Scottsdale resident, author and podcaster Sasha Graham recently announced that her podcast “Sports Will Save Us All” has been shortlisted for the International Women’s Podcast Awards (IWPA).
Celebrating women in podcasting, the IWPA seeks to champion the work of women and diverse genders in podcasting.
Now in its fourth year, the 2024 IWPA has received over 700 entries from 33 countries being considered for 10 award categories, welcoming podcasts of all genres from fiction, narrative, crime, sports, investigative journalism and more.
Graham’s podcast is one of 15 finalists in the category of Moment of Visionary Leadership, which presents stories of women who show outstanding leadership and share their secrets about it.
Graham’s nomination was based on the first 10 minutes of her 63rd episode with Paola Boivin, professor at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and director of the Cronkite News Phoenix Sports Bureau.
The title of the episode is, “Do Women Belong in Sports Reporting? (And is anyone really still asking this question?)” in which Boivin and Graham discuss the evolution of women’s sports, the growing media coverage of women’s sports and the importance of diversity in newsrooms.
“Podcasting is something that I would do even if nobody was listening,” Graham said. “I love doing these interviews so much that when I got the email that I’d been shortlisted, it was just icing on the cake.”
Boivin is an award-winning newspaper reporter/columnist for The Arizona Republic (1994-2017) and was the first female journalist to be named to the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame and the second woman to ever sit on the College Football College Selection Committee.
Graham says being considered for the award with someone as illustrious as Paula Boivin makes it all the more meaningful.
Presented by Everybody Media, the winners of IWPA are determined by a panel of judges consisting of podcasters, journalists and experienced professionals.
The universal language of sports
Graham’s podcast explores the question, “What if sports are the key to just about everything?” inviting professional athletes, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, coaches and others to discuss the unifying nature of sports.
Graham is an athlete and author of two children’s books, Milo Does Not Like Mornings and Whitney Wins Everything. Her interest in podcasting began following her book publicity tour.
“I talked to sports podcasters during the publicity tour for (Whitney Wins Everything) and it was my favorite part of the tour, talking to people about sports, about their kids playing sports and why sports are so valuable,” Graham said.
She began her podcast in November of 2022 and is now ranked in the top 10% of podcasts globally.
As Graham nears her 100th podcast episode, she encourages anyone to pursue what they love to do first, and everything else will fall into place.
“Do something that you would do that you love to create without thinking about the outcome,” Graham said. “I think a lot of people try to do it backward. They start a podcast thinking instead about how much money they’re going to make or how big it’s going to get.
"That might work for some people, but the true joy in podcasting is finding something that you love to talk about and everything else will follow.”
“Sports Will Save Us All” has new episodes every Tuesday and is available on all major platforms including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
The winners of the IWPA will be announced June 19. For more information about the International Women’s Podcast Awards, visit everybody-media.com .
We invite our readers to submit their civil comments on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Cyrus Guccione can be reached at cguccione@iniusa.org.
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