05 Nov A Banner Year for Manny Faces Media: Sound, Story & Impact in 2025 🎧
2025 has been a year of recognition, growth, and purpose for Manny Faces Media. We’ve continued to prove that thoughtful, mission-driven audio production can shape culture and spark dialogue — and the industry took notice.
🏆 This Year’s Wins
- Gold Signal Award — Hip Hop Can Save America!
- Podcast-Turned-Book — Hip Hop Can Save America!
- Webby Award Winner — Beyond Voting
- Produced by Philos Future Media (with audio engineering and sound design by Manny Faces Media)
- Bronze Signal Award — Beyond Voting
- Award TBA — Beyond Voting
- Partnership with MeidasTouch Network — Unf*cking The Republic
- TED Talk — “Hip Hop’s Problem-Solving Framework”
🎙️ About Hip Hop Can Save America!
Our flagship podcast — and now a Gold Signal Award winner — continues to spotlight how Hip Hop inspires innovation, education, and community change. In 2025, that impact expanded with the release of the book Hip Hop Can Save America! Inspiration for the Nation from a Culture of Innovation, published by Peter Lang Publishing and endorsed by Dr. Cornel West. The book documents real-world examples of Hip Hop as a framework for social progress.
🔊 About Beyond Voting
Produced by Philos Future Media in partnership with the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College, Beyond Voting explores what democracy looks like beyond the ballot box — uplifting voices and movements working for systemic change. Manny Faces Media provided audio engineering and sound design, helping translate these powerful stories into immersive, emotive listening experiences.
📈 New Reach for Unf*cking the Republic (UNFTR)
Another show we’re proud to work on — Unf*cking the Republic — saw major growth this year as host Max expanded his audience through the MeidasTouch Network, where he now provides socio-economic and political commentary on their YouTube channel. Manny Faces Media serves as audio engineer for UNFTR and our president occasionally appears on the show.
🎤 Leadership Notes
This year, the president of Manny Faces Media delivered a TEDx talk and authored the Hip Hop Can Save America! book — milestones that further our mission to bridge media and movement.
💡 Why It Matters
These honors aren’t just about trophies — they represent a through-line in our work: sound as strategy, story as infrastructure. Whether we’re helping amplify democracy and justice through Beyond Voting, elevating rigorous analysis with UNFTR, or celebrating the transformative power of Hip Hop, our goal remains the same — to engineer audio that matters and create content with soul.
🚀 Looking Ahead
With these accomplishments as fuel, we’re lining up new projects that continue to merge journalism, culture, and impact. Thank you to our partners, collaborators, and listeners for helping us remix the soundscape of social change.
— The Manny Faces Media Team