Five months after launch, the independent podcast for women in midlife, founded by two former corporate executives, took eight honors from the Signal Awards Judging Academy, including Gold for Best Trailer and Silver for Best Video Podcast Host

PHOENIX, Oct. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Five months ago, Erica Brinker left corporate life to launch a podcast for women in midlife, with no network behind her. On Oct. 20, the Signal Awards Judging Academy named her show, At the Brink with Erica Brinker, a Silver winner for Best Video Podcast Host, the same honor it gave Monica Lewinsky and a tier above Anderson Cooper, whose CNN show took Bronze. In all, the show won 11 Signal Awards: a Gold, four Silvers and three Bronzes from the Judging Academy, plus three Listener’s Choice Awards decided by public vote.

The judges placed the show in the same company as some of the most recognized names in media. In Best Video Podcast Guest, At the Brink earned Silver alongside The Oprah Podcast, in a category where The Mel Robbins Podcast took Gold. In Best Guest, it won Silver in a category where Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson’s IMO and The Mel Robbins Podcast took Gold. And in Best Video Podcast Host, its fellow winners included Winfrey, Lewinsky, Cooper and NPR’s Rachel Martin. For a show built by women for women, its first year put it in the company of some of the most influential women in media.

The show’s 2026 Signal Awards:

From the Signal Awards Judging Academy

• Gold: Best Trailer
• Silver: Best Video Podcast Host, Best Video Podcast Guest, Best Video Podcast Show and Best Guest
• Bronze: Best Video Podcast Host (episode) and two in Culture, Belonging & Inclusion

Listener’s Choice, by public vote

• Best Trailer, Best Video Podcast Show and Best Video Podcast Host (episode)

The wins cap a fast first year for a company built on a simple idea: women of a certain age wanted a place of their own to go. They have run companies, raised families, lost parents and started over. They listen to plenty of podcasts, but few are made with them in mind. At the Brink set out to build one where they hear their own lives reflected back, honestly and without a lesson attached.

Five months in, women are finding it. Women make up 85% of the show’s audio audience, according to Acast audience data, and 70% of its YouTube viewers. More than 70% of listeners are between 35 and 64. And the audience is growing fast: the show’s YouTube channel has grown from about 300 subscribers on launch day to more than 6,100, an average of more than 70% growth a month.

Founders Erica Brinker and Sara Glassman are that audience. Both spent decades in corporate America before walking away to tell these stories. Brinker was chief marketing officer at Honeywell (HON) and chief commercial officer at Array Technologies (ARRY), and she is an NACD board-certified director and a two-time Inc. 5000 honoree. Glassman started as a journalist at Seventeen, YM and the Minneapolis Star Tribune, then led content and digital marketing at Honeywell and served as a vice president at U.S. Bank (USB). The two met at Honeywell, where colleagues gave them a nickname that stuck: Serica. Now they are building what they could not find, a place where women of a certain age hear honest stories and find each other.

Two shows, one place

At the Brink Media produces two podcasts for women at their own brink, the moment when a career, a marriage, a body or a sense of self is changing and what comes next is not yet clear:

• At the Brink with Erica Brinker is the weekly video interview show, released every Wednesday. Founders, executives, artists and advocates sit down with Brinker to tell the story of the moment that changed everything and what came after it.
• At the Brink: Unplugged is the weekly companion series, released every Friday, in which Brinker and co-host Sara Glassman keep the mics on after the guest leaves. It covers work, aging, ambition, marriage, money and whatever the internet did that week, with recurring segments including a listener advice letter and Women Who Are Killing It. Its tagline: Honest. Unbothered. Grown.

Guests and conversations

At the Brink with Erica Brinker tells the stories of women and people from marginalized communities whose experiences rarely get a stage, the same work the Signal Awards recognized with two Bronzes for Culture, Belonging & Inclusion. Guests have talked about career reinvention, leaving corporate life, grief, fertility and adoption, cancer and chronic illness, caregiving and mental health. Featured guests include:

• Hilary Simon, whose story was told in Vanity Fair and whose episode was among this year’s Signal winners
• Karina Zuniga, a military spouse who fought the system to get care for her veteran husband, then had to rebuild her own life
• Johanna Ricouz, who got sober, got divorced and now leads a powerful group of women as a Pilates instructor on Peloton
• Katey McPherson, featured in The New York Times, on the Gilbert Goons teen violence case that drew national attention to Gilbert, Ariz.
• Dr. Christine Marie, the trauma and cult psychology specialist featured in the Netflix docuseries “Trust Me: The False Prophet,” in an upcoming episode

On At the Brink: Unplugged, Brinker and Glassman have taken on return-to-office mandates pushing women out of the workplace, the decline of the dinner party, Madonna winning seven VMAs at 68 and Victoria Beckham’s first operating profit in 18 years.

Now in its fifth year, the Signal Awards honors the podcasts and creators shaping culture. This year’s theme was “Recognizing the Risk Takers,” and entries in video categories nearly doubled from last year, alongside growth in independent creators. Gold, Silver and Bronze honors are chosen by the Signal Awards Judging Academy, and Listener’s Choice Awards are decided by public vote. This year’s voting drew more than 260,000 votes from 94,000 unique voters.

As an indie podcast with no network behind it, At the Brink competed against shows from CNN, NPR, POLITICO, Harpo and the Obamas’ Higher Ground in its first year of eligibility.

“We launched At the Brink in May with no network and no famous friends on the couch,” said Erica Brinker, founder, CEO and host of At the Brink Media. “What we had was a hunch that women like us, women who have done the job and lived a little, wanted somewhere that was theirs. I started this show because of the loss of my son Luca, and every week since, I have heard from women who are carrying something and looking for a place to set it down. To be recognized by the judges alongside Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama and Mel Robbins in our first five months tells me they found it. These awards belong to every guest who told the truth in that chair and every woman who listened and voted.”

“Erica and I kept looking for the show where women our age could laugh, vent and be taken seriously in the same hour, and nobody had made it, so we did,” said Sara Glassman, president and executive producer of At the Brink Media and Brinker’s co-host on At the Brink: Unplugged. “Five months ago we had a studio booking, a spreadsheet and a lot of hope. Seeing that work honored next to the biggest names in podcasting is something we will never take for granted.”

What listeners are saying

At the Brink holds a 4.6-star rating on Apple Podcasts and a 4.7-star rating on Spotify. Listeners have written:

• “Erica has a gift. Really enjoying this podcast.” (CorinaPodfan, Apple Podcasts)
• “Feels like you are at a great dinner party as you listen.” (BeReady4it, Apple Podcasts)
• “Entertaining and deep at the same time.” (Tegan Harp, Apple Podcasts)
• “We are not alone in any of this thing called life.” (Lolahiker, Apple Podcasts)

Season 2 and what comes next

The wins come two weeks after the premiere of Season 2, which includes 33 new episodes filmed in New York and Phoenix. Both shows are available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and iHeartRadio. Watch them at youtube.com/@AtTheBrinkPodcast.

Brinker and Glassman will attend the Winner’s Party hosted by the Signal Awards at 501 Union in Brooklyn on Nov. 9, the same day they return to the studio in New York to record new episodes.

Sara Glassman
hello@atthebrinkmedia.com

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