Winners of the Independent Podcast Awards 2026
The winners of the fourth edition of the Independent Podcast Awards were announced last night during a sold-out ceremony at Kings Place in London.
‘Great Days Out on the Bus from Buxton’ was named the overall Independent Podcast of the Year, after also winning the Best Travel & Adventure and Best Artwork categories and being Highly Commended in the Best Regional category.
The awards were co-founded by Verbal Diorama and whynow in 2023 to celebrate those podcasts made in backrooms, in their creator’s spare time and without the pressures of upsetting sponsors along the way. In August, YouTube were announced as Headline Partners for this year’s awards and as part of the partnership, Head of MediaCo and Responsibility Partnerships for YouTube UK, Mairi Brewis, announced the overall winner.
With a total of 28 categories, including three new ones for 2026 (Best Regional Podcast, Best Personal Stories Podcast, and Best Limited Series), the awards celebrated a huge range of talented indie creators. More than 400 people from the indie podcasting community gathered in a sold-out ceremony in London to find out who had won one of the coveted trophies.
‘Great Days Out on the Bus From Buxton’ was a stand out show on the night, taking home two category awards and the overall Independent Podcast of the Year title. The show is solo produced by Maria Passingham, with award-winning artwork from Savannah Storm.
‘War Hall: A Theatre of the Mind’ was also announced as the Runner-Up, after winning the Best Arts & Culture and Best Music categories. It is the first podcast to receive the accolade, showing the continued quality of independent podcasting in the UK and Ireland.
The judges said of ‘Great Days Out on the Bus From Buxton’: “This is a remarkable podcast. It is so hyper local and yet so completely immersive. The host is instantly charming, open and natural. Great Days Out is also a massive argument for the audio format. The soundscapes created felt truly authentic, the audio paints the picture in your head - you feel like you’re on the bus, in the field, in the pub alongside Maria. Many people underestimate the work required to create a podcast of this quality, and of this nature. This is exceptionally pure and so very well done. Congratulations!”
The show will see its name up in lights on billboards in Leicester Square from Thursday 5th thanks to the team at Spotify.
St Ermin’s Hotel have also given the winner a recording session in their brand new podcast studio in Westminster, including an overnight stay and dinner at the hotel.
All the winners
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The above list of podcasts is available as an OPML file for your podcast player
About Independent Podcast Awards
The Independent Podcast Awards were launched in 2023 by whynow Media and the Verbal Diorama podcast team to help uncover the talent that we have in the UK but that doesn’t always get recognition it deserves.
This is a press release which we link to from Podnews, our daily newsletter about podcasting and on-demand. We may make small edits for editorial reasons.