The Winners Of The 2021 Discover Pods Awards Announced

Discoverpods -- https://discoverpods.com/ -- is a website that focuses exclusively on podcasts and podcasting. The robust site contains sections on podcaster equipment, podcasting tips for beginners, podcast reviews, and podcast essays. The site is authored by contributors who can sign up to be considered as story contributors. The site provides a comprehensive roadmap for podcasters and podcast listeners with carefully curated reviews and a fortune-teller’s gifts for divining the future of podcasting in nascent trends.

For the last five years, Discover Pods -- guided by its owner and editor Kevin Goldberg -- has held an award campaign for podcasts in a host of categories ranging from Best Overall to Best History podcast to Best LGBTQ+ category. 

Readers / listeners are invited to first nominate podcasts in each category and then vote on those nominations. Each year, tens of thousands of votes are cast.

As Goldberg mentions right before unveiling the winners, "In my opinion, podcast discovery remains a very real problem for the industry (see: the domain name of this site.), and as such I deliver a similar challenge to readers every year: If you haven’t heard of another nominated podcast in a category you’re interested in please give it a listen. These podcasts are all deserving of recognition and who knows, maybe you’ll find a new podcast to add to your queue."

You can check out all the nominees and winners here.

The winner in the overall category was Old Gods of Appalachia.

This is the ABOUT tab in the podcast's website.
"Old Gods of Appalachia is an eldritch horror anthology podcast set in the darkest mountains in the world. Our world is an Alternate Appalachia, where these mountains were never meant to be inhabited.

"Long before anyone lived in these hills, beings of immeasurable darkness and incomprehensible madness were entombed here. It was during this bygone age, when the Appalachians towered much higher and more menacing than the gentle slopes and ridges we know today, that they were conscripted after a great battle to serve as the final prison for those dark forces. But of course, time marches inexorably on. Eons passed and the walls of the prison begin to wear thin. And Things that slumbered soundlessly below for millennia began to stir and become restless.

"They began to call to those who would hear them.

"To dig. To seek and find. To follow and serve. To keep this dark and bloody land for themselves and their masters."

"I hadn't listened to this podcast but after its win and reading the creepy ABOUT section, I decided to give it a listen. Definitely worth some "ear time.""

My favorite winners are Conan O'Brien for Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. O'Brien gets my vote for two reasons. First, O'Brien is genuinely funny and insightful. Second, because he recognized early on that podcasting had a future and got in before the mad rush of celebrities doing their podcast interview shows where their favorite topic just happens to be "them."


Also, The History Chicks won again for Best History podcast. I interviewed hosts Kansas natives Beckett Graham and Susan Vollenweider when they won in 2019 and found them delightful. They are deserving winners because they found a critical part of history that has been neglected for centuries -- women's contributions throughout history. Further, they are original, bootstrapped, independent podcast, which is vanishing these days.

Beckett had been frustrated with the lack of online coverage of women’s history. In 2010, Beckett approached her friend Susan – a Kansas City Star columnist and freelance writer – and together over several kitchen table meetings, they created a slightly irreverent podcast and website focused on women’s contributions to history.

I also have to give a hand to the winner in the Society & Culture category : 99% Invisible. Despite the fact that Roman Mars sold out to SiriusXM after being such a champion for indie podcasting, the show continues to excel, especially since its covers a visual medium like design in an audio format. Talk about your degree of difficulty.

 

 Kudos to NPR Morning Edition for winning in the News category. With podcasting growing in popularity, it was inevitable that it would attract the conspiracy theorists, the grievance masters, the ax grinders, and those who cloak themselves in patriotism to foster hate and dissension. 

It's heartening to see that a news shows that reports on the news rather than surgically alter it is recognized by so many for its excellence.

Finally, LeVar Burton Reads wins for Best Arts podcast and as his podcast notes read, "LeVar’s narration blends with gorgeous soundscapes to bring stories by Neil Gaiman, Haruki Murakami, Octavia Butler, Ray Bradbury and more."

Burton's narrative skill and the high production values make this show that attracts listeners to great literature through the audio medium.

Check out all the categories of the 2021 Discover Pods awards. The website lists the winner and runner-up in addition to all the nominated shows. I've already found five or six new podcasts to listen to from the "nominations" lists.

Special recognition goes to Kevin Goldberg and Discover Pods. These awards are not just about recognition for a job well done in the podcasting space. They also generate greater visibility for quality podcasts that listeners may not have heard about. It's about giving back to the industry where you work.

Take that, Oscars and Emmys.