Gimlet Media’s Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s is the 2023 winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for audio reporting. The second season of its Stolen series was released in May 2022 as investigative journalist Connie Walker came upon a story about her late father. The Pulitzer judges say that Walker’s investigation into her father’s troubled past “revealed a larger story of abuse of hundreds of indigenous children at a residential school in Canada, including other members of Walker’s family and a search for answers expertly blended with rigorous investigative reporting.”
During the podcast, Walker’s months-long investigation into St. Michael’s Residential School through the podcast exposed more than 200 allegations of sexual abuse against priests, nuns, and staff who worked at the school. The series centered on Walker’s immediate family, interrogated the cycles of abuse that often start with childhood trauma, while also offering a path towards healing and hope.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said the award is “such an honor” for their Gimlet studio, and in a brief post on social media urged people to listen.
The prize comes on the heels of last month’s announcement that Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s had won a Peabody Award.It has also won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, an Ellie from the American Society of Magazine Editors, and an honorable mention for the Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma.
The Pulitzer Board added an audio reporting category in 2020 in recognition of what it said was the “renaissance of audio journalism in recent years.” The audio category is open to just broadcast radio outlets and podcasters. The Pulitzer board is accepting audio submissions from any U.S. newspaper, magazine, wire service or online news outlet that regularly publishes, as well as independent producers.
See a list of all of 2023’s Pulitzer Prize winners HERE.