Independent Podcast Awards 2026: All the Winners

Independent Podcast of the Year, Best Travel & Adventure and Best Podcast Artwork. Maria Passingham hops on the bus from Buxton and explores the Peak District in a short series of audio adventures, rich in atmosphere and sound.

Runner-up, Best Arts & Culture and Best Music. The story of Walthamstow Assembly Hall, a concert venue built during the Blitz that went on to become one of Britain's most celebrated recording spaces, told through immersive sound design and archive material.

Best Books Podcast. Two writers who are still figuring it out talk to best-selling authors, screenwriters and poets about the craft of writing and how to actually finish that novel.

Best Branded Content Podcast. From the charity Blue Cabin, about how creative Life Story Work can help children and young people who have been in care make sense of their past.

Best Business & Culture Podcast. Journalist Steve Duke travels around Britain to visit the factories and workshops behind some of the country's best-made products, and the people who run them.

Best Children & Young Adults Podcast. A screen-free history adventure for curious kids and their grown-ups, where Dex and friends follow clues to solve mysteries from the past.

Best Comedy Podcast. Gemma Arrowsmith, Susan Harrison and Thomas Nelstrop revisit the back catalogue of Leyline High, a spooky kids' TV show that ran from 1972 to 2002. You definitely remember it. Except it never existed.

Best Environment & the Natural World Podcast. From the Bat Conservation Trust: ecologist Steve Roe heads out into the field to meet the experts and local heroes working to protect Britain's bats.

Best Fiction Podcast. Host Beth reads ghost stories, paranormal horror and creepy tales, made for listeners who like to be scared before bedtime.

Best Films & TV Podcast. Four film fans tell the story of Hollywood one movie at a time: how it was made, whether it works and why it matters.

Best Gaming Podcast. History turned into an interactive game: each episode, a comedian is sent back in time and has to survive whatever era Ryan and Tan throw them into.

Best History Podcast. Journalists Franki Cookney and Lucy Douglas dig through old issues of women's magazines from the 70s, 80s and 90s to see what still holds up and what definitely doesn't.

Best Horror & The Supernatural Podcast. Author and ghost hunter Rob Kirkup explores the history and ghost stories of one haunted location per episode.

Best Lifestyle Podcast. The charity Pharmacist Support's podcast about wellbeing in pharmacy, with experts and stories from people working in the profession.

Best Limited Series Podcast. An award-winning music analysis series that takes classic songs apart to find out what makes them work, most recently from the 1970s and 80s.

Best News & Politics Podcast. Broadcasters Jemma Forte and Marina Purkiss go through the week's political chaos, media spin and social media absurdity, so you don't have to.

Best Personal Stories Podcast. Intimate audio portraits told through immersive sound and documentary storytelling. The current season is about different forms of loss and grief.

Best Regional Podcast. Will Sadler joins school students in Mackay Country in the far north of Scotland to find out why young people leave the Highlands, and what it would take for them to stay.

Best Science & Technology Podcast. A weekly global tech show from former BBC World Service journalists, focused on technology that actually changes people's lives rather than the latest gadgets.

Best Self Improvement Podcast. Executive coach Julie Williams hosts conversations about change, growth and what sparks it.

Best Sex, Love & Relationships Podcast. Florence Bark's long-running show is known for open and very explicit conversations about sex, with therapists, experts and famous guests.

Best Sport Podcast. Lifelong Formula 1 fans Issy and Nav are trying to get their best friend Reem into F1, with race reviews and plenty of chaos along the way.

Best True Crime Podcast. From The Future Justice Project: cases where people may have been wrongly convicted, and what that says about the justice system.

Best Video Podcast. British true crime author Prash Ganendran explores real murder cases from history and around the world, built on his own in-depth research.

Best Podcast Jingle. A Brit and a Frenchwoman, Suzanne Raine and Muriel Zagha, take a different object each episode and use it to explain what makes the British British and the French French.