Tag: Connie Walker

Spotify Original Podcast ‘Stolen’ Adds a Pulitzer and Peabody

May 9, 2023

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Earlier this year, thanks to its impactful reporting, the Spotify Original podcast Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award. Now the series is adding the prestigious Pulitzer and Peabody awards to its list. Stolen is the first podcast series to win both a Pulitzer Prize and Peabody Award in the same year.

Photo credit: Robert McGee

“Honestly, I’ve been pinching myself over this news. It is such an incredible honor for our work on Surviving St. Michael’s to receive this recognition. It feels like proof that Indigenous stories matter and that Indigenous people should be supported to help tell them,” said Connie Walker, an Okanese First Nation (Cree) investigative reporter and the host of Stolen. “Above all, our team hopes that this means that more people will hear the stories of the survivors who bravely shared their experiences with us and recognize that this is just the beginning in terms of what it means to learn the truth and try to collectively grow and heal from our past.”

Connie and Spotify’s Gimlet Media team were awarded a 2023 Pulitzer Prize in the Audio Reporting category. The Pulitzer Prize marks excellence in the fields of newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition.

Peabody Awards are also a great honor, given to the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and online media. Stolen won in the Podcast and Radio category.

“It’s an honor to receive any recognition for the work our teams produce at Spotify, but for Stolen to achieve the highest level of recognition with both a Pulitzer Prize and a Peabody is an incredible feat,” shared Julie McNamara, Head of Global Podcast Studios at Spotify. “Connie has given a voice to the victims of Canada’s Indian residential schools and to Indigenous communities. She and the Gimlet team worked tirelessly to earn the respect of the victims in order to tell their stories and offer a path toward healing and hope. We’re incredibly proud of Connie and the entire Stolen team.” 

Photo credit: Connie Walker

Stolen follows Connie as she looks into her father’s harrowing experiences at a Canadian residential school in the 1960s. Throughout the season, she uncovers deep abuses at the hands of school administrators that led to childhood death and adulthood trauma—outcomes that were not unique to St. Michael’s.   

The podcast also received an honorable mention at the Dart Awards, which recognizes outstanding reporting in all media that portrays traumatic events and their aftermath with accuracy, insight, and sensitivity while illuminating the effects of violence and tragedy on victims’ lives.

This fall, the third season of Stolen will take listeners to the Navajo Nation as Connie and team investigate the case of two missing Navajo women. “It’s huge—27,000 square miles of remote terrain with fewer than 200 tribal police officers,” explained Connie. “One thing I’ve learned so far is that on the Navajo Nation, the line between missing and murdered is often difficult to prove. In many ways, this season builds on the themes we’ve explored in previous seasons, but hopefully in a way that feels different and exciting to our listeners.”

 

While you’re waiting for the new season, we recommend revisiting Season 1, Stolen: The Search for Jermain, which recently published an episode detailing new developments to the story. 

‘Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s Wins duPont-Columbia Award for Journalism

February 10, 2023

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Journalist Connie Walker often tackles projects that hit close to home, but none compares to the second season of her Gimlet and Spotify Original podcast, Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s. Throughout the eight-episode journey, the Okanese First Nation (Cree) investigative reporter takes a look into her father’s harrowing experiences at a Canadian residential school in the 1960s. She uncovers deep abuses at the hands of school administrators that led to childhood death and adulthood trauma—outcomes that were not unique to St. Michael’s.   

Connie’s deeply personal telling of this harrowing story has made a profound impact on investigative journalism. On February 6, Connie and the Stolen team won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for the series. This prestigious award honors the best in broadcast, documentary, and on-line reporting as selected by peers and fellow journalists. Stolen is the first Spotify or Gimlet podcast to receive a duPont.

For the Record caught up with Connie a few days after the award ceremony to hear more. 

What was your reaction to finding out you won a duPont?

I was thrilled. And also kind of in disbelief. It’s such an incredible award, and just to have that type of recognition for our podcast, it was just so unbelievable and thrilling. I’m still pinching myself. 

Looking back on the season, were there any elements of investigating, recording, or editing that stood out as notable to you?

This is a very different story for me, perhaps because it’s such a personal story. As journalists, we’re often advised not to make yourself part of the story—it’s kind of a taboo thing. And so that was really a big challenge for me personally, to include so much of my personal story and my father’s family story in the podcast. But it also felt like the perfect format for doing that, you know? A serialized investigative podcast allowed us to really explore all the nuance and context that’s so important in understanding not just residential schools but stories about Indigenous people in general. 

Surviving St. Michael’s started out as this really personal story about my father and his experience at a residential school—I never imagined it would end up as one of the most comprehensive investigations into a single residential school. And what we were able to uncover in our investigation was staggering. One thought I had as it was happening was, “This should have happened earlier.” The window for accountability is shrinking, and the window for survivors is shrinking as well. Coming out of this, I feel the urgency to keep on telling these stories. 

The jury commended the series for “its consistent focus in pursuing the truth.” What are your hopes for mainstream media and its future focus on the realities Indigenous people faced and still face? 

I started my career over 20 years ago when there was really very little interest in our communities and very little understanding of the importance of our stories. And to be at this point where now I’m supported to share these stories on Gimlet and Spotify—with the big audiences and the ability to take some of these big risks with our storytelling—it kind of feels to me like a dream come true and something that I just want to continue for as long as I can. There’s been a huge shift in the last 5 to 10 years, not just in terms of an understanding of how important our stories are, but also that Indigenous people should be the ones to tell them. And obviously we all want to keep going. We know there are so many more stories. 

Podcasting is becoming an increasingly accessible medium to historically marginalized creators. What would you like to see more of coming out of Indigenous communities? 

I think it’s fantastic that podcasting is now a platform for us to share these really important journalistic and investigative stories. What I personally would love to see more of is a better representation of the diversity of our experiences. Obviously, as an investigative journalist, I’m going to take on a certain kind of story in a podcast like Stolen, but Indigenous people have so much beauty and humor, and an incredible culture, and so many things to share. I feel like it’s never been easier to share some of those parts of our culture and that diversity that exists in our experiences. But I’d love to see more of that—more laughter, more celebration, more sharing of the beauty and strength of our culture.  

What are you up to next?

We’re already hard at work on Season 3 of Stolen! We’ve already done a few recording trips. Our team is really excited to keep going. Like I said, there are so many stories from our community that need to be told, and I’m excited to shed a spotlight on more of them. 

Catch the first episode of the duPont-winning series below.

Journalist Connie Walker Leverages True Crime Format To Spread Awareness of Violence Against Indigenous Women in ‘Stolen’

March 8, 2021

Journalist Connie Walker’s first podcast detailing violence against Indigenous women, Missing & Murdered: Who Killed Alberta Williams? was originally meant to be a two-minute news story. But while attending a conference about reporting on Indigenous issues in her home of Saskatchewan, Canada, the Okanese First Nation (Cree) journalist was compelled to go deeper. So she took a 20-year-old murder case and turned it into an eight-part investigation into the traumatic history of residential schools for First Nation Canadians. Then, she followed up with another award-winning season, Finding Cleo. 

Now, five years later, Connie has released her newest investigative podcast, Stolen: The Search for Jermain. The show focuses on the case of Jermain Charlo, a 23-year-old Indigenous mother who suddenly disappeared in Missoula, Montana, in June 2018. Connie ventures into the ongoing investigation in the popular true crime style. Stolen also carefully examines what it means to be an Indigenous person in America, as the show explains how Jermain’s case represents the larger epidemic of violence that faces Indigenous women and girls.

For the Record sat down with Connie ahead of the release of episode 2 to learn more about the importance and process of telling Jermain’s story.

What about Jermain’s story called to you? Of the many women you research and report on, why did you choose her for your next podcast?