The 86th Peabody Awards ceremony is happening tonight at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles. As a member of the Interactive and Immersive jury, I had a role in selecting this year’s nominees and winners, as each one is decided by a unanimous vote of the jury.
It’s not always easy to track down links to the interactive and immersive titles, so I’ve gathered them for you in this post. The summaries below are based on those posted on the Peabody site, with a little of my own input added.
Coming off four years now as a member of this particular Peabody Award jury, I’m really proud of the journalists, game developers, and creators winning this year. I was also inspired by all of the other titles I got to take a look at — including the nominees that didn’t ultimately take home an award. Being a nominee is a BIG deal due to the rules in the deliberation process. Any title that got that far should not be shy about forever listing themselves as Peabody-Nominated because even that designation is almost impossible to clinch.
At a time when practically every content-creation vertical is under financial stress and reinventing itself, I’m confident that “stories that matter” will continue to be told in whatever medium audiences prefer in the future.
Winners
South of Midnight (Game — Compulsion Games) — https://store.steampowered.com/app/1934570/South_of_Midnight/
This is an interactive folktale set in the U.S. South. It draws on Southern Gothic tradition and Afro-Southern folklore, treating its setting as integral rather than decorative. I found this game so compelling that I would not be surprised if it’s turned into a movie or series, like what happened with The Last of Us and Fallout.
Investigating War Crimes in Gaza (Al Jazeera) — https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2025/4/16/israeli-soldiers-filmed-themselves-destroying-gaza-see-the-video-evidence
The Al Jazeera Investigative Unit assembled a documentary and supporting database cataloging potential war crimes committed during the war in Gaza. Much of the evidence comes from footage that Israeli soldiers themselves posted online under their own names. Make sure you’re in a strong emotional state before delving into this one.
Cleared by Fire (Interactive documentary — The New Yorker) — https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/in-the-dark/cleared-by-fire (subscription required; the interactive documentary is at https://www.newyorker.com/season3)
This is an interactive documentary examining the 2005 Haditha massacre, in which U.S. Marines killed 24 civilians and no one was held accountable. It combines investigative reporting, 3D reconstructions, and personal narratives to let viewers move through the conflicting accounts of what happened.
ICE Sweeps Georgia (Social video series — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) — https://www.tiktok.com/@soul_and_substance/collection/Immigration%20Crackdown-7574124060167244575
A vertical-video series capturing the human cost of immigration enforcement through body-camera footage and first-person perspective. Built by four reporters and more than a dozen video producers, it grew from individual stories into a broader portrait of federal power affecting local lives, drawing 2.8 million views. Notably, the newsroom produced it as social-native journalism the same year it ended its print run after 157 years.
Nominees
Consume Me (Game — Hexecutable LLC) — https://store.steampowered.com/app/2359120/Consume_Me/
This semi-autobiographical game from director Jenny Jiao Hsia is about her experience with dieting and disordered eating as an Asian American teenager in the early 2010s. I have to say, while this game was definitely not made for my demographic, I found myself quickly hooked, and I now look at the pressures of disordered eating, exercising, and the insanity of it all with more compassion — including my own!
One family. One attack. 132 names. A Gaza investigation. (Interactive journalism — NPR) — https://apps.npr.org/gaza-building-israel-strike-casualties/
This NPR investigation reconstructed an Israeli airstrike that killed more than 132 members of a single extended family in a Gaza apartment building. The piece works to name and account for each of the dead. It also surfaces the difficulty of documenting casualties amid an active conflict and restricted press access.
Education in Ruins: Gaza’s Children on Losing Their Right to Learn (Interactive journalism — CNN) — https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2025/03/middleeast/gaza-education-children-schools/
This is a powerful interactive journalism piece documenting how the war in Gaza has devastated children’s access to education. It uses interactive maps, video interviews, and personal narratives to build an immersive, humanizing portrait of the crisis. The focus stays on the voices of students and educators living through the disruption.
Carbon Cowboys: Stories of Soil Health and Farmer Wealth (Social video series — Earth School Educational Foundation) — https://carboncowboys.org/
This is a unique social video project that turns documentary viewing into an interactive experience centered on regenerative agriculture and soil health. By pairing cinematic storytelling with participatory elements on social platforms, it amassed more than 150 million views.