Calkins’ fictional detective podcast earned Best New Podcast at the International Student Broadcasting Championship, a global competition featuring top student creators from Europe, Australia and the United States.
What began as a student experiment in recreating the charm of old-school detective radio dramas has now earned international recognition for Will Calkins ’25. His fictional podcast, “Lucky Day: The Guy Graves Story,” grew out of a desire to honor the style and energy of classic hard-boiled serials while learning the craft of audio storytelling from the ground up.
That creative spark led Calkins, a cinema and television arts BFA major, to win the Best New Podcast award at the 2025 International Student Broadcasting Championship (ISBC), announced during the competition’s virtual awards ceremony on Nov. 18.
To watch the award presentation, visit the ISBC awards ceremony recording. (Calkins’ category begins at the 8:20-minute mark.)
The ISBC is a global competition celebrating standout student work in audio and video production. Each year, submissions from universities and colleges around the world are reviewed by an international panel of media professionals. Organizers noted that 2025 marked the competition’s strongest and most internationally diverse field to date.
The finalists in Calkins’ category reflected that reach. Students from Syracuse University, the University of Antonio de Nebrija in Madrid, the University of South Australia, the University of Sydney, and the Australian Film Television & Radio School joined Calkins on the shortlist.
The “Lucky Day” podcast, which was produced in fall 2024 as part of the Audio for Sound and Digital Media course taught by Bryan Baker, director of technology, operations and multimedia projects, has collected other accolades. In spring 2025, the podcast earned second place in the Narrative Audio category at the Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts – one of seven awards Baker’s course collected in the competition.
A year later, Calkins still takes pride in the writing and performances that shaped “Lucky Day’s” story.
“I’m proud of the performances of the actors and for the little bits of foreshadowing in the writing,” he said. Calkins added that developing the quirky Tony twins – Snaps and Taps – with fellow Elon student Claire Cohen ’25 remains one of his favorite aspects of the project.
As he looks ahead, the Elon graduate says the project reinforced a lesson he’ll carry forward. “The biggest thing I care about in my career is being able to do creative work and make things I’m proud of,” Calkins said. “If I’m passionate enough about a project, I can really throw myself into it and learn the skills I need to make it a reality.”