A bittersweet fall of podcasting 🍃🍂
Eurowaves #22
Hey podcasters,
We are full on in the fall season, harvesting energy to accomplish our goals by the end of the year, setting new intentions, and sipping tea through the rainy, yet cozy days.
With that warm energy, I’d like to give a big round of applause, and join me in this, to Studio Ochenta and the soul behind it, Lory Martinez. Studio Ochenta is a leading multilingual content production company who produced cross-border and multicultural stories and podcasts. It’s been an inspiration for many of us in what working together across borders can achieve. This week, Lory announced that she decided to close Ochenta. Closing a chapter takes a lot of courage and confidence in who you are, what you’ve done, and where you’re headed. We thank you for all your work, Lory, for what you’ve built and inspired in the industry, and we can’t wait to see what’s next!
Now, before we get into it, I want to share some news since the last issue:
As you might have heard, Eurowaves launched THE go-to guide for top European podcasting events. Consider this my gift to you for International Podcasting Day! Check it out, bookmark it and look out for updates year-round.
Thank you Simona and Taly for having me on Behind the Workflow for a very productive and fun conversation!
Cigarettes until tomorrow is a book-turned-audio-piece that I had the pleasure to do voice acting for: Romanian poetry layered with kitsch and nostalgia. It’s launching on October 17 at CounterPulse in San Francisco!
🇪🇺 Podcasting & Community News 🇪🇺
🇬🇧The Podcast Social is a new podcasting club in the UK. Join for a relaxed monthly social meet-up. No selling, just good conversation.
🇬🇧CrimeCon took place in Manchester for the first time on September 27. Join the next edition in Birmingham on April 25, 2026.
🇬🇧The Political Podcast Awards are the first and only dedicated showcase of the UK’s political podcast content. You can enter by October 15.
🇩🇪PodFest Berlin’s annual festival celebrates the city’s podcasts and their creators. Join October 17-19.
🇪🇺The Lovie Awards announced the list of finalists for the best of the European internet, including WePod’s The Right Kind of Family. Voting closes October 16.
🇬🇧The Independent Podcast Awards highlight those podcasts that are truly free of corporate ties. The 2025 shortlist is now out.
Eurowaves Update ☘️
Since the last issue, we have…
…+53 new subscribers.
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Share this issue with your podcaster friends to keep the community growing! This newsletter will always be free but if you’d like to support my work, you can sign up for a paid subscription.
Advocating for the future of podcasting, with Audio UK’s Chloe Straw
Chloe Straw is the CEO of AudioUK and a leader passionate about shaping the future of podcasting, audio, and the creative industries. With deep experience across podcasts, broadcast, and digital media, she has collaborated with Amazon Music, the BBC, Spotify, Acast, Apple, YouTube, and DCMS. Her approach blends strategic vision with creativity and operational expertise, helping creators and businesses thrive in fast-moving markets. Known for inspiring collaboration and fostering sustainable growth, Chloe is dedicated to empowering creators and organisations by building environments where creativity and growth go hand in hand.
AudioUK is the industry body dedicated to advancing the podcast and audio industry, by fostering innovation, supporting creators and businesses, and driving commercial and creative growth.
You can connect with Chloe on LinkedIn here.
Share with us the beginnings of your podcasting journey!
I have been working in podcasting since before the word ‘podcast’ existed. I started off in the creative industries by producing music radio shows and video for a production company called Somethin’ Else (now Sony Music Entertainment).
AudioUK’s APAs have grown into one of the flagship industry celebrations in the UK. How are the awards contributing to recognizing behind-the-scenes talent rather than just on-mic voices?
The majority of the awards are focused on the producers rather than the shows as a whole. So, the entrants can submit a selection of different clips from their repertoire, e.g., Best Arts and Culture Producer(s), Best Lifestyle and Society Producer(s), etc. We felt it was important as AudioUK that we represented the BTS talent as well as in front of the mic. We’ve made it this year so either individual producers or teams who work very closely on content together can enter.
The recent relaunch of the Audiotrain platform, in partnership with the BBC, promises a three-year programme of online and in-person training to close skills gaps. What gaps did you identify that led to this expansion and why is it important to close them?
We wanted to address the fact that there is little expert training that is open and accessible to everyone – either entry-level or senior, inside the industry or external, in the UK or globally. We have such rich talent in the UK behind the scenes, and we wanted to gather some of that knowledge and share it. Thanks to the BBC for funding, and to Acast for their studios, we now have an online platform filled with training, accessible to all.
What advice would you offer to audio organizations in other European countries that want to adapt Audiotrain’s structure?
Well… they can access our training already in English, and we hope to translate to other languages in the future, so my advice would be, come and use Audiotrain; it’s there for everyone.
AudioUK also recently launched a campaign calling on the UK Government to formally recognise podcasting and audio as part of the creative industries. How close do you think the industry is to achieving that recognition, and what would be the impact for audio professionals?
Hard to know how close we are, but we’ve got such a good case for recognition, I’m hopeful. Podcasting and audio are at the forefront of growth in the creative and tech industries, both in the UK and globally, and I think having the recognition and support from government would supercharge the opportunity for growth.
For podcasters based in the UK or in other European countries who are inspired by AudioUK’s work, what are some ways they can get involved?
Join us! We have a lot of different membership levels – creator, academic, business. Membership starts from £200 a year. We offer a load of benefits: instant access to a community of 130+ podcast and audiobook businesses, partner discounts, exclusive events – both in person and online, awards, and your membership fees go to all of our work growing this amazing industry.
Share 1-2 European podcast recommendations with us!
Oh gosh! This is like asking me to choose 1-2 of my kids… I can’t do it. All I can say is head to our website and check out all of our members, then visit their websites; they all produce such amazing content.
🎙️🌍What I’ve been listening to🌍🎙️
I recently re-listened to Lost Cells, a cross-border trilingual production. It’s a really beautifully crafted series, an original SWI swissinfo.ch. In the episodes, they promote their other show, Inside Geneva. If you think this is a local-based podcast, let me correct you. It’s a show about global politics, humanitarian issues, and international aid. I started with the episode asking Is the UN still relevant at 80? and it shares a lot of interesting insight through a critical lens. It’s been running since 2019 and it’s still going strong!
This is already an absolute favorite but I had one of the episodes saved in my queue for forever. And since I was on vacation traveling through Brussels and Strasbourg last week, I caught up with my queue on a 7 hour long bus trip. The episode Fashion Without Capitalism tells the story of Tamás Király, a seemingly unusual fashion designer in Hungary’s 1980s. Through conversations with his protégées, and closed ones, Avery uncovers part of Tamás’ life that tell a bigger story about Hungary’s semi-socialist, semi-capitalist era. It’s a completely fascinating story and the podcast as a whole is a gem.
Next in my queue: a newly released audio drama from the BBC set in the Åland archipelago, “a demilitarised Finnish territory where Swedish is the official language and Russia looms across the Baltic.” I’m adding this to my queue especially because it’s being released in two languages: English and Finnish (2026). It’s a co-production between the UK’s Goldhawk Productions and Finland’s Suomen Podcastmedia. Now, I just need to figure out how to listen to this series if I’m outside of the UK.
What podcasts have you been listening to lately?
Photo Credit: Sanya Engel
🇩🇪 Podcasts from Germany 🇩🇪
I’m Denise Fernholz, author of BEIFAHRERSITZ (Passenger Seat), one of Germany’s leading newsletters on podcasting. I also host SIND WIR ENDLICH DA? (Are We There Yet?)—a podcast for Millennials like me, who may be grown up but still don’t feel like adults.
TeleKaddi: Coldmirror aka Kaddi wurde in den Nullerjahren mit ihren witzigen Neu-Synchronisationen der Harry Potter-Filme auf YouTube zur Kultfigur. Später begeisterte sie mit dem „5 Minuten Harry Podcast“, in dem sie über acht Jahre hinweg akribisch Szenen aus Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen analysierte – Szene für Szene, manchmal Frame für Frame. Ihr neuer Podcast „TeleKaddi“ widmet sich mit derselben Hingabe Kindheitsserien, weckt tief vergrabene Erinnerungen und liefert herrlich unnützes Wissen. Das Besondere: Coldmirror ignoriert alle gängigen Regeln von Marketing und Social Media, veröffentlicht unregelmäßig und ist dennoch erfolgreich – Hunderttausende hören ihr zu.
Coldmirror, aka Kaddi, became a cult figure in the 2000s with her witty re-dubs of the Harry Potter films on YouTube. She later captivated audiences with the “5 Minutes Harry Podcast,” in which she meticulously analyzed scenes from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone for over eight years—scene by scene, sometimes frame by frame. Her newer podcast, TeleKaddi, brings the same dedication to childhood TV series, sparking nostalgia while serving up delightfully useless trivia. What makes her stand out: Coldmirror ignores all the usual rules of marketing and social media, releases episodes irregularly, and still manages to attract hundreds of thousands of listeners.
Sinneswandel: Ich bin vielleicht ein bisschen biased, weil Marilena Berends inzwischen eine Freundin von mir ist – aber ihr Podcast „Sinneswandel“ ist absolut hörenswert. Ursprünglich als Interview-Format mit (prominenten) Gästen über Gesellschaft, Zukunft und Wissenschaft gestartet, veröffentlicht sie seit diesem Sommer vor allem Solo-Folgen. Die liebe ich besonders – ich höre Menschen einfach gerne beim laut Denken zu. Ein toller Einstieg ist die Folge „Wozu das alles? Über kreative Krisen und Sinnfragen“: Darin erzählt Marilena, warum es für sie so schwer war, nach einer zweimonatigen Podcast-Pause wieder anzufangen und spricht über den Druck, Inhalte zu produzieren, die gut ankommen. Denn Kreativität braucht Räume, in denen sie nicht sofort bewertet wird, betont sie, doch online scheint das immer seltener möglich.
I might be a little biased since Marilena Berends has become a friend of mine, but her podcast Sinneswandel is absolutely worth listening to. Originally launched as an interview format with (prominent) guests discussing society, the future, and science, she has been publishing mainly solo episodes since this summer—something I particularly enjoy, as I love listening to people think out loud. A great starting point is the episode Wozu das alles? Über kreative Krisen und Sinnfragen, where Marilena reflects on the difficulty of returning after a two-month podcast break and the pressure to create content that resonates with audiences. Creativity, she argues, needs spaces where it isn’t immediately judged, but online those spaces are becoming increasingly rare.
Von innen nach außen: Der Podcast der Karriereberatung Struss & Claussen ist für mich ein gelungenes Beispiel eines Branded Podcasts: In jeder Folge interviewt Jalée Grau die beiden Coaches Ragnhild Struss und Johann Claussen zu Themen wie Persönlichkeitsentwicklung, Lebens- und Karriereplanung oder Sinnsuche – also genau das, was Millennials wie mich beschäftigt. Manche Episoden, etwa über Selbstvertrauen oder Insecure Overachiever, habe ich mir sogar mehrfach angehört. Außerdem gibt es zu jeder regulären Folge eine kurze als Zusammenfassung mit dem wichtigsten Punkt – praktisch für alle mit wenig Zeit. Struss und Claussen gehen dabei inhaltlich erstaunlich tief, zeigen ihre Expertise und machen ihren Podcast damit zur perfekten Werbung für ihre Beratungsangebote – ein Format, von dem sich viele Brands eine Scheibe abschneiden könnten.
For me, the Struss & Claussen career coaching podcast is a great example of a successful branded podcast. In each episode, Jalée Grau interviews the two coaches, Ragnhild Struss and Johann Claussen, on topics like personal development, life and career planning, or finding meaning—exactly the issues that concern millennials like me. Some episodes, such as those on self-confidence or “Insecure Overachiever,” I’ve even listened to multiple times. In addition, every regular episode comes with a short summary episode highlighting the key point—practical for anyone with limited time. Struss and Claussen dive remarkably deep into the content, demonstrating their expertise and making their podcast the perfect showcase for their coaching services—a format from which many brands could learn a thing or two.
Thank you for sharing, Denise!
You can connect with her on LinkedIn here.]
🚀Events and Opportunities🚀
Imison Audio Drama Award and Tinniswood Audio Drama Award (The UK)
The Imison Award is presented annually to the best audio drama script by a writer new to the medium and which, in the opinion of the judges, is the best of those submitted. The Tinniswood Award is presented annually to the best original audio drama script of the year.
When? October 5.
Are you a beginner or experienced audio producer who loves storytelling? Take the SONAR Challenge. The mission is simple: create an original audio story, no longer than 5 minutes, based on one of this year’s two categories. You can participate individually or as a team.
When? October 12.
Norwich Podcast Festival (The UK)
Norwich Podcast Festival is a celebration of audio and podcasts - for those behind the mic and those who love to listen. Hosted by SOUNDYARD, an award-winning non-profit studio based on Magdalen Street in Norwich.
When? October 17-19.
That’s it for now, thank you for reading!
Got an opportunity, podcast recommendation, or event to share for the next issue? Reply to this email or drop me a message.
Until next time,
Andreea Coscai
Thanks for the shout out💁♀️ ✨️✨️✨️♥️♥️