The Australian Podcast Awards powered by iHeart were held on Monday night at Sydney’s Seymour Theatre, celebrating the country’s top podcasts, podcasting moments, and talent across 31 categories.
The night was hosted by Mitch Churi, ACRA Award winning host of The Night Show on the KIIS Network, and co-host of Is It Just Me? podcast.
See Also: “Every radio nerd’s dream”: Going from mornings to nights with KIIS FM’s Mitch Churi
Mitch Churi
The first cab off the rank was Best Arts and Culture Podcast, which went to Let Me Tell You – a podcast from SBS Voices where eight Australians tell listeners, in their own voice, incredible real stories.
Churi then handed over presentation duty for the first time of the night, passing the mic over to Josh Szeps to give the Best History Podcast – or as Szeps called it, the “I can’t believe I’m not up against Marc Fennell award.” Marc Fennell’s Stuff The British Stole did end up taking bronze, but the category was won by The Last Outlaws.
Best Indigenous Podcast went to Hi, I’m Eddie. With nobody available to accept the award in person – bad weather had meant that a lot of Melburnians were kept grounded and unable to fly to Sydney – presenters of the award, Brooke Blurton and Matty Mills joked that they’d take it because “when one of us wins, the whole Mob wins.”
Brooke Blurton and Matty Mills
After joking that even though everyone in the room loved to be spoken about, true crime was the one genre nobody wanted to feature on, Churi awarded Best True Crime Podcast to Patrick Abboud’s The Greatest Menace: Inside the Gay Prison Experiment.
Life Uncut’s Brittany Hockley took to the stage next, but before presenting the award for Best Health and Wellbeing podcast, asked if anybody from the True Crime category before her knew the identity of the Casefile host.
“I slid into Casefile’s DMs” Hockley told the audience, revealing that she’d gotten a cryptic message in response. “He said I’ll see you at the awards, but he never did!”
Taking out Best Comedy podcast for the third year in a row was A Rational Fear, with the judges saying “Who would have thought humanity’s imminent demise would be so hilarious?”
A Rational Fear
After asking when on earth the team get time to record their podcast, Churi then awarded the Best Current Affairs Podcast to 7am.
Just over the halfway point in the evening, Churi asked for the house lights to be turned up and announced that everybody would be going home with something. That something was a 5 star podcast review – “becasue we all know how hard it is to get 5 star reviews from your friends and family!”
Churi took to the crowd, bringing a microphone and asking audience members to shout out their podcasts so that people in the room could pull their phones out and leave a good review. Titles from the audience included Black Magic Woman, Baby Brain, and The Teacher’s Trial.
Churi in the crowd, speaking to Life Uncut’s Laura Byrne
The Rising Star award was given to Justine Landis-Hanley, who unfortunately was another victim of Melbourne’s grounded flights and wasn’t able to make it.
Perhaps the biggest cheer of the night came from the giving out of the Best Network award, which was taken out by DM Podcasts. When DM’s name was read out during the nominations, the back left corner of the room came alive – only for the decibels to rise when the team was announced as the winners of the category.
It was a big night for Sandra Sully, who not only took home the Best Interview Podcast for Short Black, but also inspired Churi’s new drag persona: Sandra Silly.
Sandra Sully and Ali Aitken
Best New Podcast went to On The Down Low – Speaking Up About Ovarian Cancer (“Did you know that you can’t say ‘vagina’ on television? So we’re saying it on a podcast!”), and Best Publisher went to SBS.
At the pointy end of the evening, The Bullseye Award – and the most enthusiastic acceptance speech – went to Baby Brains. The Spotlight Award went to Who Is Daniel Johns?, and the Listeners’ Choice Award went to Life Uncut.
Accepting the Listeners’ Choice Award, Brittany Hockley thanked the Life Uncut fans, highlighting a recent moment where the listeners of the show had banded together of their own accord to raise $50,000 to secure housing for a man who didn’t have a place to live.
Life Uncut
Finally, head judge Osher Günsberg awarded Podcast Of The Year to The Last Outlaws.
The podcast follows the lives of Jimmy and Joe Governor, from Wiradjuri and Wonnarua country, who were the last proclaimed outlaws in Australia – wanted dead or alive. Great-great grandson of Jimmy, Leroy Parsons accepted the award.
“My family never spoke about him and was ashamed to speak about the crime Jimmy committed,” said Parsons. “This podcast actually opened my family up to talk more about it, and to actually start owning Jimmy, claiming him and saying, ‘this is my great great grandfather. He might have committed those crimes, but at the end of the day, he was a husband and he was a father’. But people forget that about him, and doing this podcast has enabled my family to claim him and be proud of who he is and was.”
The Last Outlaws (Leroy Parsons centre)
The final surprise of the night came from Parsons, who after speaking emotionally about The Last Outlaws, then finished with “Also, I just want to say… it’s my birthday today!”. The news was met with raucous applause, and the entire room joining in on singing Happy Birthday.
Full List of Winners:
Best History – The Last Outlaws
Best Parenting – Parental As Anything
Best Indigenous – Hi, I’m Eddie
Climate Award – The Yarn
Best Arts & Culture – Let Me Tell You
Best True Crime – The Greatest Menace: Inside the Gay Prison Experiment
Best Childrens – Busy Bodies with Mr Snotbottom
Best Health & Wellbeing – All in the Mind
Best Comedy – A Rational Fear
Best Fiction – Girls’ Night Out
Best Sport – The Long Haul
Best Sex & Relationships – Pillow Talk
Best Entertainment – radionotes Podcast
Best Current Affairs – 7am
Best Business – The Dive
Best Documentary – Tender: Roia Atmar
Rising Star – Justine Landis-Hanley
Best Network – DM Podcasts
Best Interview – Short Black with Sandra Sully
Best Education – The Fact Detectives
New Podcast – On the Down Low
Best Branded Content – Life’s Booming
Best Publisher – SBS
Best Creativity – The Greatest Menace: Inside the Gay Prison Experiment
Best Sales House – Mamamia
Best Creative Campaign – Budget Direct / She’s on the Money
Best Factual – Tender: Roia Atmar
Bullseye Award – Baby Brain Podcast
Spotlight Award – Who Is Daniel Johns?
Listeners’ Choice – Life Uncut
Podcast Of The Year – The Last Outlaws