The Signal Awards, the podcast-focused awards program created by the organizers of The Webbys, has selected the host of two shows as the inaugural recipients of its Special Achievement Award. Esther Perel, host of Where Should We Begin?, and Las Culturistas hosts Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang are being honored for their impact and influence on the artform of audio. Organizers say all three of the honorees embody the guiding focus of this year’s third annual Signal Awards — the podcasts that define culture.
“In 2024, The Signal Awards are highlighting the voices and shows that have moved the needle in terms of how broader society thinks and behaves,” adds Jemma Rose Brown, General Manager of The Signal Awards. “A Signal Award is also a metric of how a single podcast can change the medium. Where Should We Begin? and Las Culturistas are shows that have substantially moved the needle, leveraging the anonymity of an audio recording to create unparalleled intimacy with audiences. Esther Perel, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang have continued to innovate on format and topics, creating a platform to explore urgent conversations in nuanced, nourishing and framework-shifting ways.”
A psychotherapist and author, Perel has produced the Vox Media podcast Where Should We Begin? since 2017. Each Monday, it drops new episodes that takes listeners into the lives of real people in search of insight as they bare the raw, intimate, and profound details of their stories — from breakups and open relationships to workplace conflicts and fractures in the family.
“When we first launched Where Should We Begin?, we wanted to lower the four walls of the therapist office,” says Perel. “I wanted people to hear the stories revealed in my office and the insights and transformation they experience. We are increasingly isolated, so to hear voices that sound completely different from one’s own tell stories that reflect or mirror something back to the listener is a reminder that stories are the bridges that connect us to each other.”
Comedians Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang debuted Las Culturistas in 2016. The iHeartMedia series, part of Will Ferrell’s Big Money Players lineup, focuses on whatever is buzzing in pop culture. The Signal Awards says it “explores and inspires the conversations that drive the zeitgeist, while rewriting the script for the modern parasocial relationship, and encouraging a new generation to re-excite the chat show genre.”
The third annual Signal Awards winner will be announced Oct. 29. Winners will then be celebrated on Nov. 12 at an event in Brooklyn, NY, where Perel and Rogers will accept the honors in-person. See The Signal Awards’ complete list of 2024 Finalists HERE.
With demarcations for gold, silver and bronze, each Signal Award is selected by the Signal Awards Judging Academy, who have together reviewed thousands of hours of audio submissions from the U.S., Australia, Canada, China, UAE, UK, Vietnam and beyond. All finalists are eligible to win two of the podcast industry’s prestigious awards — a Signal Award and The Listener’s Choice Award. The Listener’s Choice Award is voted on by podcast fans from around the world, and this year it drew more than 170,000 public votes.
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