Amanda Cupido leads the conversation

As a student, Amanda Cupido took advantage of everything Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU, then Ryerson) had to offer. She was goalkeeper for the women’s soccer team, lived in residence at Pitman Hall, had a show on the campus radio station, and forged bonds with fellow students and professors that continue to this day.

Amanda was the first in her family to attend university and chose to pursue journalism. While her parents were unfamiliar with the field, they were fully onboard. “My dad said, ‘I want you to go to the best school for whatever you want to pursue,’” Amanda recalled. “That’s why he was really supportive of me going to Ryerson, because it really was the best in class.”

Since graduating, Amanda has worked as a news anchor, a producer and eventually the first woman to be a program director of a talk radio station in Toronto. She also worked in the non-profit sector, where she travelled the world and told stories from areas in conflict, like Myanmar and Afghanistan.

In 2020, Amanda launched her company, Lead Podcasting, and has become a leader in the audio storytelling space, including authoring a bestselling book, Let’s Talk Podcasting. Recently, Amanda sold Lead Podcasting to The Walrus, a respected, independent Canadian media organization. 

“Podcasting broadened the horizons of broadcasting. I’ve always had a passion for lifting the voices of traditionally underrepresented groups, whether it be by age or culture or geography,” she said.

Leaning into that, Amanda created the Lead Podcasting Award, which supports students in TMU’s School of Journalism. While the award honours one podcast each year, all applicants get their audio played on Podcasters on the Rise, under The Walrus’s podcast slate.

“That gives them this very meaningful platform for their stories to be heard and for them to be championed at a young stage in their career,” said Amanda.

Connecting communities through audio storytelling is Amanda’s passion, as is maintaining that bond with her alma mater. “I’ve had a very non-linear career journey, but in the best of ways. I loved it and I’ve always had a throughline to TMU.”

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