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The Story Collider

Then Comes A Baby?: Stories about the choice to have children

The Story Collider

Story Collider, Inc.

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Performing Arts, Arts, Science

4.4818 Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week’s episode dives into one of the most personal decisions many women face: whether or not to have children.

Part 1: When a piece of her IUD breaks off, Bailey Swilley’s spirals about her choice never to have children.

Part 2:  Christel Bartelse takes an unconventional approach to figure out if she wants to be a mother or not.

Bailey Swilley is a writer and comedian based in Brooklyn. In August 2024, she took two storytelling shows to the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and most recently, she won her first StorySLAM at The Moth. Since 2021, she’s hosted the monthly storytelling hour, We Love a Theme, in Brooklyn.

Christel Bartelse is an Actor/Comedic Performer, Storyteller, Clown, Writer, and Educator. She got her start in comedy and improv with the Physical Comedy Duo "The Burnt Marshmallows (Canadian Comedy Award Nominees). She has created and written six award winning Solo Shows "Chaotica", "ONEymoon", "Significant Me", "All KIDDIng Aside", "The Surprise" and "Encore" and has toured them all across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Most recently she wrote "A Woman of my Age" which she continues to develop. She can be seen on stages all over Toronto with her comedy, character work, and storytelling. She was the Co-Producer and Co-Host of the hit Storytelling Show "But That's Another Story" for over five years. She now produces and hosts, "Age Ain't Nothing but a Number" at the Burdock, Bi-Monthly, which features veteran comedians/storytellers sharing material on the theme of Age. She also teaches numerous workshops in improv, physical comedy, solo creation and storytelling around the city and is proud faculty member of Humber College, Toronto Film School, and George Brown College.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

A science story, huh?

0:04.0

Is NYU a scientist?

0:06.0

I felt it was right.

0:08.0

And I just thought, well,

0:10.0

it was that golden moment.

0:12.0

Because science was on my side.

0:15.0

Hey, everyone. Hey everyone, welcome to the Story Clatter, where true personal stories about science help us explore just how weird, wonderful, and deeply human this world can be.

0:31.6

I'm your host, Mishayevsky, and today's episode explores the question many women face at some point or another, whether or not to have kids.

0:39.8

I personally related to these stories a lot because this year it seems like almost all of my friends,

0:44.1

either had a kid or about to have one. So I guess that says something about the period of my life I'm in.

0:50.4

But this question of whether or not to spawn has definitely been on my mind a lot lately,

0:55.2

and I really appreciated these stories for their unique insight on the decision.

0:59.7

Anyway, our first story comes from Bailey Swilly, a writer and comedian based in Brooklyn.

1:04.2

Her story was recorded last year at one of our go-to spots in New York, QED Astoria.

1:08.3

Here's Bailey.

1:19.3

Thank you. New York QED Astoria. Here's Bailey. So I have never wanted to have kids.

1:25.5

Not when I was a kid and not now that I'm a baby. So this was like never really a big deal.

1:37.4

I kind of just coasted through life with this fact and it was totally fine until I got married.

1:48.1

And then all of a sudden everyone in my life my neighbors my friends my family everyone wants me to have a baby and it started at my wedding at my

1:55.4

wedding my my girlfriends came up to me and they were like, are you having kids?

2:02.9

And I was like, no, I don't think so.

2:04.0

And they're like, you've just got to.

...

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