Last updated on December 7th, 2018

A little over a month ago we opened up the nomination form for the 2018 Discover Pods Awards. All in all, over 6,000 ballots were cast for nearly 3,000 different podcasts. Needless to say, it took a substantial amount of time to sort though the nominations and whittle them down to the deserving finalists.

The methodology is relatively simple. Though total nominations are one metric to determine the finalists, we also balance them with curators and other podcast fans at Discover Pods. We feel this gives us the best way forward to recognize both the mainstream popular podcasts and the indie podcasts alike. You should see this representation through most of the categories. It’s not scientific, it’s not perfect, and it won’t satisfy everyone, but we’re doing our best to simply give props to good podcasts.

Before we get to the nominations, I’d also like to address a corporation-selling-out-sized elephant in the room. Late last month, one company put out a press release claiming they were the “first-ever major live awards event voted by the listeners to honor the very best in podcasting.” We can fact check that statement relatively easily, “first-ever (wrong) major (subjective I guess?) live awards event (wrong) voted by the listeners (wrong) to honor the very best in podcasting (wrong).” Our friends at the Bello Collective do a comprehensive view of the podcast award landscape. The Discover Pods Awards aren’t the first, we’re clearly not the last, but our goal is to shout-out good podcasts that deserve an extra shout-out. We don’t have corporate sponsors, it’s a not a pay-for-play scheme, it’s just a (hopefully) cool awards thing people can get happy about.

Ok cool, now that that’s out of the way….

My challenge to every voter: please vote for your favorite in any given category. However, if you haven’t heard of another nomination in that category please give it a shot. These podcasts weren’t randomly chosen and you’ll likely discover a new show to add to your queue.

Full Schedule

Final Voting: Nov. 16 – Dec. 7 at 6pm ET [CLOSED]

Award Winners Announced: Dec. 10

Drum roll please…….

The 2018 Discover Pods Awards Finalists

Best Overall Podcast 2018

  • My Favorite Murder
  • The Daily
  • Casefile
  • The Adventure Zone
  • Slow Burn
  • Pod Save America
  • Radiolab
  • Ear Hustle
  • Today, Explained
  • The Big Loop

Best New Podcast of 2018

  • Dr. Death
  • Swindled
  • Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
  • Disgraceland
  • Caliphate
  • Everything is Alive
  • Hollywood in Color
  • Today, Explained
  • Decoder Ring

Most Innovative Podcast

  • Mission to Zyxx
  • It’s Been a Minute
  • Flash Forward
  • The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week
  • Accession
  • Trump, Inc.
  • What’s the Frequency
  • 70 Million
  • Endless Thread
  • The Oval Office Tapes

Desert Island Podcast

  • Radiolab
  • It’s Been a Minute
  • My Brother My Brother and Me
  • The NoSleep Podcast
  • Greater Boston
  • Heavyweight
  • Join the Party
  • Comedy Bang Bang
  • Harmontown

People’s Choice

  • True Crime Obsessed
  • The Fantasy Footballers
  • Blurry Photos
  • Sensible People
  • NRI Woman Podcast
  • Our Americana
  • Hysteria 51
  • Uncover: Escaping NXIVM
  • Joseph
  • The Soundtrack Show
  • Cooking by Ear
  • The Secret Life of Canada
  • Missing Witches
  • How It’s Paid

Best Podcast Production Company

  • Wondery
  • Radiotopia
  • Gimlet
  • Earwolf
  • Maximum Fun
  • Panoply
  • NPR
  • Crooked Media
  • Headgum

Category Awards

True Crime

  • True Crime Obsessed
  • Criminal
  • Casefile
  • My Favorite Murder
  • True Crime Garage
  • Swindled
  • Criminology
  • Canadian True Crime
  • Small Town Murder
  • Slow Burn

Sports

  • ESPNs 30 for 30 Podcast
  • The Tennis Podcast
  • Pardon My Take
  • HORSE
  • The Bill Simmons Podcast
  • The Lowe Post
  • The Fantasy Footballers
  • Dual Threat with Ryen Russillo
  • The Woj Pod
  • The Pat McAfee Show 2.0

News

  • The Daily
  • Up First
  • The Ben Shapiro Show
  • Pod Save America
  • Intercepted
  • FiveThirtyEight Politics
  • Today, Explained
  • The Rachel Maddow Show
  • Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me
  • On the Media

History

  • Hardcore History
  • The Dollop
  • Slow Burn
  • The Monday American
  • Stuff You Missed in History Class
  • The Dirty Bits
  • Gastro Pod
  • The Secret Life of Canada
  • Missing Witches
  • Holywood in Color

Interview Style

  • WTF with Marc Maron
  • Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
  • The Axe Files
  • The Jordan Harbinger Show
  • Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness
  • The Joe Rogan Experience
  • Stay Tuned with Preet
  • How I Built This
  • Conversations with People Who Hate Me
  • Love + Radio

Comedy

  • My Brother My Brother and Me
  • How Did This Get Made
  • Comedy Bang Bang
  • My Dad Wrote a Porno
  • The Dollop
  • Last Podcast on the Left
  • Doug Loves Movies
  • No Such Thing as a Fish
  • Wonderful!
  • Lovett or Leave It

Kids & Family

  • Varmints
  • Mirths and Monsters
  • The Show About Science
  • Stuff You Should Know
  • Story Pirates
  • Brains On
  • Wow in the World
  • Noodle Loaf
  • Fate and the Fablemaidens

Society & Culture

  • Ear Hustle
  • Snap Judgement
  • Bodies
  • Call Your Girlfriend
  • Household Name
  • Spirits
  • Keep It
  • The Hilarious World of Depression
  • Revisionist History
  • TED Talks Daily

Entertainment

  • Pop Culture Leftovers
  • Bitch Sesh
  • 5 Minute Geek
  • The Watch
  • The Hamilcast
  • Binge Mode
  • The Sometimes Geek Podcast
  • Pop Culture Happy Hour
  • Film Loop
  • Doug Loves Movies

Technology & Science

  • Reply All
  • Darknet Diaries
  • Radiolab
  • Science Vs.
  • Stuff You Should Know
  • Star Talk
  • The Vergecast
  • Branch Off
  • Accidental Tech Podcast
  • Twenty Thousand Hertz

Audio Drama

  • The Big Loop
  • StarTripper!!
  • Limetown
  • Girl in Space
  • Bubble
  • The Bright Sessions
  • Wolf 359
  • Alice Isn’t Dead
  • Tides
  • Mission to Zyxx

Business

  • Planet Money
  • Business Wars
  • The Indicator
  • Freakonomics
  • How I Built This
  • The Tim Ferriss Show
  • ZigZag

Related posts:

Introducing the 2018 Discover Pods Awards and Call for Nominations The 2018 Discover Pods Award Winners Are Indie Podcasters Actually The Future Of The Industry?
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