International Women’s Podcast Awards 2022 – The WINNERS!

Last night, the winners of the International Women’s Podcast Awards 2022 were announced at a ceremony in London. Created by Naomi Mellor of the Skylark Collective, this year’s event was hosted by Deborah Francis-White of the Guilty Feminist podcast, who brought a mix of personal anecdote, cultural commentary and, of course, podcast cheerleading to the evening.

I was there representing Pod Bible and handing out our magazines featuring awesome women cover stars (if you went home with one, make sure you take a picture and tags us!). And I was also there in Producer capacity – more on that below – and to witness women supporting women.

It’s hard to believe that the Awards are only in their second year. Not only because it’s incredible the awards didn’t exist before, but because of the scale of this year’s event. The Conduit near Covent Garden in London was a larger venue than last year, and accommodated a crowd of nearly 200. New categories have been added this year, and the winners were whisked away to be interviewed for the 90 second podcast by one of the sponsors, Focusrite. The awards are now supported by several companies including Amazon Music, Wondery, Shure, Captivate, Acast and Blubrry.

The success is testament to the need for such celebration and uplift – as the awards prove #WeHaveThingsToSay.

The Winners

Moment of Comedy Gold
Presented by Craig Strachan from Amazon Music

Winner – Effin’ Hormones

Runner Up – Add To Cart

Hot on the tails of their British Podcast Awards win, Effin’ Hormones are adding to their awards case. Emma Goswell accepted the award for the team. Whilst the award was for the comedy in the show about menopause, she took the chance to draw attention to the serious aspects of the podcast as well.

Moment of Behind The Scenes Brilliance
presented by Melissa Matanda from Acast

Winner – Taking On Putin

Runner Up – The Vivo Songbook

This award was to specifically highlight someone who works behind the scenes on those aspects that often go uncelebrated. Laura Sheeter’s work on Taking On Putin involved working on translations from Russian and more.

Moment of Touching Honesty
presented by Imriel Morgan from Content Is Queen

Winner – The Divorce Social

Runner Up – A Slight Change of Plans

An indy pod pipped the massive A Slight Change of Plans to the post. In her acceptance speech, Samantha Baines from The Divorce Social thanked her ex-husband for being so divorceable! But she also highlighted the great space podcasts provide for safe and honest conversations about subjects that were once hushed.

Moment of Entrepreneurial Inspiration
presented by Sarah McDowell of Captivate

Winner – The Convex Conversation

Runner Up – The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women (HERO)

Helen Fospero’s podcast The Convex Conversation shares inspirational life stories. In the episode that was entered, Helen spoke to blind entrepreneur and TV presenter Amar Latif talks about his life and how blindness has helped him see the world.

Moment of Dramatic Tension
presented by Toby Goodman from Blubrry

Winner – AfroQueer

Runner Up – The Catch

A truly international podcast, AfroQueer is a podcast about Queer Africans living, loving, surviving and thriving on the African Continent and in the Diaspora. The winning episode ‘Shivanah’s Story‘ was “truly a story of survival” of a young lesbian singer-songwriter from Uganda. Host Selly Thiam wasn’t able to attend, and Producer Penny Dale accepted the award.

Moment of Insight from a Role Model
presented by Laura Blake of UKAN

Winner – 28ish Days Later

Runner Up – Media Storm

One of the big winners at the British Podcast Awards this year as well, 28ish Days Later highlights aspects of having periods that are just not talked about enough. From truly crippling syndromes, to trans men and non-binary experience of periods. You could tell the production team receiving the award were a bit emotional to have the stories recognised!

In a nice moment from the runner-up, the Media Storm episode submitted featured the award-presenter, Laura Blake.

Moment of Raw Emotion
presented by Naomi Mellor and sponsored by Focusrite

Winners – Culturati Conversations

Runner Up – We Built This City 

The Culturati podcast is really providing something important, and is another show being celebrated in multiple awards (it’s recently been nominated for a Black Podcasting Award as well). In a pre-recorded acceptance speech, the Culturati Conversations team highlighted everyone involved in the show, which was great to see.

Moment of Calm Unflappability
presented by Manveen Rana from Stories of Our Times

Winner – Deer Humans

Runner Up – On The Outside

Deer Humans is a short run series that looked in depth at the ecological conflict between white-tailed deer and wealthy vacationers in The Hamptons, New York. Eve Bishop’s acceptance via video talked about the need for trust from interviewees in such projects.

And I have to proudly say – On The Outside is me! In a slightly self-deprecating acceptance for the runner-up, I thanked the IWPA for creating a category where I could do things wrong and still get rewarded for it…

Moment of Visionary Leadership
presented by Samantha Barnes from The Divorce Social

Winners – Long Time Academy

Runner Up – Indie AF

Another show that’s been making waves this year, Long Time Academy’s Ella Saltmarshe gave a passionate acceptance speech highlighting the inspiration behind the podcast. Such passion is very fitting for the category, and the important topic of podcast. Read our interview with Ella and Lina for more behind-the-scenes on the show.

Award for Changing the World One Moment At A Time
presented by Jack Drury of Shure

Winner – Out There

Runner Up – Coiled

The big category of the night honours those podcasters that are really setting out to make a difference, and doing it with aplomb. Out There is a podcast that tackles big questions through our relationship with the outdoors, and the winning episode looked at the difficult history of some National Parks in both Germany and The United States. Willow Belden’s acceptance video talked about the fact that such journalism is as important as any political show.

I personally approve of the winning podcasts in this category – Coiled was one of my favourite shows from last year, and Out There is one of my favourite podcasts of all time, as mentioned on a previous Pod Bible episode.

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Congratulations to all runner-ups and winners of the International Women’s Podcast Awards 2022. Here’s to more recognition and support for women in podcasting!