The 2017 Discover Pods Awards Winners
Last updated on December 27th, 2017
On October 20, 2017, we launched the inaugural Discover Pods Awards call for nominations. Being a relatively new site, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. From the onslaught, any doubts were removed. We received over 4,000 nominations. Admittedly, there were some ballot stuffers mixed in since there wasn’t any email capture or any other gate. Either way, the response blew away my expectations.
In between the nominations and final votes, I hopped on a podcast to discuss the Mount Rushmore of Podcasters with Brendan Hutchins from Podcast Playl.ist, Phoebe Lett from the New York Times Podcast Club, and Arielle Nissenblatt from Earbuds Podcast Collective. We all weighed in on worthy candidates and eventually settled on our top four: Sam Sanders, Roman Mars, Paul F. Tompkins, and Helen Zaltzman. Listen to our discussion here.
A little over a month after the nominations were opened, we announced the 2017 Discover Pods Awards finalists and had a final vote lasting about two weeks. This time, however, the response was even greater. With an email field, ballot stuffing nearly went away and over 6,000 people cast their votes for their favorite podcasts. It was extremely humbling to see the conversation and engagement over social media with some of the top podcasters and podcasts out there weighing in. It was also great to see some excellent indie podcasts put on a level playing field with some of the larger contenders.
There was definitely some constructive feedback I heard including difficulty voting on your phone/tablet, the lack of indie podcasts represented, and some tweaking of the categories and nominees. We’ll definitely take all of this into consideration as we plan the 2018 Discover Pods Awards. If you have any other feedback points, please email us at contact@discoverpods.com — just please don’t say something along the lines of “why wasn’t <podcast name> a finalist?! this is bullsh*t!” We’ve gotten enough of that already.
So after all the votes came in — and a brief data scrub since there were still some attempted gamers — here are the winners (and runner ups, because they deserve some recognition too!). Congrats to everyone involved, including all those nominated, the finalists, and the ultimate winners!
The 2017 Discover Pods Awards Winners
Best Overall Podcast
S-Town
Runner Up: WTF with Marc Maron
Best New Podcast
S-Town
Runner Up: Ear Hustle
Best Podcast Episode
S-Town Chapter 2
Runner Up: Dan Carlin Hardcore History – Destroyer of Worlds
Most Innovative Podcast
Casefile
Runner Up: Ear Hustle
Desert Island Podcast
True Crime Garage
Runner Up: This American Life
People’s Choice
Small Town Murder
Runner Up: Wine & Crime
Best Podcast Production Company
NPR
Runner Up: Radiotopia
Best True Crime Podcast
S-Town
Runner Up: Last Podcast on the Left
Best Sports Podcast
Crime in Sports
Runner Up: ESPNs 30 for 30
Best News Podcast
Pod Save America
Runner Up: Wait, Wait! Don’t Tell Me
Best Interview Style Podcast
The Nerdist
Runner Up: WTF with Marc Maron
Best Comedy Podcast
My Dad Wrote a Porno
Runner Up: Two Dope Queens
Best Kids & Family Podcast
Stuff You Should Know
Runner Up: Weird!
Best Society & Culture Podcast
This American Life
Runner Up: Lore
Best Entertainment Podcast
Bitch Sesh
Runner Up: The Sometimes Geek Podcast
Best Technology & Science Podcast
Stuff You Should Know
Runner Up: Radiolab
Best Audio Drama
Welcome to Night Vale
Runner Up: The Black Tapes
Best Business Podcast
Freakonomics
Runner Up: How I Built This
Congrats to the all the winners again. See you next year!
Some interesting notes:
- S-Town led the awards with 4 wins, however, the tightest race they won was for Best True Crime Podcast.
- Despite being the runner up for the Best Overall Podcast, WTF with Marc Maron was also the runner up for the Best Interview Style Podcast.
- Best Entertainment Podcast was the closest race, with Bitch Sesh beating The Sometimes Geek Podcast by only 4 votes.
- Up until the final day, the Best Podcast Production Company race had NPR, Radiotopia, and Crooked Media all within 15 votes of each other.
- I submitted a ballot. Nobody I voted for won. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Pointed out by My Thing Can Beat Your Thing, crime as a genre won 8/17 podcast awards.
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2 Comments
One cool thing about podcasts is that there is something for everyone. I’m a podcast junkie, subscribing to over twenty podcasts and I make time to listen to most of their episodes, yet I have only listened to two winners on your list. Looks like I’ll have to check out and perhaps add a couple more. Thanks for the list!
One thing about podcast listeners, no matter how much a super-listener you are, there are always more to be discovered 🙂
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