Media Girlfriends is an award-winning production company led by journalists of colour — co-founders Nana aba Duncan, Garvia Bailey and Hannah Sung.
The company began in 2016 as a podcast created by Nana aba, who interviewed her friends working in news media about their lives, accomplishments, feelings of inadequacy, money anxiety, intersectionality, Beyoncé’s work ethic and what it’s like to navigate Canada’s journalism industry. It’s since been incorporated into an award-winning production and consulting company that aims for joyful creativity and to honour historically misrepresented voices through audio storytelling done with care.
Media Girlfriends’ debut show Strong and Free/Fort et Libre is a Black history podcast and video series for Historica Canada. The series was recognized by the Black Podcasting Awards, the RTDNA Canada Awards, the Digital Publishing Award and the Canadian Online Publishing Awards. Other Media Girlfriends shows include Humans of The House, Signal For Help, which Nana aba hosts, and Between Us with Wes Hall.
We honour, respect and centre historically misrepresented voices through audio storytelling done with care. We aim for joyful creativity.
Our core talent represents over half a century of award-winning journalism and storytelling experience with the CBC, The Globe and Mail, Hot Docs, The Walrus Lab, Huffington Post, MuchMusic, RBC, Historica Canada and more. We’ve taught at universities including the University of Western Ontario, the University of British Columbia, and Carleton University’s School of Journalism. We’ve led workshops for leading organizations like Hot Docs Podcast Festival, the Rotman School of Management, Artscape Launchpad, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Toronto International Film Festival, among others.
Media Girlfriends worked with Historica Canada to produce Strong and Free, or Fort et Libre in French, a Black history podcast and video series. Led by Garvia Bailey and Hannah Sung, the series features pioneers including Black abolitionist Mary Ann Shadd, the first woman newspaper publisher in North America. Available now.
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Media Girlfriends started in 2016 as a podcast created by Nana aba Duncan, who interviewed her girlfriends working in news media about their lives, accomplishments, feelings of inadequacy, making money, intersectionality, Beyoncé’s work ethic and what it’s like to navigate Canada’s journalism industry. It brought a group of friends even closer together. We ended up becoming each other’s Personal Board of Directors™. This is when you gather people who will help steward the business of YOU. Work can be challenging—especially in Canadian media where lack of inclusion and representation is a problem. We found a lifeline in each other and are each other’s biggest supporters.
In 2019, Media Girlfriends and The Walrus’ executive director Jennifer Hollett had an idea to fulfill a collective goal of supporting a new, inclusive generation of media makers. Through crowdfunding, we launched an annual $30,000 scholarship for women and gender-diverse students looking to study journalism, communications, media or tech. We are grateful to everyone who contributed to these very special scholarships.
In 2020, we began our first media production for Historica Canada. We assembled a talented team of animators, designers, and post-production audio engineers in English and French for a Black history podcast and video series. Strong and Free/Fort et Libre launched October 2021.
The Media Girlfriends mission is to create a space where women and gender-diverse people in media can connect, encourage each other, and share in their success.
OUR TEAM
PODCASTS
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
WHO WE’VE WORKED WITH
SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS
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