The Podcast Pitch Winners

How strange that something we do constantly is the last thing we think about, until it threatens to stop. Breathing Lyrical is a six-part exploration of ‘breath’ and ‘breathing’ – what does this unifying constant of the human condition tell us about ourselves and the poetry of being alive? This series’ multi-disciplinary approach brings together art, science, culture and society, health and wellness, through powerful, compelling personal stories for broad, diverse audiences. The rhythmic nature of breathing is echoed in this podcast’s poetic tone, immersive aural landscape, and the intertwining of each episode’s story with a relevant poem. By foregrounding non-European poems, and augmenting them through enthralling, rich sound design, this series amplifies marginalised perspectives on timely, poignant stories relevant to all of us who breathe.

Taqwa Sadiq is a storyteller working across audio, film and art. Inspired by her BA Middle Eastern Studies, her practice aims to bridge people, languages, and cultures. Taqwa was selected for BBC AudioLab 2023, was awarded the Charles Parker Prize 2022 (Best Student Audio Feature), and previously hosted the Made at UCL podcast.

Time, Paper, Bone is a seven-part investigative podcast about the closure of a cold case – one of the thousands of state-inflicted deaths by South Africa’s apartheid government. The story is told through the eyes of two women, Nombulelo Booi and Madeleine Fullard, one black, one white, who are brought together in a common quest – to find the remains of Nombulelo’s father. Nombulelo was 16 when she saw her father, anti apartheid activist James Booi, being dragged into an armoured police vehicle, half-naked, in the early hours of the morning. More than half a century later, Madeleine, the head of an investigative unit that locates the remains of apartheid’s disappeared, teams up with Nombulelo to finally bring her father home to the burial he deserves.

Catherine Boulle and Bongani Kona are award-winning South African audio makers and researchers with a combined 14 years of experience telling stories in audio and on the page, including several pieces produced for Falling Tree that have aired on the BBC. In addition, Bongani – a widely published writer of fiction and non-fiction – is a lecturer and PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of the Western Cape, and the editor of Our Ghosts Were Once People: Stories on Death and Dying. Catherine is the creator of The ICA Podcast, featuring interviews with South African artists, and she was a finalist for Best New Artist at the 2021 Third Coast Awards for her story We dressed him all in white.