“The Goalhanger bursary set me on the path to my dream career in podcasting,” says Hannah Grieve

The master’s also held networking sessions, such as the Pod Gold event alongside MA Broadcasting students.

“I feel much more employable to work in a range of jobs in journalism now,” Hannah said. “It is a real crash course in journalism, and you are learning from some of the best in the industry.

Storytelling is at the heart of podcasting, and Hannah described the yearlong module on the topic as her favourite class.

One of the most impactful talks was from guest speaker Basia Cummings, Editor at Tortoise Media, who described the “washing line narrative” theory. This theory helps her visualise multiple storylines (or pieces of washing) to understand how they feed into one overarching story (or washing line).

The first podcast Hannah co-created for the degree was Collectors’ Notes, which is a series about music superfans and the music items or formats they love to collect, be it cassettes or vinyl.

Alongside classmates Chloe Sackur and Elly Young, she interviewed opera lover, David, who has been to over 5,000 live performances and was once a drag queen.

One of Hannah’s favourite projects to work on during the master’s was the podcast Women’s World: Equity by Design, which was commissioned by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in which the podcasting students interviewed leading healthcare experts from across the globe.

The UNFPA is the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, whose mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.

The UNFPA partnership was spearheaded by Brett Spencer, Director of the University’s Centre for Podcasting Excellence, who has decades of experience working in radio and now podcasting at the BBC and at Bauer Media, and is a testament to vast network the University’s lecturers bring to their teaching.

The podcast is due to be launched in July, and Hannah’s group’s episode focuses on women’s health and medical misogyny. She hopes it will raise consciousness about some of the problems and solutions to the inequality problem in women’s healthcare.

“It’s been an honour to work on such an important and meaningful podcast,” she said. “I hope it reaches as many ears as possible, as it not only explores the problems in healthcare but also presents some of the solutions to these problems.”

Hannah believes every module has been crucial to her development as a podcaster and described the year as “fun and busy”. She said:

Her bursary was provided by Goalhanger, which is the UK’s largest independent podcast producer, and produces hit shows like The Rest is History, The Rest is Politics and Empire.

As well as the financial support, Hannah had the chance to gain work experience with Goalhanger, which saw her working at The Royal Albert Hall for a live show of the Rest is Entertainment. She said:

Find out more about the MA in Podcasting, or about the Spotify and Goalhanger bursaries.