Peabody Recognizes Socially Conscious Storytelling
Each year, Peabody Awards recognize stories notable for their excellence as well as their resonance—whether it’s a warning to heed, injustice to address, or tragedy to observe with clear eyes and open hearts.
“The Peabody Awards have always been about more than a gorgeous face and a compelling tale told right—they also recognize stories that reflect where we are as a society,” Jacqueline Cutler noted in Variety earlier this year. “The 77-year-old awards pride themselves on maintaining relevance. And this year’s winners grapple with women’s rights, racism, nationalism, guns and environmentalism.”
After the awards are bestowed, the Peabody Media Center continues the conversation with a commitment to changing the narrative of how we think, talk, and react to today’s most pressing issues. As the scholarly research center and media production arm of the renowned awards program, the Media Center creates public programming that shines a light on the yearly award winners and nominees. It also supports critical scholarly engagement that addresses today’s changing media industry landscape.
Below are recurring social issues addressed by Peabody Award winners and nominees between 2014-2019; winners indicated in bold; nominees in italics. While not an exhaustive list of all stories recognized by the program, it offers insight into how Peabody reflects the pulse of important issues of the day.
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RACE AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
- ABC News 20/20 in collaboration with The Courier Journal: Say Her Name: Breonna Taylor (2020)
- Arrested at School (2016)
- Atlanta (2016)
- black-ish (2015)
- Buried Truths (2018)
- Cops and Robbers (2020)
- Full Disclosure (2020)
- In The Dark: The Path Home (2019)
- Kept Out (2018)
- Monumental Lies (2018)
- OJ: Made in America (2016)
- Politically Charged (2021)
- Post Reports: The Life of George Floyd (2020)
- Prone (2021)
- Random Acts of Flyness (2018)
- Separated: Children at the Border (2018)
- Serial (2014)
- 74 Seconds (2017)
- Southwest of Salem: The San Antonio Four (2016)
- 13th (2016)
- The Laquan McDonald Investigation (2015)
- The Newburgh Sting (2014)
- Time: The Kalief Browder Story (2017)
- True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality (2019)
- Unwarranted (2019)
- Watchmen (2019)
- When They See Us (2019)
- Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2017)
- All In with Chris Hayes: Back to Baltimore (2015)
- Cruel & Unusual: Texan Prison Crisis (2015)
- Detained (2019)
- Ear Hustle (2017, 2018)
- Headlong: Running From COPS (2019)
- In The Dark: Season Two (2018)
- 70 Million (2019)
- 16 Shots (2019)
- Strong Island (2017)
- The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2016)
- The Night Of (2016)
- The Return (2016)
- Unprisoned (2016)
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BLACK LIVES
- Atlanta (2016)
- black-ish (2016)
- David Makes Man (2019)
- Doc McStuffins (2014)
- Facing Race (2020)
- Have You Heard George’s Podcast? (2019)
- Independent Lens: Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2019)
- High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America (2021)
- Insecure (2017)
- The Jazz Ambassadors (2017)
- Lemonade (2016)
- Long Island Divided (2019)
- Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart (2018)
- Mavis! (2016)
- Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise (2017)
- Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown (2014)
- Mr Soul! (2021)
- OJ: Made in America (2016)
- Pose (2018)
- Secret Mustard Gas Experiments (2015)
- Small Axe (2020)
- State of the Re:Union (2014)
- Summer of Soul (2021)
- 74 Seconds (2017)
- The Case for School Desegregation Today (2015)
- The Good Lord Bird (2020)
- The Knick (2014)
- The Promise: Season 2 (2020)
- Time: The Kalief Browder Story (2017)
- Uncivil: The Raid (2017)
- VICE on Showtime: Losing Ground (2020)
- Watchmen (2019)
- What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015)
- Whose Vote Counts (2020)
- Book of Negroes (2015)
- Precious Lives (2015)
- The Black Panthers (2016)
- The Defiant Ones (2017)
- This Is Us (2016)
- Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (2015)
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ENVIRONMENT AND PLANET HEALTH
- Chasing Coral (2017)
- COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey (2014)
- Dangerous Exposure (2016)
- Floodlines (2020)
- Hell and High Water (2016)
- Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel: The Killing Fields (2015)
- The Islands and the Whales (2017)
- Threshold: The Refuge (2019)
- Virunga (2014)
- Gardeners of Eden (2015)
- Get Real: Heart of the Haze (2015)
- Planet Earth II (2017)
- The Rain Forest Was Here (2015)
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IMMIGRATION AND IMMIGRANT LIVES
- Asian Americans (2020)
- Don’t Tell Anyone (2015)
- Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King (2017)
- Immigration Nation (2020)
- Independent Lens: Dolores (2018)
- Indivisible (2017)
- Jane the Virgin (2014)
- La Llorona (2020)
- Master of None (2015)
- Muslim in Trump’s America (Exposure) (2020)
- PBS NewsHour: Desperate Journey (2020)
- Ramy (2019)
- Reservation Dogs (2021)
- The Hidden Workforce: Undocumented in America (2019)
- Abdi and the Golden Ticket (2015)
- Divided by Law (2015)
- Fresh Off The Boat (2015)
- One Day at a Time (2017)
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WOMEN’S ISSUES & HEALTH
- Audrie & Daisy (2016)
- Anatomy of Doubt (2016)
- Believed (2018)
- Better Things (2016)
- Dickinson (2019)
- Fleabag (2019)
- For Sama (2019)
- Hannah Gadsby: Nanette (2018)
- Hooligan Sparrow (2016)
- I May Destroy You (2020)
- Independent Lens: India’s Daughter (2015)
- Independent Lens: Trapped (2016)
- Inside Amy Schumer (2014)
- Jane the Virgin (2014)
- Lost Mothers: Maternal Mortality in the U.S. (2017)
- Marvel’s Jessica Jones (2015)
- #MoreThanMean (2016)
- POV: The Apology (2018)
- Spartan Silence: Crisis at Michigan State (2018)
- Surviving R. Kelly (2019)
- The Appointment (2021)
- The Cut: Exploring FGM (2017)
- The Handmaid’s Tale (2017)
- Unbelievable (2019)
- Under the Radar (2014)
- Unorthodox (2020)
- A Girl in the River (2016)
- A Life Sentence (2016)
- Alias Grace (2017)
- American Experience: The Vote (2020)
- Learning To Skateboard in a War Zone (if you’re a girl) (2019)
- Motherland (2017)
- One Child Nation (2019)
- 100 Women (2016)
- POV: Roll Red Roll (2019)
- POV: What Tomorrow Brings (2016)
- Predator in My Phone (2017)
- The Catch and Kill Podcast with Ronan Farrow (2018)
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LGBTQ
- My Name is Pauli Murray (2021)
- Sort Of (2021)
- The Owl House (2020)
- Transnational (2021)
- Welcome to Chechnya (2020)