MIC media founder and podcast expert Vic Elizabeth Turnbull is back on judging duty in 2026, joining the panels of three major podcasting and creative industry awards.
This year, Vic is judging the British Podcast Awards, the Independent Podcast Awards and Manchester’s MPA Inspiration Awards.
Judging the British Podcast Awards, Independent Podcast Awards and MPA Inspiration Awards
This year marks Vic’s fourth year judging the British Podcast Awards, which celebrate the breadth of podcasting talent across the UK. After previously judging at the first stage, 2026 is Vic’s first year on the British Podcast Awards Main Stage judging panel.
Vic also returns for her third year judging the Independent Podcast Awards, celebrating the creativity, graft and talent behind podcasts made without the backing of major networks or publishers. Supporting independent creators has always been a big part of what we do at MIC, through our podcast training, production and MIC’s Podcast Club.
Closer to home, 2026 marks Vic’s sixth year judging the MPA Inspiration Awards, recognising brilliant people and work across Greater Manchester’s creative, digital and media industries. As a proudly Manchester-based business, it’s always a privilege to see what’s being created across our home city and help give that talent the recognition it deserves.
Discovering and Celebrating Brilliant Talent
For Vic, judging isn’t simply about picking winners. It’s about discovering brilliant people and ideas, shining a light on talent and giving good work the recognition it deserves.
Vic says,
I bloody love discovering new talent. There’s nothing better than coming across a podcast, person or piece of work you knew nothing about and thinking, ‘this is brilliant, more people need to know about this.’
That’s a massive part of what we’re about at MIC media too. We want to help people get heard, lift people up and give brilliant ideas and voices the platform they deserve. So getting to do that through judging feels really special.
I love meeting and learning from the other judges too. I’ve got years of experience in podcasting, production, training and working with all sorts of organisations through MIC, so I can bring that to the table, but I’m always learning as well. You get people with completely different experiences and perspectives in a room together and the conversations are proper interesting.
And I’m dead nosy! Getting to have a proper look at loads of brilliant creative work I might never have come across otherwise – that’s right up my street that!
We’re chuffed to see her expertise recognised once again and, more importantly, to play a small part in celebrating the people making cracking work happen.
Good luck to everyone shortlisted, we can’t wait to see who takes home the awards!
