iHeartRadio Podcast Awards Nominations Are Here to Push All Your FOMO Buttons

By Dustin Rowles | Podcasts | October 13, 2021 |

By Dustin Rowles | Podcasts | October 13, 2021 |

The Hollywood Reporter posted the nominations for the 2022 IHeartRadio Awards this morning because podcasts have more than entered the mainstream and therefore deserve trophies of recognition. Some of them are familiar to me, some of them are not, and most of them are reminders that even the podcast world is being consolidated under fewer and fewer banners that will probably push out the most interesting voices and turn the podcast world into a bland white paste, see, e.g., one of the most nominated podcasts, Smartless, in which three very famous celebrity white men are paid $80 million to chit-chat with their famous celebrity friends! (Full Disclosure: I listen to Smartless periodically; I also watch all the Marvel movies).

I’m not sure why the godfather of them all — This American Life — isn’t among the nominees, but perhaps it’s because it’s a weekly radio program and podcast instead of being exclusively a podcast. Either way, listen to “My Bad,” an hour devoted to embarrassing stories and one of my favorite episodes in recent memory. Also, it’s weird that Reply/All is among the nominees this year after it nearly went under and has only aired, like, four episodes, but I suppose even in the podcast world, name recognition goes a long way.

I also don’t know what “Jensen & Holes: The Murder Squad” is, but the idea of it makes me tingle.

Here are the nominees. What do you listen to? What are you now feeling inadequate about missing because there are only so many hours in the day and, like, there’s more to life than podcasts! (But also, congrats to The McElroys for their nomination, as well as Brett Goldstein, one of the few “independent” nominees).

Podcast of the Year (Socially Voted Category)
Code Switch (NPR)
Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend (Team Coco/Earwolf)
Crime Junkie (audiochuck)
Louder Than a Riot (NPR)
Office Ladies (Earwolf/Jenna Fischer & Angela Kinsey)
SmartLess (Wondery/Amazon)
Stuff You Should Know (iHeartRadio)
The Daily (The New York Times)
The Midnight Miracle (Luminary, Dave Chappelle, Talib Kweli, and Yasiin Bey)
You’re Wrong About (Aubrey Gordon/Michael Hobbes)

Best Comedy Podcast
Comedy Bang Bang: The Podcast (Earwolf/Scott Aukerman)
Las Culturistas (Big Money Players)
My Brother, My Brother, and Me (The McElroys)
SmartLess (Wondery/Amazon)
The Read (Loud Speakers Network)

Best Crime Podcast
Crime Junkie (audiochuck)
Dr. Death (Wondery)
Jensen & Holes: The Murder Squad (Exactly Right)
Scam Goddess (Earwolf/Team Coco/ Laci Mosley)
To Live and Die in LA (Tenderfoot TV/Cadence13

Best Music Podcast
Broken Record (Pushkin Industries)
Louder Than A Riot (NPR)
Questlove Supreme (iHeartRadio)
Song Exploder (Hrishikesh Hirway)
Toxic: The Britney Spears Story (Witness Docs)

Best News Podcast
Pod Save America (Crooked Media)
The Daily (The New York Times)
The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC)
Today, Explained (Vox)
Up First (NPR)

Best Sports Podcast
All The Smoke (The Black Effect)
Pardon My Take (Barstool Sports)
Summer of Gold (Dear Media)
The Bill Simmons Podcast (The Ringer/Bill Simmons)
The Herd with Colin Cowherd (iHeartRadio)

Best Overall Host - Male
Conan O’Brien (Team Coco/Earwolf)
Michael Hobbes (Independent)
Sam Sanders (NPR)
Sean Hayes (Amazon/Wondery)
Wesley Morris (The New York Times)

Best Overall Host - Female
Anna Sale (WNYC)
Kara Swisher (The New York Times)
Laverne Cox (Shondaland Audio)
Nicole Byer (Team Coco)
Sarah Marshall (Michael Hobbes/Sarah Marshall)

Best Business & Finance Podcast
Bloomberg Businessweek (Bloomberg)
Brown Ambition (Westwood One)
Business Wars (Wondery)
Earn Your Leisure (The Black Effect/iHeartRadio)
How I Built This with Guy Raz (NPR)

Best Pop Culture Podcast
Keep It! (Crooked Media)
Pop Culture Happy Hour (NPR)
Still Processing (The New York Times)
The Read (Loud Speakers Network)
You’re Wrong About (Michael Hobbes/Sarah Marshall)

Best Food Podcast
Doughboys (Headgum)
Bon Appétit Food People (Bon Appétit)
Gastropod (Independent)
Home Cooking (Samin Nosrat/Hrishikesh Hirway)
The Splendid Table (American Public Media)

Best Wellness & Fitness Podcast
Body Stuff with Dr. Jenn Gunter (TED Audio Collective)
Maintenance Phase (Aubrey Gorden/Michael Hobbes)
On Purpose with Jay Shetty (Jay Shetty)
POOG with Kate Berlant and Jacqueline Novak (Big Money Players)
Therapy for Black Girls (Joy Harden Bradford/iHeartRadio)

Best History Podcast
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History (Dan Carlin)
Dark History (Audioboom Studios)
Lore (Aaron Mahnke/Grim & Mild)
Revolutions (Mike Duncan)
Throughline (NPR)

Best Kids & Family Podcast
Brains On! Science Podcast for Kids (American Public Media)
Circle Round (WBUR)
Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls (Rebel Girls)
Story Pirates (Gimlet)
Wow in the World (Wondery Kids)

Best Fiction Podcast
Blackout (QCODE/Endeavor Content)
Bridgewater (iHeartRadio/Grim & Mild)
Edith! (QCODE/Crooked Media)
In Strange Woods: A Musical Podcast (Atypical Artists)
Welcome to Night Vale (Night Vale Presents)

Best Science Podcast
Hidden Brain (Hidden Brain Media)
Invisibilia (NPR)
Ologies with Alie Ward (Alie Ward)
StarTalk Radio (Neil deGrasse Tyson)
Stuff To Blow Your Mind (iHeartRadio)

Best Technology Podcast
Pivot (New York Magazine)
Rabbit Hole (The New York Times)
Reply All (Gimlet)
Science Vs (Gimlet)
There Are No Girls On The Internet (iHeartRadio)

Best Ad Read
Chatty Broads with Bekah and Jess (Independent)
Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend (Team Coco/Earwolf)
Literally! With Rob Lowe (Stitcher/Team Coco)
My Brother, My Brother And Me (The McElroys)
SmartLess (Wondery/Amazon)

Best Political Podcast
FiveThirtyEight Politics (FiveThirtyEight/538/ABC News/Nate Silver)
Gaining Ground: The New Georgia (Tenderfoot TV/Crooked Media)
Pod Save America (Crooked Media)
The NPR Politics Podcast (NPR)
The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC)

Best TV & Film Podcast
Chatty Broads with Bekah and Jess (Independent)
How Did This Get Made? (Earwolf/Paul Scheer/June Diane Raphael/Jason Mantzoukas)
Office Ladies (Earwolf/Jenna Fischer & Angela Kinsey)
Pop Culture Happy Hour (NPR)
The Bechdel Cast (iHeartRadio)

Best Spanish Language Podcast
Anything for Selena (WBUR/Futuro Studios)
Cuentos Increíbles (Sonoro)
Latinx Therapy (Adriana Alejandre, LMFT)
Leyendas Legendarias (Sonoro/All Things Comedy)
Radio Ambulante (NPR)

Best Advice/Inspirational Podcast
Dare to Lead with Brené Brown (Spotify/Parcast)
Don’t Ask Tig (American Public Media)
Super Soul (Oprah)
Unlocking Us with Brené Brown (Parcast Network)
We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle (Glennon Doyle/Cadence 13)

Best Beauty & Fashion Podcast
Add to Cart (Lemonada Media)
Forever 35 (Kate Spencer/Doree Shafrir)
Gloss Angeles (Kirbie Johnson/Sara Tan)
Natch Beaut (Jackie Johnson)
The Business of Fashion (Independent)

Best Travel Podcast
Armchair Explorer (Aaron Millar)
JUMP with Traveling Jackie (Independent)
Let’s Go Together (Travel & Leisure)
Women Who Travel (Condé Nast Traveller)
Zero to Travel (Jason Moore)

Best Spirituality & Religion Podcast
Almost 30 (Independent)
May I Elaborate with Krista Williams and Lindsey Simcik (Team Coco)
On Being with Krista Tippett (On Being Studios)
Tara Brach (Tara Brach)
The One You Feed with Eric Zimmer (Wondery)

The Best Green Podcast
EV News Daily - The E-Mobility Podcast (Independent)
Factually! With Adam Conover (Earwolf)
How To Save A Planet (Gimlet)
Living on Earth (PRX)
Science Rules! With Bill Nye (Stitcher)

Best Branded Podcast
Camp Monsters (REI Co-Op)
Humans Growing Stuff (ScottsMiracle-Gro)
Inside Trader Joes (Trader Joe’s)
Now, What’s Next? (Morgan Stanley)
Your Attention Please (Hulu)

Podcast To Watch
Films To Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein (Independent)
Maintenance Phase (Aubrey Gorden/Michael Hobbes)
Murder in Alliance (Obsessed Network)
Revolutions (Mike Duncan)
Rotten Mango (Stephanie Soo/Audioboom)

Best International Podcast
Así como suena (Así Como Suena)
CreepsMcPasta Creepypasta Radio (Creeps McPasta)
Fuera de Series (Fuera de Series)
Mamamia Out Loud (Mamamia)
Morbidology (Morbidology)