Bonus | Season 1 Q & A
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Welcome to You Probably Think This Story's About You, the postscript. Thank you for sticking around for all eight episodes of this wild journey. I am Tina Noll, Principal Creative at Large Media, and I'm sitting with the illustrious Brittany Ard and the showrunner for this show who did everything, along with Brit, producer, editor, showrunner, Sydney Gladue.

Um, this show shot up to the number one spot on Apple podcasts very quickly. We had a ton of response, lots of emotional reactions to this show. So I'm hoping you guys can answer some of the questions we've had from listeners and that we can dispel some myths, maybe create some more mystery because Britt's here. So that's going to happen. Brittany, this is a tough story to tell. And

You were so brave. We've said this a lot here at the company for holding hands. We all three kind of all actually eight people on the team probably at this point held hands and everybody said yes and. And that was quite amazing. So before we really go deep into it, how are you doing?

Overwhelmed is probably the best word and overwhelmed in amazing ways and sometimes sad ways. So the responses that I've gotten, like direct messages that I receive from women have been a lot of support, a lot of people sharing their own stories, which are wonderful.

Heartbreaking and sad every time somebody relates to some part of my story, but also the entire point of why I did this was to connect with people. And hopefully someone doesn't feel as alone in whatever part of my story they relate to, whether it's grief or dating or relationships with your parents or addiction. These eight episodes span so many different topics, but they all

They all, to me, relate to each other because I think so many people have similar stories. And it's been, I mean, roller coaster isn't even the right word because I feel like roller coasters end. And this one just keeps looping around and getting a little wilder every time.

Yeah, shooting up to number one as quickly as it did was unexpected. I was hoping people were going to like the podcast. I didn't anticipate this response and this reaction. As it grew, even the first three episodes, the reviews started flooding in and people fell madly in love with this story and people had different responses. We were at one point accused of trying to catfish or mislead listeners by starting off with the dating story.

And remember, we had a couple of names for the show. We were going to call it... Yeah, Love Unhinged was what our original name was going to be. And I think in the beginning, we had planned on this being more about Kanan and dating and those sorts of things. And as we recorded, and a lot of it was the direction of you guys, the story changed into the how did I end up

in a situation where I was dating Kanan. And what I've noticed about the reviews is that it's confusion. And, you know, we're in the true crime category. I don't know that that's... I don't know that there's a category...

that fits what this podcast is. And so, you know, the true crime lovers, it's different. It's a different format. And this isn't just that story. It's my story. And my story is not going to fit in any of the categories. So the people that have listened all the way through have left amazing reviews because it really is an overarching story that spans eight episodes.

When we started getting bad reviews, I was scared. And getting to talk to Brett about it, who has received a lot of hate for her career, made me feel so much more confident in what we had done. And then now I feel like

There could be any review. And I still know that we told this story the right way, the way it needs to be told. A thousand percent. And, you know, maybe it is because I'm used to, you know, the stranger and different local newspapers and not being my biggest fans because of the work that I've done previously. But

The interesting part is even those bad reviews back in the days were complaining about me developing or building in their neighborhood. And it's like, yeah, but I also just built a house that somebody is going to live in and they're going to have 30 years of memories. So that little review doesn't change the long term story. And that's how I approach the reviews that we get now. That one person's opinion doesn't change the story I told and the way you told it.

And I stand behind season one wholeheartedly in what we've done here. I do too. Me three. One of the things I found interesting about those types of reviews too was a lot of people said that like your experience wasn't bad enough. They get in there and they're like, well, guys are bad.

I mean, when you hear what he did to his coworker, when you hear what he did with the women, that's not bad enough for folks? I think that it falls under the boys will be boys mentality. And it's what's wrong with dating these days is, oh, it's just another story of a man who cheats a

Lies about his history, lies about his children, lies about his life, lies about his current sexual health state, and all under the guise of

tricking women into bed. And in Kanan's case, not just into bed, but into relationships where families were affected. So did he steal all my money and beat me up? Nope. But I feel like we need to set the bar higher.

Not just accept that this is just how men are. Because men lie, great. Women lie too. Maybe the bar needs to be at we just treat each other with respect. And, you know, if you're the type of person that has to create a different persona to get a chicken bed, maybe readjust your views on yourself and other people.

The ramifications of these actions from a man like this are massive. They reverberate into how people can

be in the world and what you end up doing as a result. And you could close down. You could close down love to your children. You didn't do this, of course. But that can happen, right? Like the ramifications of a broken heart are no joke. Well, and some of the other women in the story and some of the stories that I didn't tell are women who had health issues, had personal decisions to make around pregnancies and

You know, raising families and adjusting their lives, buying houses. I mean, these are big lifetime decisions that you make with your partner. And if that partner is false, it shifts your whole narrative. I mean, there's some of these women that still aren't dating. They don't trust themselves anymore. And that is, that's the heartbreaking part. And that's the part that needs to be re-evaluated in what we accept.

And I will say that all of this story is very against men or a man. This happens in both cases. I've had men reach out to me as well and talk about how this happened, but a woman did that to them. And so this isn't just a male-female who's the bad guy situation. This is an overarching how we're dealing with each other as humans in this dating world.

I think this also kind of strings into that same thread of like, maybe this isn't your typical true crime podcast because someone doesn't have to steal all of your money to ruin your life or to make you have a hard couple years or to break your heart. And I think that in the podcasting genre in particular, we're seeing these really extreme stories and that's not where the breadth of human experience exists.

I think, Sid, what you managed to do in telling my story and altering it so that it had my backstory was putting the humanity back into the experience and it not just be here's all of the

clickbait high points of tragedy and awful experiences and those sorts of things. And it really sort of brought it all down to this level of we're all doing the best we can. We've all had horrible experiences in our lives or things that have happened that shape how we date now. And you managed to

create this story that really represents who I am as a person, which is kind of complicated to do because you guys keep trying to get me to do a bio and we know that it's impossible. So it's been really amazing to watch you

get into my head and then shape it and share that story. It's a full-time job being in your head. Yeah, I agree. But yeah, I mean, thank you so much, Britt. That means a lot to hear from you. I think, though, the other thing about Kanan in particular was it was that bad. He did...

perfectly tailor his stories to manipulate and take advantage of people's trauma which if you don't know Britt's backstory you wouldn't have known the ways in which he was preying on that and if you don't hear from Danielle and hear about everything she's been through you wouldn't know that if you don't hear about Sarah you don't know that so I think that these stories are so important because

They are humans. They are people with real experiences, with children, with abusive ex-husbands, with tragedies in their families. They're not just something for you to consume. Yeah. One of the women almost lost her life in her previous relationship. And she'd been working really hard on healing herself from that. And when she started dating Kanan...

He honed in on that so much that like she had mantras written on her mirror, you know, like getting ready in the morning, sort of like, you know, build yourself up sort of stuff. And those were the phrases he was hyping her up with. And so just to connect with her on that level as if I'm going to be your protector. And it was all a lie. And when you're already somebody that

trying to heal from a trauma like that, I mean, I don't know how you get to a point where you can trust again. And that's heartbreaking. I think that also speaks to this thing that you talked about when we, early on in the whole process about how

How all these women that you met were these like super strong, super smart, like had healed from a lot of trauma. And I think part of the way that someone like Kane and Ken get in is because you think it's not possibly going to happen to me because I'm strong, I'm healthy, I'm this, I'm that. Like that only happens to those other people. And that's just like absolutely not the case. It happens to anybody. Anybody can fall victim to a perpetrator. And this guy's a perpetrator. Anyone can fall victim to kindness and care.

And, you know, the hard part is understanding or learning that. And it's awful because I go into every relationship now or when I'm dating with these like, I don't want to call them tests, but they're tests. Like I have to weed out anybody else that might try and come in and do the same thing. And that sucks. Like it's a really shitty way to approach meeting people. Yeah.

We were touching on this a little bit before, like your whole history. The story could definitely not have been told without all the people in your life who experienced it right along with you. So how has this brought your whole family closer together? You said that in episode eight, I think you talked a little bit about that. Yeah, it's been amazing. My dad and I have always been so close, but we're definitely not huggers. And we don't really talk about the hard stuff.

We know it's there, but we don't bring it up a lot. And since I started the podcast and had my dad in studio and we talked about stuff and he listened to some episodes and he's like, I didn't know that, you know, like he's learning stuff and I'm learning stuff that he's sharing. And we talk more about my sister and about granny and just sort of the experiences. And it's been really cool. My cousins at Sunday dinner, who are my kids ages, they're

But technically, my cousins, they listened and they were like, we didn't know the details about Braylee's death.

Like, it's just not something that you talk about. And it's pretty intense. And so even for my family to get to connect in such a way, I have told a bunch of people, I'm like, if the only thing that comes from this podcast is I have like six hours of my dad talking, that's a win for me. But it's brought us so much closer together. And Sunday dinner conversations are pretty entertaining. Yes, they are. They're amazing.

Our associate producer and I had the opportunity to go to Sunday dinner where we got a lot of the tape that you hear in the season, but mostly selfishly just to be around your family and enjoy it. And it is, Sid did such a great job with using that sound because you really feel in the podcast that you're in it and it does capture that love. But it's not like cheesy love. It's not like, oh, years ago. It's just like this very genuinely real love.

people coming around a table enjoying like a really ridiculously delicious meal, P.S. But also this organic thing that happens with people kind of buzzing around and helping each other out and setting tables and what did you do yesterday? And wait, oh, whose car's getting towed? Somebody's doing a thing. It's

It may be to you, it's normal. I think for when we talk about the title of the story, you know, this podcast, you probably think the story is about you. You know, that is a very relatable experience. It's very different than my home dinner table. I did not get a Sunday dinner, but you listen because you kind of want that. It's like a big, like kind of comforting moments in the story. One of the things that has changed

caused, I think, some conversation, some curiosity. And also, I will tell you, my sister who runs this company with us is really worked up about this question, this reviewer said, because it does bring up a lot. One of the reviewers attacked you a bit for not prosecuting your sister's murder. What do you make of that?

We didn't go in to a lot of that. I know we touched on it in episode five. It wasn't our choice. We did everything we could. We had a private investigator that we hired to track him down. The police ruled it as a suicide and they closed the case. And I...

We all, as a family, spent a lot of time trying to get them to reopen the case, including convincing them to do a second autopsy that supported our thoughts that she did not die by suicide. And...

What I'll say is that it's not like in the movies or the TV shows where a group of amazingly intelligent people come in and analyze every fiber and every bit of evidence until justice has been found. Right.

What happened was I think we had a couple beat cops that came in and marked it, made some notes, and we spent a considerable amount of time trying to get them to undo that initial assessment. To the extent that our private investigator did have him brought in for questioning, he had an alibi. He was three blocks away that nobody else could confirm.

So, I mean, he put himself in the neighborhood and we have eyewitnesses that show him coming in and out of the building that night. So, I mean, there's so much evidence that we had and we couldn't do anything. And eventually we just decided that we needed to move on.

There's a huge question here of whose responsibility it is to even do these things. And I know because I know you and I know your family now that you did do a lot. And that's also not exactly what this part of the story is about for you all. Sharing losing your sister tragically, unexpectedly,

is hard enough to also share all that you did after that's a whole another fucking season to be honest yeah because there isn't always that type of justice well and and that's the other thing is this is 20 years ago that this happened so you know I think my family has done the best that we can dealing with that tragedy and trying to move forward as much as we can with each other

You know, there's hundreds of reviews here. And for some reason, I was just like, ugh. That one was the hardest one that I've read, for sure. Because there's a line in there at the end, Rayleigh, I'm sorry you felt alone in your family. And anything that I'll say about my family is that none of us ever feel alone in our family. I don't anyways. And, you know, that's the beauty of Sunday dinner is that even if you feel alone a little bit, if you just wait till Sunday, you're done.

You will feel way less alone. I love that. I also want to say that telling that story with you was so hard.

for you also for me not to make it about myself at all but it was challenging this story's about you too that's right you probably think this story's about me it is but it was really challenging because there's a lot of avenues you can go down you can go down the avenue of investigation or you can go down the avenue of telling Braley's life to the extent that we can know it also

Karina and I have both been plagued by hummingbirds ever since. And plagued, I'm using that positively. Everywhere. It's hummingbirds and 444. You know, I've said hummingbirds are for some reason not in my life.

444 is and I'm pretty sure I know why but it's so amazing to me because I hope what happens to you guys is what happens to my dad and the rest of people in my family which is just like a little smile and an acknowledgement for me with all of this stuff going on with the podcast and even that bad review that

I think that Braylee and Granny are good with how I've told the story and supporting me. Absolutely. What about the other women? Have you heard from them? What was their response like? And have anybody else in the world of the monster come to you?

for you? I've received a few messages that have said, I think I dated Kanan as well. We've sussed out that they didn't. It was a different person, which is terrifying that there's so many of them out there like this.

I have talked to most of the women that, well, I've talked to the women that shared their own stories. And I'm having lunch with Danielle tomorrow, actually. So I'm really grateful to the women who shared their stories. The stories that I shared today

Based on conversations I had with the other women who didn't feel comfortable coming forward themselves, I did the best I could with the details and trying to keep it all straight. There's always going to be a place if any of those women want to come forward and share their story personally.

Yeah, because you have a website and that's linked in the show notes. And so is your social media. Your DMs are open. So you've been really great about responding to people. So there is an open avenue to conversation with you. I just added a page onto my website called Share Your Story. And it's a direct to me submission. Yeah, it's a private submission to me. The anonymity of anyone is

coming forward is so important to me. And if you want to share your story with me, just to get it out of your own brain, you can. Or if there's something that you want to share with more people, you know, I think everybody should get to share their story. Yeah. Okay, Britt. This season was a lot. What's next for Brittany Ard? You know,

Because season one changed so much from our original sort of storyline layout, which I think would be hilarious to go back and look at now. Season two, because of all of these messages and stories that I'm hearing from other women, I really want to give people a space where they can tell their story, not about

the man in the story, but their story and sort of what they've done with what happened to them or maybe some history of how they got there. Or people have contacted me about addiction and dealing with siblings and parents and things. So I want to create a place where those stories can be shared. I also have so many more stories. We haven't even gotten into my kids.

And how that all came about. So did we even tell the audience that you have six kids? No, we didn't. I can't. No, that's so funny because funny, peculiar and funny. Ha ha. Because I remember us coming to you. These are the moments of this story that I kind of love too, Britt, because you're such a true creative collaborator that I,

I would come and be like, you guys, we need to really set this thing up and be really direct about like, oh, let's do a, hello, I am Britt. I have six kids and I am this person. I drive a Harley sometimes and I blow shit up. And you're like, nah, that didn't feel right. So we, and I'm like, yeah, can we do it anyway?

And then no, it did not work. So there is so much that people don't know about you. And those moments of tension in our creative process were so essential to making the story, right? But yeah, it has six kids. You know, you guys have met Bree, my daughter. There's also five boys. The oldest, who is older than Brianna, is not mine. He's my bonus son, my ex-husband's kid, but I've known him since he was...

actually before he was conceived. Then I have four other boys, two of which I built and two of which I adopted. And, you know, I didn't intend to adopt. It sort of happened accidentally, which is a really interesting story that I'll tell you one day. But these are just little bits. And my youngest just turned 18. So, you know, I'm dating and I'm

I've been dating since Canaan, so I have a lot of those stories. Right. It's a never-ending well, and we are looking forward to a few more bonus episodes on the way. A longer conversation with your father, Gary, who is a complete and utter delight of a human being. So more too shall be revealed. Look for bonus episodes, seasons two, season three, season four. The story is not over yet.