Questlove & Joe Budden Among Nominees for 2025 iHeartPodcast Awards: Full List

Song Exploder, Questlove Supreme, Popcast, The Wonder of Stevie and The Joe Budden Podcast are vying for best music at the 2025 iHeartPodcast Awards, in partnership with South by Southwest (SXSW). The annual event will take place live on March 10 at 7 p.m. CT at ACL Live at The Moody Theater in Austin, Texas. In addition to the in-person show, the ceremony will also be live-broadcasted on select iHeartMedia Radio Stations, on the iHeartRadio app and on iHeartRadio’s YouTube Channel.

New Heights With Jason & Travis Kelce is among the nominees for best sports. Travis Kelce has become a household name since he began dating pop superstar Taylor Swift. The other nominees in that category are The Herd with Colin Cowherd, The Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz, The Bill Simmons Podcast and All the Smoke

Winners in each category will be determined by a panel of podcast industry leaders and creatives. Each year, podcast fans help decide the winner of the podcast of the year award by voting online at the awards’ website. Fan voting will begin Tuesday, Jan. 7, and runs through Feb. 16.

The 2025 iHeartPodcast Awards will also present three icon awards. Sarah Spain, host of Good Game, will be honored with the 2025 social impact award for her 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, including his latest podcast Hysterical (nominated for podcast of the year and more). The 2025 innovator award will honor Daniel Alarcón, a Peruvian-American journalist and novelist, for his work on The Good Whale (nominated for podcast of the year), which revisits the life of Keiko, the orca who gained fame as the star of the 1993 film Free Willy.

“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,” Conal Byrne, CEO of iHeartMedia’s Digital Audio Group, said in a statement. “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.”

“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 iHeartPodcast Awards will be open to select SXSW badge holders for the first time.

Executive producers for the 2025 iHeartPodcast Awards are John Sykes, Tom Poleman, Conal Byrne and Bart Peters for iHeartMedia. Audible is a sponsor of the 2025 iHeartPodcast Awards.

Here’s a full list of 2025 iHeartPodcast Award nominees across 29 categories.

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 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 Music

Song Exploder

Questlove Supreme

Popcast

The Wonder of Stevie

The Joe Budden Podcast

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 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 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 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 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 Spanish Language

Radio Ambulante

Duolingo Spanish Podcast

Leyenda Legendarias

Mija Podcast

Escuela Secreta

Best Business & Finance

Planet Money

How to Money

Networth and Chill With Your Rich BFF

Money Rehab With Nicole Lapin

The Ramsey Show

Best Crime

Three

Betrayal

Up and Vanished

CounterClock

Something Was Wrong

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 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 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 Political

Native Land Pod

The NPR Politics Podcast

Pod Save America

The Megyn Kelly Show

Breaking Points With Krystal and Saagar

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–king 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

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