Siri Colom, associate professor of sociology at Worcester State University, has reached a media milestone as her 10-part podcast series, “When We All Get to Heaven,” was officially named a nominee for the 86th Annual Peabody Awards in the Radio/Podcast category.
The announcement, made on April 7, by the Peabody Board of Jurors, places Colom’s work among the most captivating and impactful stories in global media. Selected from over 1,000 entries by a unanimous vote of 28 jurors, the nomination solidifies the podcast’s status as a definitive record of LGBTQ+ history and resilience.
Produced by Eureka Street Productions – a collective consisting of Colom, host Lynne Gerber, and Ariana Nedelman – the series was released on Slate last fall to critical acclaim. The project began nearly a decade ago when Gerber discovered a trove of over 1,200 cassette tapes in a San Francisco church that were nearly lost to a trash pile. The tapes contained the heartbeat of the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), a queer Christian sanctuary that held communion services multiple times every Sunday throughout the darkest years of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 90s. Colom describes the project as a labor of love that allowed the team to preserve the stories of a community that faced unimaginable hardship with remarkable resilience and faith.
“Being recognized by the Peabody Awards is a profound testament to the power of these voices,” Colom said. “It affirms that the stories of the Metropolitan Community Church aren’t just local history, but a vital part of our shared human narrative. The three of us are still stunned to have been nominated.”
For Colom, the project was more than an academic or journalistic endeavor; it was a personal journey. Growing up in an evangelical church that was not gay-friendly, she found that producing the series provided a vital space for healing. The podcast is deeply sound-rich, utilizing digitized archival recordings to transport listeners back into the sanctuary. It features traditional evangelical hymns recontextualized within a welcoming LGBTQ+ community, transforming songs that were once sources of trauma into anthems of affirmation.
Colom notes that the series captures the humanity and spirituality of the church’s response to the AIDS crisis, specifically their refusal to deny either their queerness or their religiosity. “There is a specific kind of magic in those tapes,” Colom said. “You can hear the creak of the floorboards and the conviction in the singing; it’s an immersive experience that reminds us that even in the face of death, there was an incredible amount of life being lived.”
While many stories of the 1980s focus primarily on the tragedy of the epidemic, “When We All Get to Heaven” highlights the courage, warmth, and joy of the community. Colom hopes the series will change how people think about religion, queer life, and the importance of community by showing a world where faith and identity are not in conflict.
The Peabody Awards, based at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, honor work that informs, challenges, and drives meaningful change. Final winners will be announced on April 23.
