Announcing The Whickers Podcast Pitch Award Shortlist 2026

The Whickers and Sheffield DocFest Reveal Podcast Pitch Award 2026 Shortlist

The Whickers, in partnership with Sheffield DocFest, are pleased to unveil the shortlist for the 2026 Podcast Pitch Award. Now in its fourth year, the initiative has seen a record number of submissions, up 25% on last year, from 59 countries worldwide.

With the continued rise in narrative factual audio, this year’s selection process proved more competitive than ever. From a highly impressive pool of entries, 15 outstanding projects have been shortlisted. Together, they showcase the very best in director-led storytelling, offering rare access to compelling characters and bringing fresh, global perspectives to the stories shaping our world today.

Artistic director from The Whickers, Jane Ray said: ‘In the four year history of The Podcast Pitch we have never had so many entries from such a richly diverse spread of locations and ideas. Applications flooded in from an ‘A to Z’ of 59 countries from around the world: from Argentina, Armenia and Australia to Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe. We were treated to teasers for history docs, mystery docs, epic stories of personal discovery and intimate revelations around music, memory and medicine. We learnt so much, from how to save the world to how to break an addiction to eating clay. We learnt how environmental consciousness was felt before it was formalised to how to identify a body by warming up their finger just enough to unlock their phone. The selection process lurched between joy and heartache, and selecting the final 5 will be even harder, but for now we want to celebrate and share our shortlist of 15 incredible documentary podcast proposals. Each one offers something vibrant and original. Each one deserves to be heard.’

The shortlisted projects will now move on to the next stage of judging, with five finalists selected to attend Sheffield DocFest. There, they will pitch their ideas live to an expert panel and audience at the Crucible Playhouse. One project will be awarded £15,000, with a second receiving a £5,000 development prize.

We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to everyone who applied this year. The volume and quality of submissions, and the remarkable stories behind them, have been truly inspiring. It’s exciting to see the podcasting community continue to grow in both strength and creativity, and we’re proud to play a part in supporting it.

Without further ado, here is the shortlist for the Podcast Pitch Award 2026:

Before the Legends | Kaia Fincher | UK

What if the people who transformed modern culture were not the legends we remember, but the ones time almost erased? Before the Legends is a narrative podcast in which artist Kaia uncovers overlooked creators whose ideas shaped the icons we celebrate today.  Through immersive storytelling, original music, and sound design, each episode reimagines the origins of modern art by bringing forgotten voices back into the spotlight.

Black Tide: The Wreck Of The SS Torrey Canyon | Louise Fox | UK

Black Tide is an eight-part authored audio documentary series exploring how the 1967 Torrey Canyon disaster, the world’s first major oil spill, radicalised a generation to our dangerous dependence on oil.

Eating Earth | Ena Miller | London, Nigeria 

My friend Dorcas told me her secret; she eats calabash chalk, hides it around her house, and still cannot stop consuming it despite knowing the toxic risks during her three pregnancies. When her confession cracks open my own buried memories of pica, we follow the earth from London to Nigeria and into the laboratories, revealing how a tradition treated as sacred by some is diagnosed as disorder by others, and why almost no one dares to question what they’re doing.

Escazú Souls. The Podcast | Nicholas Hooper H | Chile, Spain, Brazil

Escazú Souls is a documentary journey that gives voice to murdered environmental defenders through the intimate memories of those they left behind.

Love, Mystery and Science: A Childhood Miracle in the Dark Genome | Rajesh Mirchandani  | USA, UK

Hundreds of thousands of desperate parents have no idea what’s causing severe development disorders in their children until a medical detective hunt in uncharted DNA reveals a tiny gene with huge implications. Hear about the diagnostic odyssey for children, the instant global support community of parents and what other scientific mysteries might now be solved.

Lullabies from Ukraine | Oksana Lemishka | Ukraine, Austria

The series explores contemporary Ukraine through lullabies and the stories behind them. Sociologist Oksana Lemishka connects these personal voices to wider cultural and social realities, while Jacob Suske’s sound design turns each episode into a rich and textured audio.

My Memory Fails Me | Libby Liburd | UK

Libby Liburd has some very strange memories from drama school in the 90s that feel real – except they might not be. My Memory Fails Me is a personal and investigative journey into false memory, blending memoir, science and real-world stories to explore the unsettling possibility that the memories that shape who we are may be far less reliable than we believe.

Rana | Maria Cheresheva | Bulgaria, Egypt, Scotland, Palestine/Gaza 

Two women, a Gazan and a Bulgarian-Israeli, find an unexpected safe haven from the horrors of the Gaza war with each other while struggling with the aftermath of fleeing their homes.

Seeds of Tomorrow | Nicodemus Omundo | Kenya, Tanzania

Seeds of Tomorrow follows the people carrying the burden of feeding East Africa at a time of climate volatility, rapid urban growth, and economic pressure. Through intimate embedded access, the series reveals what it actually costs to grow, move, and protect food when failure has immediate human consequences.

The Actress And The President | Natalie Gumede | UK/Zimbabwe/South Africa

Actress Natalie Gumede seeks recognition for her grandfather – the forgotten president of Zimbabwe. In doing so, she shines a light on the legacy of colonialism, and engages the audience on what being British means in 2026.

The Baconian Heist | Guy Szafman | UK, Spain

Twenty-three rare books vanish from the Senate House Library in London. Years later, an accidental discovery in Barcelona forces the library to buy back its own stolen property. This investigation delves into the scandal, hunts for the 12 books still missing, and exposes a probable ‘inside job’ and a nationwide crisis of heritage vanishing without a trace.

The Digital Immortals of Varanasi | Abhishek Maji | India

At the edge of the world’s oldest funeral pyres, a new kind of Fire-keeper emerges: ‘The Digital Doms’—tech forensic experts who break into the encrypted smartphones of Varanasi’s unidentified dead to return their names to the ashes before the flames claim the final witness.

The Many Gendered Mothers of My Heart | Shirley Abraham, Tihany Sengupta | India

(Confidential Project)

The Real Sally Bowles | Verity de Cala | England, Spain

Even before Sally Bowles became an icon in the hit musical Cabaret, the woman who inspired her creation had vanished into history. Travelling across the fault lines of the twentieth century from Weimar Berlin to the Spanish Civil War, we uncover the real story of Jean Ross, whose extraordinary life confronts us with a question still urgent today: how do we react when history demands we take a side?

The Riverbank | Chirae Cannon | USA

The Riverbank is a first-person narrative documentary series in which I follow the sound of my name, “Shy,” spoken after a death or a killing, using family tapes, interviews, and court records to map how my family grew up with guns as both protection and threat. In a family where silence was survival, I’m choosing to tell our story with precision because it’s already being told without us, as proof in someone else’s argument instead of a record of what it means to live at the center of violence and still love.