Our podcast is a finalist in the Independent Podcast Awards!

We’re utterly delighted to share that the Own My Life podcast has been shortlisted as a finalist in the Independent Podcast Awards in the Best Limited Series category!

This is a huge honour - and one we want to celebrate with all the women whose voices, stories, courage and creativity are at the heart of the series.

What are the Independent Podcast Awards?

The Independent Podcast Awards celebrate podcasts made independently of the large commercial podcast networks and production companies. They recognise the creativity, craft and commitment of independent podcasters and the communities that grow around their work.

Being named a finalist means that our podcast has been recognised alongside other brilliant independent productions — and we’re incredibly proud that the stories of women who have experienced abuse are being heard in this space.

But for us, this nomination is about much more than an award.

A celebration of women owning their lives

The podcast series features the voices and experiences of Jade, Monty, Clara, Lorna, Tara, Naomi, and Helen. Each woman generously shared something of her story with us, helping to create a series that is honest, courageous, funny, thoughtful, challenging and full of life.

We want to celebrate every single one of them.

And we also want to celebrate every woman who does the work of owning her life.

Owning your life can look a thousand different ways. It can mean recognising an abuser for what he is. Asking for help. Leaving. Staying, but making a safety plan.

Rebuilding relationships. Discovering who you are after years of being told who you should be. Finding your voice. Finding your laughter. Finding pleasure, connection and joy.

There is no single way to resist an abuser; and there is no single way to rebuild a life after abuse.

Our CEO, Natalie Collins, says:

“What a wonderful way to honour all the women who shared their stories with us; their courage, capacity and absolute badassness!”

Huge thanks to our podcast producer, Abi Thomas

We’re also hugely grateful to our amazing podcast producer, Abi Thomas, whose work made the series possible.

Abi travelled the length of the country to meet with women, create spaces where they could share their experiences, and listen deeply to their stories. That care, attention and commitment runs through every episode.

Making a podcast about domestic abuse isn't simply a matter of putting microphones in front of people and pressing record. It means creating relationships, listening carefully and treating people's experiences with enormous respect.

Abi did all of that - and so much more.

Why we made the podcast

At Own My Life, we want everyone to understand how abusers operate.

We want people to know what their tactics look like, why they can be so difficult to recognise, and how we can support the people we love (or ourselves) when someone we love is being hurt or controlled.

But we also wanted to tell a bigger story.

Women who have been subjected to abuse are not simply stories of what has been done to them. They are whole, complex people with humour, creativity, determination, relationships, dreams, desires and joy.

The podcast celebrates the myriad ways women resist abusers and find joy in the midst of all that has been done to them.

That matters.

Because understanding abusers is important. But so is understanding the extraordinary capacity women have to reclaim their lives.

Listen to the podcast

We hope that being a finalist in the Independent Podcast Awards will help even more people discover the Own My Life podcast; and, through it, learn more about abuse, resistance, survival, support and the many ways women own their lives.

You can listen on all the usual podcast platforms, or listen directly through the Own My Life website: Listen to the Own My Life podcast

To Jade, Monty, Clara, Lorna, Tara, Naomi, Viran and Helen: thank you for sharing your stories.

To Abi: thank you for travelling, listening and making space for those stories to be heard.

And to every woman doing the work of owning her life: this celebration is for you, too.