PMC Podcasts Nominated by The Podcast Academy
Today, two Population Media Center (PMC) podcasts are up for prestigious awards in the world of podcasting. Both Crossing the Line and The State of: Women have been nominated for the best politics or opinion podcast by The Podcast Academy for their annual Ambies® Awards. The Ambies® Awards ceremony takes place tonight, March 7th, in Las Vegas to recognize excellence in podcasting and elevate awareness of podcasts as a unique and personal medium for entertainment, information, storytelling, and expression.
These podcasts were Population Media Center’s debut into podcasting, but the global sustainability non-profit has a history of creating award-winning TV and radio series broadcast in the U.S. and 50+ countries. PMC’s goal is to raise global sustainability through community empowerment on the most human level—by telling transformative stories.
“We are delighted to be considered for the best politics or opinion podcast for not one, but two of our podcasts by The Podcast Academy,” says Bill Ryerson, President and Founder of PMC. “It was a new format for us, but the PMC team could draw on more than two decades of experience across radio, web, and TV.”
For 25 years PMC has been committed to empowering audiences, especially women and girls, to create a healthier, more equitable, and flourishing world for all. PMC’s shows around the world have focused on gender equity and reproductive health and rights. These are difficult issues to address, but PMC’s approach has some impressive results.
In Nepal, listeners to PMC’s radio show were three times more likely than non-listeners to believe girls should be encouraged to continue their education. In Mexico, PMC’s TV show drew 3.5 million nightly viewers and sent more than 2,800 calls every week to a hotline operated by professional counselors from the local Planned Parenthood affiliate in Mexico. And in the U.S., PMC’s show was one of the top five shows on Hulu during its first season, had six Emmy nominations, and inspired more than 27,000 uses of a Planned Parenthood online tool to check risk for pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases in the first month of streaming.
“We believe the future depends on the stories we create,” says Ryerson. “We learn from every show, including these podcasts. Every one of our shows needs to be designed to reach people where they are – opening eyes, minds, and dialogues.”
The dynamic and timely 10-episode podcast series Crossing the Line chronicled the fight for abortion access in the United States, casting light into how this issue impacts us all. PMC raised the stories and voices of many heroes with this series. In addition to the Ambies nomination, this series won Marcom’s 2022 Platinum award for Best Podcast Series and was featured on Apple Podcast’s New and Noteworthy.
A Matter of Life or Death
PMC’s other Ambies nomination is for The State of: Women, a podcast that compared U.S. states championing women’s rights and those that fall short. This podcast series was co-hosted by actress and comedian Gina Brillon and TV host and correspondent Kimberly Brooks.
About Population Media Center
Crossing the Line and The State of: Women are created, produced, and distributed by Population Media Center (PMC), a global non-profit impact content producer. We develop and produce original entertainment content for social and environmental good. PMC is most well-known in the U.S. for creating Hulu’s hit TV series East Los High, which aired for five seasons and was nominated for six Emmy® awards, with an all-Latinx cast and diverse writers’ room ahead of Hollywood’s diversity mandates. We make shows that remake our world.