The British Podcast Awards (powered by Audible) took place last Saturday. If you missed all of the winners, what are you waiting for? All you need to do is pop right back into your inbox and find last week’s newsletter. Or simply head to the BPA website.

The Podcast Champion award went to the late Dame Deborah James for her bowel cancer campaigning and for the podcast You Me and the Big C, which she had hosted with Lauren Mahon, Rachael Bland (who also passed in 2018) and Steve Bland. A special episode celebrating the life of Deborah was released earlier this month.

“It was always intended that the show would have laughter as well as tears,” said podcaster Cariad Lloyd, introducing the award. “The podcast revealed to us all the deeply personal relationships these three presenters had with their audience. And the reason for that is the willingness to share their stories and their vulnerabilities at one of the hardest points of their life.”

Mahon accepted the award. “To be here standing without both of my girls, well it is not right is it?” she said on the stage. “I don’t think there are many other podcasts that you can say would be standing up here whose co-hosts are not with them, because they’ve died of the subject matter. But that is why we do what we do. 

“We knew it was a risk when we started it and it is something we will continue to champion. Cancer affects one in two of us in our lifetime so by proxy it will affect all of us.”

NOTABLE NAMES ON PODCASTS THIS WEEK

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Here are our podcast picks for the week ahead

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Stomp Cast with Dr Alex George  – We’ve all been told the mental health benefits of getting out and going on a daily walk (trust me, my flatmate says it every day as a way to drag me away from a computer.) To highlight the benefits of walking Dr Alex George, who you might know from either Love Island or from his mental health work, has launched a new podcast consisting of local walks alongside a well known name.

Each episode is split into three parts, so you can listen to it in three separate parts or a very long one. The first episode is with the reality show star Vicky Pattison and whilst the chat is purposefully quite meandering at times, it always comes back to the benefit of being outdoors.

“When I come back, I just feel so wholesome,” says Vicky. “I feel good.”

Call BethelThe Telegraph has been producing some rather interesting investigative podcasts of late, such as Cara McGoogan’s Bed of Lies. Their latest one, the result of a near year long investigation by reporter Katherine Rushton and her team, looks at allegations of abuse within the church of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

This series looks at accusations that Jehovah Witnesses have a secret database full of allegations of child abuse, allegations that have not all been forwarded to the police. 

As well as this series having a clear public service, it also provides you with an interesting snapshot of how investigative journalism works. From how journalists build up trust with sources, to knowing when you have enough proof to stand up a story.

The Trawl Podcast – Scrolling through Twitter can at times feel like stepping into a vortex. This new politics themed podcast, presented by broadcaster Jemma Forte and political commentator Marina Purkiss, tries to make sense of it all. 

They discuss the week’s political news via all of the takes shared on Twitter, the good and the bad. It’s a great format, with all of the tweets featured in the podcast based on WhatsApp exchanges they have shared between each other during the week.

The Athletic Women’s Football Podcast: Euro Edition – With England playing in the Euros finals later today (and a peak of 9.3 million of us watching the semi-finals on Tuesday) what better way to warm up to the Final action than listening to the delightful podcast by The Athletic providing the latest on the tournament. It’s presented by Kait Borsay, Lynsey Hooper and a great mixture of footballers and football obsessed guests. 

Elsewhere at the British Podcast Awards (powered by Audible) Idris Elba and Sabrina Elba, hosts of their podcast Coupledom, were there to announce the Wellbeing Award. The award went to Effin Hormones, which consists of four friends talking frankly about the perimenopause and menopause.

The Podcast of the Year went to Dear Daughter, a deeply personal documentary that explores the relationship between mother and daughter. It was presented by Namulanta Kombo, who came up with the idea and won a competition to make the podcast with the BBC just last year.

“Oh my gosh. That’s amazing. When did that happen?” said Kombo accepting her award on speaker phone, as she is currently in Kenya.

“Now! We’re on the stage!” responded one of her colleagues. 

Thank you so much for reading and we’ll be back soon with another edition next Sunday.

Categories: Weekly Picks