Journalists Mathilda Mallinson and Helena Wadia co-created Media Storm for The House of the Guilty Feminist. The multi-award-winning investigative podcast platforms communities that are often patronised or demonised in the press (including transgender healthcare, sex work, fatphobia and more), challenging dated practices of ‘false balance’ in the news that see current affairs reduced to binary debates.
Prior to focusing on the audio world, Wadia worked for the Evening Standard, Channel 5 News, BBC Asian Network and in many television documentary production and development companies. She regularly contributes to NME as a presenter for their ‘In Conversation’ series, and is currently a news anchor on London Live News at Six. Mallinson, meanwhile, has produced multimedia campaigns for Amnesty International and Choose Love, directing fundraiser videos with national treasures such as Emma Thompson and David Tennant. Mallinson also co-founded the Refugee Media Centre to increase refugee voices in broadcasting, and has worked in this capacity with BBC Radio 4, Sky News, Times Radio and others to produce audio news centring underheard voices.
Media Storm has garnered many awards, including winning Best Current Affairs podcast at the British Podcast Awards within a year of launching, against industry titans like the BBC, Economist and Guardian. Mallinson and Wadia also won the Silver ARIA for Best Presenters (second to Woman’s Hour’s Emma Barnett), a Role Models award at the International Women’s Podcast Awards, and were shortlisted for Interviewer of the Year at the British Journalism Awards.
