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!
S-Town
Runner Up: WTF with Marc Maron
S-Town
Runner Up: Ear Hustle
S-Town Chapter 2
Runner Up: Dan Carlin Hardcore History – Destroyer of Worlds
Casefile
Runner Up: Ear Hustle
True Crime Garage
Runner Up: This American Life
Small Town Murder
Runner Up: Wine & Crime
NPR
Runner Up: Radiotopia
S-Town
Runner Up: Last Podcast on the Left
Crime in Sports
Runner Up: ESPNs 30 for 30
Pod Save America
Runner Up: Wait, Wait! Don’t Tell Me
The Nerdist
Runner Up: WTF with Marc Maron
My Dad Wrote a Porno
Runner Up: Two Dope Queens
Stuff You Should Know
Runner Up: Weird!
This American Life
Runner Up: Lore
Bitch Sesh
Runner Up: The Sometimes Geek Podcast
Stuff You Should Know
Runner Up: Radiolab
Welcome to Night Vale
Runner Up: The Black Tapes
Freakonomics
Runner Up: How I Built This
Congrats to the all the winners again. See you next year!
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