Al Jazeera’s The Take Wins at New York Festivals Radio Awards

Al Jazeera Digital’s current affairs podcast, The Take, has won a silver and bronze medal in the 2020 New York Festivals Radio Awards.

Adding to its medal count from the previous year, the series, led by head of audio, Graelyn Brashear, won a silver medal for Best Non-fiction Series and a bronze medal for Best News Podcast. 

Hosted by Malika Bilal, The Take interviews journalists from Al Jazeera’s international bureaus who share their take on the news. With three new episodes per week, it has covered a variety of topics, from human rights violations committed during the COVID-19 pandemic, popular protests in Sudan, towns that will soon disappear due to climate change and controversies surrounding Egyptian pop culture. 

“This is very encouraging news for us,” said Carlos van Meek, director of Digital Innovation and Programming. “We’re still building out our audio team and remain far from where we want to be, but we’ve managed to hire people who are great at their jobs and passionate about what they do. I anticipate incredible things to come from this group.” 

The New York Festivals Radio Awards received entries from more than 30 countries representing a variety of genres from breaking news, podcasts, audio dramas and books to long-form audio documentaries.

Other competitors and winners included The Washington Post, CBS News Radio, ESPN, Wondery and Spotify Studios.

The awards were to be presented at an inaugural Storytellers Gala at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Listen to more of The Take here.