Promising the largest production and venue yet, the iHeartPodcast Awards are set to return to the annual South by Southwest festival and conference in March. The annual awards will honor 2024’s most innovative and influential voices and creators in podcasting, including asking fans of the medium to once again select the coveted Podcast of the Year award.
“Following our in-person return to SXSW last year, we’re thrilled to be bringing the iHeartPodcast Awards to an even bigger stage in 2025,” said Conal Byrne, CEO of iHeart’s Digital Audio Group. “Podcasting is growing in both scale and influence every year, and SXSW brings a level of innovative spirit and excitement that makes it the perfect setting to celebrate the very best of our industry, while also looking towards the future.”
In partnership with SXSW, the event will take place live on March 10 at an expanded venue — ACL Live at The Moody Theater. The event will also be open to select SXSW badge holders for the first time ever, granting even more access for attendees to honor those who are shaping the industry.
“We’re thrilled to once again partner with iHeartMedia for the return of the Podcast Awards, amplifying its impact within an even larger footprint at SXSW,” said Peter Lewis, SXSW Chief Partnerships Officer. “The growth of this event highlights our shared mission to celebrate the transformative impact of podcasting, starting with the creators and distributors who bring these stories to life.”
In addition to the in-person show, the ceremony will also be live-broadcasted on select iHeart radio stations, on the iHeartRadio app and on iHeartRadio’s YouTube Channel.
Awards will be given out across 29 different categories cutting across genres, distributors and platforms, with categories including comedy, crime, news, pop culture, sports, food, business and more. Winners in each category will be determined by a panel of blue-ribbon podcast industry leaders, creatives and visionaries. Listeners will vote on the winner of the Podcast of the Year award by voting online at iHeartPodcastAwards.com through Feb. 16. The 2025 iHeartPodcast Award nominees are:
Podcast of the Year:
Normal Gossip
Three
Giggly Squad
Call Her Daddy
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Hysterical
The Telepathy Tapes
Who Killed JFK?
Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD
The Good Whale
Best Business & Finance:
Planet Money
How to Money
Networth and Chill with Your Rich BFF
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
The Ramsey Show
Best Comedy:
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
Normal Gossip
The Joe Rogan Experience
Call Her Daddy
Best Crime:
Three
Betrayal
Up and Vanished
CounterClock
Something Was Wrong
Best Pop Culture:
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
The World's First Podcast with Erin & Sara Foster
Still Processing
Keep It!
Pop Culture Happy Hour
Best Food:
Gastropod
Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio
Be My Guest with Ina Garten
The Recipe with Kenji and Deb
The Sporkful
Best Wellness & Fitness:
Huberman Lab
The Mel Robbins Podcast
10% Happier with Dan Harris
A Slight Change of Plans
We Can Do Hard Things
Best History
The Rest is History
Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD
Throughline
American History Tellers
You're Wrong About
Best Kids & Family:
Good Inside with Dr. Becky
Koala Moon - Kids Bedtime Stories & Meditations
Smash Boom Best: A funny, smart debate show for kids and family
Story Pirates
Wow in the World
Best Music:
Song Exploder
Questlove Supreme
Popcast
The Wonder of Stevie
The Joe Budden Podcast
Best News:
The Journal
The Daily
Up First from NPR
Pivot
Today, Explained
Best Fiction:
Hello From The Magic Tavern
Welcome to Night Vale
Impact Winter
The Magnus Archives
Midnight Burger
Best Sports:
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Bill Simmons Podcast
All The Smoke
Best Science:
Hidden Brain
StarTalk Radio
Stuff To Blow Your Mind
Ologies with Alie Ward
Science Vs
Best Technology:
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Hard Fork
Better Offline
Darknet Diaries
Ted Radio Hour
Best Ad Read:
Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend
Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes)
My Brother, My Brother and Me
SmartLess
Office Ladies
Best Overall Host:
Alex Cooper (Call Her Daddy)
Jamie Loftus (Sixteenth Minute (of Fame))
Sabrina Tavernise (The Daily)
Mel Robbins (The Mel Robbins Podcast)
Dan Taberski (Hysterical)
Best Overall Ensemble:
We Can Do Hard Things
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
Handsome
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
The Breakfast Club
Best Political:
Native Land Pod
The NPR Politics Podcast
Pod Save America
The Megyn Kelly Show
Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
Best TV & Film:
Films To Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein
Two Ts In A Pod with Teddi Mellencamp and Tamra Judge
How Did This Get Made?
The Rewatchables
Blank Check with Griffin & David
Best Spanish Language:
Radio Ambulante
Duolingo Spanish Podcast
Leyenda Legendarias
Mija Podcast
Escuela Secreta
Best Advice/Inspirational:
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Life Kit
Savage Lovecast
Best Beauty & Fashion:
Naked Beauty
The goop Podcast
Glowing Up
Breaking Beauty Podcast
Lipstick on the Rim
Best Travel:
Travel with Rick Steves
The Atlas Obscura Podcast
Zero To Travel Podcast
Women Who Travel
JUMP with Traveling Jackie
Best Green:
Unf*cking the Future
Environmental Insights: Conversations on policy and practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program
Green Dreamer: Seeding change towards collective healing, sustainability, regeneration
Threshold
TED Climate
Best Spirituality & Religion:
Elevation with Steven Furtick
Oprah's Super Soul
WHOA That's Good Podcast
Bible in a Year with Jack Graham
Transformation Church
Best Branded Podcast:
Nerdwallet's Smart Money Podcast
Into the Mix (Ben and Jerry's)
Symptomatic: A Medical Mystery Podcast (Nova Nordisk)
You Can't Make This Up (Netflix)
Mind The Business: Small Business Success Stories (Intuit Quickbooks)
Best Emerging:
Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce
So True with Caleb Hearon
Hysterical
Wild Card with Rachel Martin
Shell Game
Best International:
The Business of Doing Business with Dwayne Kerrigan - Canada
Mamamia Out Loud - Australia
Between Two Beers Podcast - New Zealand
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett - United Kingdom
Las Alucines - Mexico
The 2025 iHeartPodcast Awards will also present three Icon Awards—Audible Audio Pioneer Award, Social Impact Award and Innovator Award—which will pay tribute to the creators, organizations and podcasts that have made groundbreaking industry contributions.
Sarah Spain, journalist and host of the Good Game podcast, will be honored as the 2025 Social Impact Award for her pivotal role in championing equity in sports coverage, equal pay for female athletes and better investment in women’s sports infrastructure.
Dan Taberski will be honored with the 2025 Audible Audio Pioneer Award for his influence in the podcasting landscape through his storytelling and investigative journalism, including his latest podcast Hysterical – which is nominated for Podcast of the Year – and his previous work with Missing Richard Simmons and Surviving Y2K, among others.
The 2025 Innovator Award will honor Daniel Alarcón, a Peruvian-American journalist and novelist, for his work on The Good Whale—also nominated for Podcast of the Year—which stands out as an innovative and captivating approach to storytelling within the podcasting realm as it revisits the life of Keiko, the orca who gained fame as the star of the 1990s film “Free Willy.”
The guest hosts of the 2025 iHeartPodcast Awards have not yet been announced. Previous shows have featured an array of celebrity presenters and guests ranging from Charlamagne tha God and Will Ferrell to Martha Stewart and Molly Sims. The executive producers for the 2025 iHeartPodcast Awards are John Sykes, Tom Poleman, Conal Byrne and Bart Peters for iHeartMedia.