iHeartPodcast Award Nominees Announced: Indie Podcasts Mostly Ignored

  iHeartMedia has announced the nominees for the 2024 iHeartPodcast Awards presented by The Hartford live at SXSW. The awards, which claim to honor the very best in podcasting from 2023 and celebrate the most innovative talent and content creators in the industry, will feature 29 categories spanning podcast genres.

Independent podcasters -- the backbone of podcasting -- are again underrepresented in the award process. Most of the nominees are TV personalities. 

In the United Kingdom on October 31, 2023, the first-ever Independent Podcast Award ceremony was held in London.

The Independent Podcast Awards were set up by whynow Media and the Verbal Diorama podcast team to help uncover the talent that they have in the UK, but that doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves. 

The awards, which were also sponsored by companies including Captivate, Adelicious and Pirate, were launched last year to celebrate the independent podcasting sector.

Perhaps, a similar event will take shape in the U.S.

 

This year, iHeartMedia teamed up with
South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference and Festivals to host the live and in-person ceremony in Austin, Texas at the Fairmont Hotel on Monday, March 11 at 8 p.m. CT. 

“As the podcast industry continues to rapidly grow, this past year has clearly proven that podcasters are always innovating in the audio space and finding new ways to reach and engage new audiences,” said Conal Byrne, CEO of iHeartMedia’s Digital Audio Group. “The nominees for the 2024 iHeartPodcast Awards reflect the results of honing that creativity, and we’re thrilled to celebrate and once again empower these creators and elevate the podcast industry together live in person at SXSW.”

No word from Mr. Byrne about independent podcasters.

 Each year, podcast fans help decide the winner of the Podcast of the Year by voting online at iHeartPodcastAwards.com from February 5 through February 18. 

 
Last year, the virtual 2023 iHeartPodcast Awards were hosted by actor and comedian Brian Baumgartner, and featured a variety of appearances by celebrities who mostly found fame and success on TV.

Maybe this year, the award ceremony will include people who are born and bred in podcasting. 

The full 2024 category nominees are:

 

Podcast of the Year presented by The Hartford:

• Crime Junkie
• The Daily
• My Favorite Murder
• New Heights
• Normal Gossip
• On Purpose with Jay Shetty
• The Retrievals
• Scamanda
• SmartLess
• Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Best Business & Finance:

• Direct Deposit 
• How I Built This
• MoneyWatch with Jill Schlesinger
• Networth & Chill with Your Rich BFF 
• Planet Money

Best Comedy:

• Baby, This is Keke Palmer
• Handsome
• SmartLess
• This Is Important
• Why Won't You Date Me

Best Crime:

• Crime Junkie
• The Girlfriends
• The Retrievals
• Scamanda
• Something Was Wrong

Best Pop Culture:

• Las Culturistas
• I've Had It
• Just B with Bethenny Frankel
• Search Engine
• Watch What Crappens

Best Food Podcast Award Presented by Planet Oat:

• Cereal Killers
• Hungry for History
• Recipe Club
• The Splendid Table
• Sporkful

Best Wellness & Fitness:

• Huberman Lab
• Maintenance Phase
• The Mel Robbins Podcast
• On Purpose with Jay Shetty
• Therapy For Black Girls

Best History:

• Mobituaries with Mo Rocca
• Revisionist History
• Slow Burn
• Throughline
• You're Wrong About

Best Kids & Family:

• Good Inside with Dr. Becky
• Kids Short Stories with Mr. Jim
• Sound Detectives
• Story Pirates
• The Suga

Best Music:

• Disgraceland
• Million Dollaz Worth of Game
• Popcast
• Questlove Supreme
• Song Exploder

Best News:

• The Daily
• Pivot
• Pod Save America
• Today Explained
• Up First

Best Fiction:

• Ad Lucem
• Full Body Chills
• The Mantawauk Caves
• Radio Rental
• The Space Within

Best Sports:

• Around The NFL
• Club Shay Shay
• The Dan Le Batard Show
• New Heights
• Pardon My Take

Best Science:

• Hidden Brain
• Inner Cosmos
• Ologies
• Radio Lab
• StarTalk

Best Technology:

• All-In
• Hard Fork
• Lex Fridman Podcast
• TED Radio Hour
• Vergecast

 

Best Ad Read:

• Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend
• Heavyweight 
• How Did This Get Made?
• Say More with Dr. Sheila
• SmartLess

Best Overall Host:

• Joe Budden (The Joe Budden Podcast)
• Jonathan Goldstein (Heavyweight)
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Wiser Than Me)
• Laci Mosley (Scam Goddess)
• Nicole Byer (Why Won’t You Date Me?)

Best Overall Ensemble:

• The 85 South Show
• Handsome
• New Heights
• SmartLess
• Today, Explained

Best Political:

• The Ben Shapiro Show 
• CNN Inside Politics
• Countdown with Keith Olbermann
• NPR Politics Podcast
• Pod Save America

Best TV & Film:

• Drama Queens
• Films to be Buried With
• Give Them Lala w/ Lala Kent
• How Did This Get Made?
• Pop Culture Happy Hour

Best Spanish Language:

• La Brega
• Cassettes
• Duolingo Spanish
• Leyendas Legendarias
• Transportista: Who Murdered Captain Coral? (Spanish version)

Best Advice / Inspirational:

• Getting Curious
• Dear Chelsea
• Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast
• This Keeps Happening with Vienna Pharaon
• We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle

Best Beauty & Fashion:

• Add to Cart with Kulap Vilaysack & SuChin Pak
• Articles of Interest
• Fool Coverage with Manny MUA and Laura Lee
• The Goop Pursuit: Healing in a Sick Society
• Lipstick On The Rim

Best Travel:

• As Told By Nomads
• Atlas Obscura
• The Travel Hacking Mom Show
• Travel With Rick Steves
• Women Who Travel

Best Green:

• Climate of Change
• Discarded
• Living on Earth
• TED Climate
• Sea Change

Best Spirituality & Religion:

• The Bible in a Year with Fr. Mike Schmitz
• The Bible Recap
• Elevation with Steve Furtick
• On Being with Krista Tippett
• Women Evolve

Best Branded Podcast: 

• Crimson Hearts Collide (Hallmark Media)
• Love In Gravity (ViiV Healthcare)
• Mind the Business (Intuit Quickbooks)
• Symptomatic (Novartis)
• Townsizing (HGTV)

Best Emerging:

• Classy
• Handsome
• How to Destroy Everything
• I’ve Had It
• The Really Good Podcast with Bobbi Althoff

Best International:

• CTV Question Period with Vassy Kapelos (Canada)
• Dichosa Sexualidad (Mexico)
• The Fold (New Zealand)
• The Imperfects (Australia)
• Rocio Cordova (Mexico)

I think it's sad that iHeart has not carved out award categories for independent podcasters like The Life Shift, Multispective, The Nightingale Of Iran, Murder Sheet, Double Take, Infernal Communication, EarBuds Podcast Collective, and many other deserving indie podcasts and podcasters. 

 For more information about the 2024 iHeartPodcast Awards, click HERE. If you do click, ask iHeart why indie podcasts do not have a more prominent role in these awards. After all, iHeart didn't invent podcasting or participate in its growth in the early, formative years. Independent podcasters did that.