In 2014, Mermaid Palace’s director, Kaitlin Prest, started her first company with her then-business-wife, Mitra Kaboli. The Heart LLC was the foundation for the long-running podcast The Heart on Radiotopia. In addition to producing this flagship show, Kaitlin sought to teach audio techniques and to create audio artworks featured in galleries and theaters around the world.

By 2017, The Heart had amassed over 7 million listens, was named a Peabody Finalist, had won the top prize at Third Coast International Audio Festival and was consistently named among the Top Ten podcasts in publications such as The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Time Magazine, The Guardian and more. 

In 2018, Kaitlin shifted to fiction. With senior producer and artist Phoebe Wang and editor Sharon Mashihi she wrote and directed The Shadows with CBC Podcasts.  

In 2019, Kaitlin founded Mermaid Palace. An audio company, an art company. Dedicated to innovating and questioning the craft of narrative audio. In its first year, Mermaid Palace enlisted the talents of Nicole Kelly and Phoebe Unter (creators of the Bitchface), Drew Denny (filmmaker, musician and traumedienne) and Sharon Mashihi (artist, genius and multi-dimensional performer). And our support team: Jen Ng (art director, designer), Allie Pinel (producer, choreographer and all around do-er), Allison Light (advisor of finance and business operations) Natalie Prest (singer, musician and costume expert), AJ Moultrie (artist and musician) and Mo Laborde (assistant producer and podcaster extraordinaire).

The company’s first projects were: THE HEART 2020 , ASKING FOR IT, APPEARANCES, MERMAID and SISTERS.

Currently KP is taking time to rebuild infrastructure and policy for the company, while working on a new audio project about sisterhood with Natalie Prest. 

More audio magic to come.