What is unique about the Ear Worthy Awards -- besides its meager budget -- is that it exerts its judging energy on only independent podcasts. In addition to rooting for the underdog and helping the small fry, why would we restrict our award -- indeed, the entire premise of our publication?
There are several cogent reasons. First, independent podcasts are at the core of much of the creative energy in podcasting. Large podcast networks pack their show rosters with either celebrity-driven interview shows (cheap to do) or true-crime shows that take a more performative than investigative (also cheap to do) stance. Whenever a media format develops a "formula" you know that the creative minds in that industry have been superseded by the financial "geniuses."
The formula, devoid of creativity, acts as sequels do in the movie industry. They minimize financial risk and guarantee a decent return on investment. The listeners and their needs do not factor into this shareholder return equation.
The second reason is that the creativity, freshness, and spark shown by independent podcasts are ignored by large podcast networks and production studios. Too often, an independent podcast develops a unique premise and the large podcast networks have their DOGE boys find a way to copycat that format. In effect, the large podcast networks would pop a champagne cork if most of the indie podcasts just went away, and eliminated "podcast clutter."
Only the Mercury Podcast Network has shown the desire to collaborate and support indie podcasts.
“One of the
driving forces behind Mercury was being able to level the playing field
in our industry, and democratize the resources usually reserved for the
big players,” says Mercury founder Liam Heffernan. "This partnership
unlocks major monetization opportunities for our shows, and finally
brings these platforms to the creators who can benefit most from them."
At Ear Worthy, we define independent "indie" podcasts as those produced by an individual without support from large podcast networks, such as Spotify, iHeart, Wondery, SiriusXM, or major production studios like Sony or Warner Music. Indie podcasts can belong to a small podcast network, be developed by a non-profit organization, a museum, or a quasi-governmental agency.
We also want to mention our two award sponsors. lenny.fm is a platform designed to help independent podcast creators get paid by their listeners. It provides an alternative monetization model for smaller shows that don't have access to the large ad deals or expensive paywalls used by bigger networks.
We're proud to announce this next sponsor, Podcast Professionals Association (PPA).
Here are Jenn Trepeck and Traci DeForge, co-founders of the PPA: "There is no industry organization whose primary purpose is to serve Podcast Service Professionals. The PPA, the industry's only non-profit 501c6 trade association, is committed to setting and maintaining the standard of what it means to be a successful podcast service professional who serves podcasters. The PPA believes collaboration is the key to success in the podcasting industry."
Here again are the 2025 nominees for the Ear Worthy Awards and comments about how independent podcasts contribute so much to these genres.
Best Interview Podcast:
5 Random Questions -- Danny Brown
Relationscapes-- Blair Hodges
Beef -- Bridget Todd
Conspiracy She Wrote -- Cristen Conger
Interview shows are the "Coin of the Realm" for large podcast networks. It's the essence of their formula. Step one: find a celebrity, hopefully one not too expensive to sign. Step two: Use elevated marketing speak to disguise the fact that it's just another interview show. Words like unfiltered, opinionated, and controversial work nicely. Step three: find notable guests to be interviewed so that listeners don't catch on that this new interview show is a carbon copy of the other 3,000 the podcast networks have already produced and unleashed.
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Best Life Lessons Podcast
Blue Sky -- Bill Burke
Walk And Roll Live -- Doug Vincent & Addie Rich
The Late Discovered Club -- Catherine Asta
Multispective -- Jennica Sadhwani
The Life Shift -- Matt Gilhooly
This category is a rich one for independent podcasts, with multiple shows for us to consider, such as The Connectors or The Art Of Kindness. The large podcast networks just hire a semi-famous psychotherapist and the show programs itself. However, listen to any of these nominated podcasts, and you'll agree that hosts like Matt Gilhooly and Jennica Sadhwani act as superb trauma guides for the guests and wise counselors for the listeners. Meanwhile, when Dr. Phil isn't fulfilling his childhood fantasy of joining these ICE Raids, he's taking advantage of some family in crisis on his podcast.
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Best Health & Wellness Podcast
The Remedy -- Dr. Michael Shen
Getting Personal With Plant Medicine -- Diana Ashley-Krach
Salad With A Side Of Fries -- Jenn Trepeck
An Arm And A Leg -- Dan Weissman
There are hundreds of health and wellness shows in the show roster of "Big Podcast." It's the familiar formula: Get a celebrity who knows nothing about health and wellness, add a co-host who has some expertise who will keep the celebrity host from saying something stupid ("you should bleach your genitalia") and then focus on topics that generate ratings.
Meanwhile, The Remedy reveals that hospitals do care about the community and doing good; Diana Ashley-Krach presents an alternative source of medicine; Jenn Trepeck continues to put every celebrity who thinks they know health and wellness to shame, and Dan Weissmann tackles health insurance costs because he's passionate about runaway health care costs and because the network podcasts ignore the topic. .
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Best Movie Podcast
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever -- Ayesha Khan
Verbal Diorama -- Em McGowan
What Went Wrong -- Lizzie Bassett & Chris Winterbauer
Unequal Sequel -- Dave & Rich
Bad Movies Rule -- James Hauser & A cast too long to list
This is one genre where indie podcasts rule! The network movie review and movie history shows are formulaic and all sound like Bill Simmons and a bunch of his drinking buddies. Perhaps the best movie / Hollywood podcast remains You Must Remember This by Karina Longworth. The show, now produced by a major production studio, has its roots in indie podcasting.
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Best Music Podcast
History of Rock Music in 500 Songs -- Andrew Hickey
Movement with Meklit Hadero -- Meklit Hadero
Behind The Song -- Janda Lane
Sticky Notes -- Joshua Weilerstein
Music podcasts are a strength of podcasting as an industry. Perhaps because podcasting, audio, and music form an uneasy trinity of audio, music podcasts have carved an oasis of excellence. Yet no music podcast -- either network or indie -- matches the comprehensive and scholarly nature of Andrew Hickey in the History of Rock Music in 500 Songs.
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Best LGBTQIA+ Podcast
Rigour & Flow -- Tamanda Walker & Aiwan Obinyan
I'm Feeling Queer Today -- The Future Perfect Project
Queer Grove -- Cherry Grove Archives Collection
Another area of strength for indie podcasting with pockets of support from the networks, specifically iHeart. Despite the reflexive and spiteful homophobia of the Trump Administration, queer podcasts still resonate with creators and listeners. In fact, governmental pushback and pushiness have only strengthened the community's resolve.
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Best Politics Podcast
The Political Junkie -- Ken Rudin
Open To Debate -- John Donvan
The Purple Principle -- Robert Peace
New political podcasts appear daily in podcasting. Nearly all of these political podcasts pander to their listeners' ideology. It's confirmation bias audio-style. It's rare to have a political podcast -- like our three nominees -- that presents multiple viewpoints without falling into the fair and balanced trap. For example, it's not fair and balanced to have a discussion on whether the 2020 election was rigged because we know from actual data, numerous analyses, and court decisions that there was nothing illicit about the 2020 election. These nominated shows are not finger-pointing exercises, blamestorming a targeted group to "juice up" the hate.
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Best History Podcast
Byte Sized Biographies -- Philip Gibbons
'Tis But A Scratch -- Richard Abels
Why Wars Happened -- Emily Ross
It's A History -- Madison Schmidt
America: A History -- Liam Heffernan
We actually had nine nominees before the winnowing process, which illustrates how strong this genre is for indie podcasting. I think History podcasts have attracted more listener interest as the media reports about the Trump Administration's censorship of U.S. historical data like the Tuskegee Airmen, Harriet Tubman, and a whitewash of slavery. Listeners need a repository of historical accuracy and podcasts like the ones noted above, present history as it was, not as what some groups would like it to be.
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Best True-Crime Podcast
Familicide -- Sam Mettler & Amy Chesler
Crime Adjacent -- Mike Adamick
The Murder Sheet -- Aine Cain & Kevin Greenlee
There are so many network true-crime podcasts, that it's difficult for indie true-crime shows to break through all the static. These three nominees stand above most network true-crime shows, even Crime Junkie.
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Best Education Podcast
The Sound School Podcast -- Rob Rosenthal, Transom.org
Podcasting 2.0 In Practice -- Claire Waite Brown
Teaching Through The Emotions Podcast -- Betsy Burris
Art Educators Rule The World -- Erica Rosenfeld Halverson
Creativity Found -- Claire Waite Brown
Kudos to Claire Waite Brown for scoring two nominations in this category. It's an exceptionally strong area for indie podcasting, and an area largely ignored by large podcast networks.
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Best Short-Form Podcast
5-Minute Biographies -- Anthony Davis
Kids Ask Dr. Friendtastic -- Eileen Kennedy-Moore, PhD.
One Minute Podcast Tips -- Danny Brown
The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast -- Forrest Kelly
Arielle & Ned's Daily Tips That May Or May Not Help You -- Arielle Nissenblatt & Ned Donovan
Just because they're short in length doesn't mean they aren't difficult to produce. Danny Brown can dispatch more podcasting wisdom in one minute than some so-called podcasting expert can in an hour. Arielle & Ned's Daily Tips have replaced our Tip-A-Day calendar and are now part of thousands of people's daily routine.
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Best Local Podcast
The Perrysburg Podcast -- Kim Newlove
Jersey's Best Podcast -- Jeremy Schneider, NJ.Com
The Coop Tank -- Steve Cooper
Toronto Mike'd Podcast -- Toronto Mike
Kim Newlove is so good that she could produce a podcast for thousands of small towns in the U.S. If you want the scoop about Toronto, you listen to Toronto Mike, and, if interviewing skills were an MMA match, Steve Cooper would be declared the winner by knockout every time.
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Best Audio Fiction Podcast
Silvertongues -- Josie & Michael Herman
The Inn at The End of Things -- Luna Alexander
Josie's Lonely Hearts Club -- Rachel Music
Un(con)Trolled -- Kimberly Renee
This is another area where the "indies" outperform the network shows. What our nominees have in common is creative freshness, paradigm-breaking concepts, superior writing, and superb audio acting.
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Best Limited Series Podcast
Shofar, So Good -- Kate Mishkin
Shadow of Hope -- Karen Ann Coburn
Uncovering Roots -- Maxim Saakyan
Climbing The Walls -- Danielle Elliot
The Final Service -- Mateo Schimpf & Ray Suarez
Cramped -- Kate Helen Downey
Floating Space -- Katie Stokes
It was a significant milestone when Apple finally added a category for Limited-Series Podcasts. This category is true head-to-head competition because the podcast networks love releasing these
limited-series shows. While the podcast networks focus on headlines, sensationalism, and bait and switch techniques, the nominees above focus on everything from menstrual cramps to religious cults, and where we're from to how we organize our life spaces.
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Best Humor Podcast
"Fine" Dining -- Michael Ornelas
Dead And Kind Of Famous -- Courtney Blomquist & Marissa Rivera
Another F*cking Horror Show -- Monique Sanchez & Amy Traydon
The Incredible And Endlessly Fascinating Fate, Chance And Coincidence Show -- Darren Keith
What we loved about the nominees is that the humor comes naturally from the show's premise. Humor and spontaneity go together nicely.
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Best Podcasting Podcast
Podcasting Tech -- Mathew Passy
Streamlined Solopreneur -- Joe Casabona
Podcast Perspectives -- Jeff Umbro
Podnews Weekly Review -- James Cridland & Sam Sethi
Leverage Your Podcast -- Lyndsay Phillips
This category is a powerhouse for indie podcasting. There could have been 20 nominees in this category. Last year's winner in a related category -- Leverage Your Podcast by Lyndsay Phillips -- is the best show for anyone wishing to develop a podcast to extend their brand, products, or services. If you're an indie podcaster, and you're not listening to Podnews Weekly Review, you're missing essential news, trends, tech advances, and even the juicest gossip.
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Best Nature Podcast
Oceanography -- Clark Marchese
6 Degrees Of Cats -- Amanda B.
That's Just Wild -- Steve Backshall, Sarah Roberts, Lizzie Daly
TIL Climate -- Laur Hesse Fisher, M.I.T.
A Matter Of Degrees -- Dr. Leah Stokes & Dr. Katharine Wilkinson
What If We Get It Right -- Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
We know this category incorporates some disparate topics. We admit that we are trying to keep the categories to 20.
How do you judge a podcast -- 6 Degrees Of Cats -- that deals with cats, culture, history, mythology, archeology, veterinary medicine, and psychology?
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Best Lifestyle Podcast
Tails And Tassels -- Gemma Smith
Sportly -- Kavitha Davidson
Normal Curves -- Regina Nuzzo & Kristin Cobb Sainani
This Is Propaganda -- Josh & Malcolm
If Books Could Kill -- Michael Hobbes & Peter Shamshiri
High Notes -- Melissa Thom
Yes, we know that we are hypocrites. We've bashed the podcast networks, podcast apps, and podcast ecosystems for creating "dumping ground" genres to make their organizational structure as simple as possible. Now, we've done something similar. All we can say is that we will improve next year. However, the nominees in this category prove once again that indie podcasters create shows that are entertaining, unique, quirky, incisive, often funny, and always engaging.
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Best Podcast Network That Supports Indie Podcasts
Mercury Podcast Network
Why would we develop an award category in which only one nominee qualifies? We will gladly 'fess up. We want to make a point. There should be multiple podcast networks vying to collaborate with high-quality independent podcasts like Liam Heffernan of Mercury.
Next year, we hope that Mercury is in the running with multiple podcast networks.
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Best Podcast Service Professional Of The Year
Elsie Escobar
Chris Krimitsos
Rob Greenlee
Tangia Al-awaji Estrada & Maribel Quezada Smith (Founders of BIPOC)
We added this category after the nominations were first announced, after considerable re-appraisal by The Board. All we can say is that it was a grass-roots movement. Moreover, these people all deserve recognition. To put a person behind the mic takes many people behind the scenes.
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Best Indie Podcast of the Year
Open To Debate
Salad With A Side Of Fries
If Books Could Kill
Multispective
5 Random Questions
Podnews Weekly Review
The objective of most network podcasts is to attract as many
listeners/viewers as possible. Ears and eyes bring higher ad rates, more subscriptions, and more sponsors.
The six shows nominated for Best Indie Podcast are not attempting to appeal to everyone and anyone. Instead, these nominees all possess a focused message to their audience. These nominees offer value, either via their message, treatment, topic, or style. Moreover, these nominees concentrate on exploding myths, debunking social media life hacks, focusing on overcoming challenges, and returning reality to being rooted in fact, scientific accuracy, and messages of collaboration instead of competition.
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The Award Winners will be announced tomorrow, Tuesday, August 26th.
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