the Devil
Becca, a hedonistic actor, spots a familiar face in a courtroom, and is hurled back to a cocaine fueled night 14 years earlier, when her best friend’s date with David Lee
Jun 10 19 min
Introducing: Discount Dave (and the Fix)
Introducing an upcoming season of Personally, called Discount Dave (and the Fix). When David Lee Roth crashes the backstage party at a Shakespeare Festival, Becca — a hed
Jun 5 1 min
Creation Myth: Life After Memoir
Avery Trufelman interviews Helena de Groot about the making of Creation Myth, and how it transformed some of the most important relationships in her life. Including speci
Jun 1 44 min
What If Closure Never Comes? | From A Slight Change of Plans
Helena joins Maya Shankar on her show, A Slight Change of Plans from Pushkin to talk about her story: what happened, how she questioned and re-questioned her decisions, a
May 12 47 min
Creation Myth, Episode 8: Yes
When Helena was still married to David, she lived through something she doesn’t often revisit—it was too big, too scary. But now she’s ready to talk about it with two fri
Mar 24 43 min
Creation Myth, Episode 7: Orb of Calm
Four of Helena’s friends are pregnant. They’re spending more time with other mothers and mothers-to-be. Will there still be room for her? And while her friends experience
Mar 17 35 min
Creation Myth, Episode 6: The Nuclear Option
Since she can’t decide if she should get sterilized or not, Helena asks a stranger. A guy named Sam who doesn’t have any stake in her life. Sam regretted having his kid.
Mar 10 36 min
Creation Myth, Episode 5: All of it
Just like her grandmother, her great-grandmother, and her aunt, Helena gets depressed. She sits down with her mother Annika, to really talk about it. “It was as if your s
Mar 3 35 min
Creation Myth, Episode 4: Freedom Form
With her sterilization scheduled, Helena sits down with her new lover to explain her decision. But the conversation leads in an unexpected direction. More confused than e
Feb 24 38 min
Creation Myth, Episode 3: Doors Do Close
After her abortion, Helena’s marriage is at a tipping point. David still wants kids, and she wants her tubes tied. In a moment of despair, a conversation with Ama the poe
Feb 17 41 min
Creation Myth, Episode 2: Pregnant
Helena does not want kids. Her husband does. For years they’ve battled it out. Then, while he is on his way back from a surfing trip, she finds out she’s pregnant. What w
Feb 10 36 min
Creation Myth, Episode 1: Nothing Complicated
Helena knows she doesn’t want kids. She’s sure of it. Almost. It was a constant topic of conversation with her friend Sigrid in her 20s. Sigrid would try to convince her,
Feb 10 39 min
Introducing: Creation Myth
Introducing the new season of Personally, called Creation Myth. Helena does not want to have kids. Kid, child, baby - not for her. She’s just not parent material. So why
Jan 20 2 min
Resurrection, Episode 8: San Francisco, 2022
The final chapter in our series on Daryl Allen. We end the story where it started.
Email us at hi@resurrectionpodcast.com
The creation of this podcast was made possible
Dec 15 2025 1 h 07 min
Chart trend
Position in the Documentary chart (US), last 90 days.
#1#74#147JunJulAugSep
#5
all-time peak
22
days in the top 10 since Nov 2024
Chart positions
Where Personally: Agent Layla ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Sep 23, 2026).
A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.
Helena clearly poured her heart into the production of this podcast and much respect to her for being this vulnerable. As a childless woman in my late thirties, I welcome listening to people introspecting so openly about the decision to have a kid or not. Towards the end, I found the podcast to be a bit overly sound designed, overwritten, and sentimental in a way that felt a bit trite. Overall, Helena is searching for meaning in the void and inviting us into her inner world so that we can do the same.
Creosotesky · Mar 2026
Found this to be a thoughtful and nuanced story about two things: 1) a woman’s ambivalence toward becoming a mother and 2) how that particular ambivalence is treated as suspect by nearly everyone, including, most painfully, the person experiencing it. She did not seem to be trying to speak on behalf of any “community”—childfree or anti-imperialists or whatever—she just revealed her specific yet ordinary thoughts and feelings. Many of them painful, unflattering, or otherwise at odds with what our supposedly progressed society will (barely) tolerate from women (even artist-class white European women) before they’re written off as self indulged, raging narcissists. If you took a record of your thoughts around a subject that you struggled with for much of your life, I doubt it would meet even your own bar for altruistic or ideological purity. The question is would you still allow those thoughts to exist—and by allowing, open yourself to change?
kikibn23 · Mar 2026
This new season is the first thing I’ve heard that has made me feel so so seen as a fence-sitter on having kids in my mid-30s. Helena is so brave for sharing the often complicated, messy, and mixed feelings that come with making this decision. Thank you for making this and making me feel like my feelings are valid. I really really needed it.
hrose480 · Mar 2026
I had to suscribe to CBC to obtain early access to the rest of the show. It is a great listen and an honest look into Helena’s struggle of whether or not she should have a baby.
kk_tay · Mar 2026
I agree with the reviewer who called this season self-indulgent. I normally love this show and WANTED so badly to love season 9 as a fellow child free person, but I could not get past how shallow and one-dimensional I found the narrator. Every single time she talked to a friend they had something much more insightful, carefully considered, nuanced, and textured to say in a 10 minute sound bite than she had to say the entire season. She struck me as an entitled person, with few complicated or original thoughts- someone who hides behind a veneer of bookishness because underneath it all
Is a privileged, mediocre mind. Even the way she objectified her husband and reduced him to a cliched concept of California freedom; rather than a fully formed original person, was alienating. I was so disappointed because like I said, I really thought this show would speak to me. With a more insightful and open-minded host, I would have absolutely loved it. Such a squandered opportunity.
Sophiawritesbooks · Feb 2026
This is an interesting story and I would think a third party could really do some digging and figure out what was going on. The narrator/journalist is too close to the story here. She clearly needed an answer that would be less painful than at least considering that Stan was a sociopath and her mother had Borderline Personality Disorder. In the end, it’s more a story of the lies we tell ourselves to avoid what we don’t want to hear.
resgb · Nov 2022
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Here you find the Apple Podcasts chart positions of Personally: Agent Layla, its latest episodes to listen to directly, and reviews from listeners. Rankings are updated daily for the United States.
