Independent Podcast Awards 2025
Arriving at the awards night!
Our Plant Stories didn’t win - it was up against some great podcasts but I had a brilliant day! It is just so amazing to find yourself surrounded by other indy podcasters who are following their passions, recording in their homes and sending their work out into the podcast world.
The day began at Apple HQ which is in the old Battersea Power Station. Behind the reception desk, spotted whilst I waited for my name badge, was a veritable forest of plants and when you enter the main offices there are enormous trees in pots. Sadly you’re not allowed to take photographs! Podcasters tend to be quite chatty people and you’ve only just stepped in the lift when we start asking each other about our podcasts. What’s the subject, is it video, how often do you publish?
Perhaps this is a reflection of the fact that indy podcasting and yes the clue is in the name, is a pretty solo occupation. You don’t often get to talk about it with other people who are doing it too. I sat next Nadia who started making her podcast called The Future of Skills because she wanted to know what skills her children really need to learn, growing up in a world where AI is becoming an increasingly big player in the job market. Her own father was a lawyer, she herself works in marketing - but will those jobs exist for her children?
On the other side of me was Will. His podcast is called Broken Veil and its fictional. They’d recorded part of it in a field and another part in a nuclear bunker. Ok well not actually a nuclear bunker but and this is the magic of audio, somewhere where you feel you could be in a nuclear bunker. I love the creativity of the people in podcasting.
I met two lovely women who present a podcast about books called Mostly Book Talk a podcast for “teachers, librarians, and parents who are passionate about supporting children's and teenagers' reading for pleasure”. And i now have their small pin on my desk. We don’t yet do ‘merch’ on Our Plant Stories - perhaps we should?
This year marks 20 years of Apple Podcasts and there was a presentation about cover art and individual episode art and transcripts and channels - all things I am sure that the bigger podcasts have teams of people to sort. Standing drinking coffee the talk was more of the pressure people sometimes put themselves under to deliver every week or fortnight with others reassuring them that there isn’t an audience sitting there saying “and where is the podcast”!
The lovely part about the event in the evening, well apart from the most special bit that my closest support team, husband and both children were there, was that you have met these other podcasters in the morning. So as the awards are read out there is lots of cheering. Mostly Book Talk was highly commended - big cheer.
So yes of course we all want to win but just being there in that room feels good. Being surrounded by creative people who are squeezing their podcasting into their day job or around their family but being recognised for content that others want to listen to - feels good. Today we are all back in our solo worlds but with a list - which I will share here of so many more podcasts to listen to as we go about our lives.
A BIG THANKS to all of you who messaged me good luck and crossed your fingers and toes. We’ve been a nominated finalist two years in a row. We’ll go again next year. Third time lucky!
Have a lovely weekend
Sally
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