The winners have been announced for the second edition of the Ondas World Podcast Awards, organized by PRISA Audio and Cadena SER. Among those being honored are Radio Ambulante Estudios, Adonde Media, the daily podcasts of three Spanish newspapers, the first original Batman in audio and the independent podcaster Cristina Miter. The awards seek to pay tribute to the Spanish-language podcast and the most outstanding work and professionals of 2022.

The 17 awards across 15 categories were chosen from among 1,178 submissions from 18 countries. The decision of the international jury, made up of experts from the audio, communication, creative and advertising sectors, was announced this Thursday, March 2 on the Cadena SER programLa Ventana. Two prizes have been awarded to joint winners, and a further two podcasts have received a special mention from the jury.

The awards gala ceremony will be held on May 3 at the Soho CaixaBank Theater in Malaga. This year, the awards are sponsored by Amazon Music y Audible, and enjoy the collaboration of Malaga Town Hall, the Malaga Provincial Council, the Costa del Sol Tourism Board, and the Andalusian Regional Government or Junta de Andalucía.

With these awards, PRISA Audio continues apace towards its goal of becoming the largest transformative agent in the Spanish-language podcast industry. PRISA Audio is the platform that brings together all of the Group’s non-linear audio content, from EL PAÍS, AS, Cadena SER, Podium Podcast, Cadena DIAL and Los40, as well as Latin American stations such as W Radio, Caracol Radio and ADN Chile, among others.

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The winners

The award for Best international non-Spanish Language Podcast has gone to the Mexican podcast Punk In Translation: Latin X Origins, from Audible and Fresh Produce Media. The jury lauded the podcast "for revealing the hidden history of Latina women in punk music, for shedding light on genres ranging from road movies to fanzines, for its ambition in gathering first-hand accounts and for being a story that weaves together the American continent from a Latino perspective, a place full of strength and stories”.

El silenci de la Rambla, a SER Podcast, has won the Best Podcast in a Co-official language of Spainfor “showing an exquisite sensitivity in an audio production” and “exploring the feelings of the victims of the attacks on the Ramblas five years later”. The jury also highlighted the evolution of the project: from early beginnings as a university project to topping the charts as one of the most-listened-to podcasts last summer, and they praised the production for its “humanity and the broad perspective that it brought to this tragedy, as well as its use of silence and voices to tell the story in a unique way”.

The prize for Best Experimental Podcast has gone to Crímenes. El musical, from El Extraordinario. The jury praised its skilled blend of true crime, original music, comedy and “journalism, as it explored Spanish crimes from the early 20th century. Its unique language brings to life scenes from a not-so-distant society, whose characters step out of the newspaper archive in a unique hybrid between fiction and documentary. In the same category,Un mundo maravilloso, from Spotify, has received a special mention, “for stretching the limits of the daily-show format through humor and irreverent language, and managing to pull it all off despite the demands of daily production”, said the jury, praising the Argentinian daily humor podcast.

Blum, the fiction podcast produced by El Extraordinario for the Swiss Tourist Board, has won the award for Best Branded Podcast. Created and directed by the screenwriters Manuel Bartual and Carmen Pacheco, it was singled out for “composing, with total freedom, a fiction series that takes place in a landscape whose value grows with each episode. This is a master class for advertisers on how podcast advertising can be done when the producers have free rein”.

The award for Best Production has gone to Los últimos días de Maradona, from Adonde Media and Spotify. The jury noted that the project was the first simultaneous podcast adapted for six countries: Argentina, Brazil, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain. “They lined up a list of professionals from half the world to look back on the life of the most influential footballer in the history of the world’s most popular sport.”

The award for Best Sound Design has gone to AdolesZentes, by Fernando Pocostales and Teo Rodríguez. The jury praised the Audible and Dadá Films project for “rejuvenating the audiences of audio fiction” with this tale of zombies and adolescents, alive with hundreds of original Foley sound effects: “This is a complex sum of real environments, expressly created sound effects, 20,000 audio clips and 200 sound tracks per session”. In the same category, the podcast Artxipelagoa, from EITB Media, has received a special mention for “the display of knowledge that Xanti Salvador has brought to bear on a dystopian fiction” and for turning the project “into the gold standard when it comes to the artistic composition of sound.”

The audio fiction La firma de Dios, by José A. Pérez Ledo for Podium Podcast, received both the Best Screenplay and Best Fiction Podcast awards. His screenplay was honored for “stimulating a dialogue between science and reality, with a work that is the culmination of his career in this field, thanks to its premise, the character arc and the captivating crescendo at the end.” Awarding him the prize for Best Fiction Podcast, the jury said he’d “captured the echoes of the Covid-19 pandemic in an original way, while raising transcendental questions about the future of humanity – all without getting carried away by the cliches of dystopian science fiction."

The award for B est Episode has gone to Silencio, by Uruguayan musician Jorge Drexler, an episode in the successful musical podcast Canción Exploder, from Adonde Media. The 18-minute episode is narrated by the artist, who explores his creative process. For the jury, “silence can bring out the very best in a podcast and can be the best possible narrative format to tell a story.”

The Mexican Alfonso Herrera in Batman Desenterrado has been named Best Actor. The Spotify and DC Comics podcast managed to capture “just from using voice, all the shadows of the Dark Knight in a format other than comics or cinema”. Herrera was praised as the “first outstanding audio superhero in an audio production.”

The award for Best Host has gone to Cristina Mitre, for El podcast de Cristina Mitre. According to the jury, the journalist and writer has become “a voice capable of making issues accessible, such as physical and mental health, risk prevention, family, relationships and the domestic economy.” She was also honored “for making the interview an entertaining and deeper genre, while maintaining an open and scrupulous editorial line in the face of misinformation or commercial pressure or trends.”

The Special Award for Best Newcomer is being shared by two projects. La vida y tal from Podimo, was praised for “blending the best of the reaction genre with the podcast, anchored by two hosts who are pure chemistry”. The second prize is shared by the current affairs podcasts from three Spanish newspapers:Hoy en El País, Un tema al día, and El Mundo al día,, from the newspapers El País, Eldiario.es and El Mundo, respectively. For the jury, all three _“_have established new habits of daily listening in a conscious and deep way”. The jury also noted their large audience numbers, their tone and structure, which combine the best “of contemporary new media and the highest journalistic standards”.

The Special Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to the industry and the consolidation of the podcast in Spain and Latin America has gone to Radio Ambulante Studios. The jury singled out the production company “for having become a total benchmark for journalism, for having shaken up the style and formula and for creating a genuine school of storytelling.” The jury also lauded the production outfit “for having built up a team full of talent and learning that is at the forefront of the genre” and for being _“_a constant inspiration for the documentary genre”.

There were joint winners for Best Conversational Podcast: Se Regalan Dudas, from Dudas Media Productions andArsénico Caviar, from Podium Podcast. The former, which is available in various countries in the Americas, was selected for having “setting the gold standard for the genre: its starting point is a conversation between two friends that becomes a safe space for the wider community to explore mental health issues.” Meanwhile, Spain’s Arsénico caviar was honored ”for demonstrating that in rejection there is a common story that unites as much – or even more – than friendliness; and for awakening ambivalent thoughts among the audience and revealing a collective identity that’s not necessarily a generational one".

The award for Best Nonfiction Narrative Podcast of 2022 has gone to Los papeles, from El País Audio and TrueStory, “for being a well-rounded project of the highest narrative and journalistic standards”. The jury lauded the podcast’s brilliant use of “sources and the importance” of the investigation, as well as the journalists who uncovered the story.

The statuettes will be handed out at the gala awards ceremony in Malaga. A special tribute will also be paid to the Best Podcast of the Year, Misterio en la Moraleja, from Spotify and TrueStory, which already picked up its gong at the 69th edition of the Radio Barcelona Ondas Awards last December.

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