Announcing The Nominees for the Ear Worthy Awards

Here are the second annual Ear Worthy Award nominees. After our first annual nomination and awards process in July 2024, we’ve learned from the lessons of that inaugural nomination and award process. First, we’ve shortened the name from the unwieldy Ear Worthy Independent Podcast Awards to its new, succinct successor — the 2025 Ear Worthy Awards. If you don’t know what Ear Worthy is by now, then you won’t care if you are nominated or win an award.

Second, we’ve included more voices in the initial nominating process. Last year, it was our board. This year, nominations are based on input from our Board, select indie podcasters, podcast professionals, and our subscribed readers.

Third, we’ve streamlined and adjusted some of the award categories, focusing on areas where indie podcasts are particularly strong. Lastly, we decided to only include indie podcasts that Ear Worthy has reviewed. Fear not, that decision enabled us to still evaluate over 290 indie podcasts.

At Ear Worthy, we define independent “indie” podcasts as those produced by an individual without support from large podcast networks, such as Spotify, iHeart, Wondery, SiriusXM, or major production studios like Sony or Warner Music. Indie podcasts can belong to a small podcast network, be developed by a non-profit organization, a museum, or a quasi-governmental agency.

The Award Winners will be announced on Tuesday, August 26th.

Here are the 2025 nominees for the Ear Worthy Awards:

Best Interview Podcast

5 Random Questions — Danny Brown
Relationscapes — Blair Hodges
Beef — Bridget Todd
Conspiracy She Wrote — Cristen Conger

Best Life Lessons Podcast

Blue Sky — Bill Burke
Walk And Roll Live — Doug Vincent & Addie Rich
The Late Discovered Club — Catherine Asta
Multispective — Jennica Sadhwani
The Life Shift — Matt Gilhooly

Best Health & Wellness Podcast

The Remedy — Dr. Michael Shen
Getting Personal With Plant Medicine — Diana Ashley-Krach
Salad With A Side Of Fries — Jenn Trepeck
An Arm And A Leg — Dan Weissman

Best Movie Podcast

Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever — Ayesha Khan
Verbal Diorama — Em McGowan
What Went Wrong — Lizzie Bassett & Chris Winterbauer
Unequal Sequel — Dave & Rich
Bad Movies Rule — James Hauser & A cast too long to list

Best Music Podcast

History of Rock Music in 500 Songs — Andrew Hickey
Movement with Meklit Hadero — Meklit Hadero
Behind The Song — Janda Lane
Sticky Notes — Joshua Weilerstein

Best LGBTQIA+ Podcast

Rigour & Flow — Tamanda Walker & Aiwan Obinyan
I’m Feeling Queer Today — The Future Perfect Project
Queer Grove — Cherry Grove Archives Collection

Best Politics Podcast

The Political Junkie — Ken Rudin
Open To Debate — John Donvan
The Purple Principle — Robert Peace

Best History Podcast

Byte Sized Biographies — Philip Gibbons
’Tis But A Scratch — Richard Abels
Why Wars Happened — Emily Ross
It’s A History — Madison Schmidt
America: A history — Liam Heffernan

Best True-Crime Podcast

Familicide — Sam Mettler & Amy Chesler
Crime Adjacent — Mike Adamick
The Murder Sheet — Aine Cain & Kevin Greenlee

Best Education Podcast

The Sound School Podcast — Rob Rosenthal, Transom.org
Podcasting 2.0 In Practice — Claire Waite Brown
Teaching Through The Emotions Podcast — Betsy Burris
Art Educators Rule The World — Erica Rosenfeld Halverson
Creativity Found — Claire Waite Brown

Best Short-Form Podcast

5-Minute Biographies — Anthony Davis
Kids Ask Dr. Friendtastic — Eileen Kennedy-Moore, PhD.
One Minute Podcast Tips — Danny Brown
The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast — Forrest Kelly
Arielle & Ned’s Daily Tips That May Or May Not Help You — Arielle Nissenblatt & Ned Donovan

Best Local Podcast

The Perrysburg Podcast — Kim Newlove
Jersey’s Best Podcast — Jeremy Schneider, NJ.Com
The Coop Tank — Steve Cooper
Toronto Mike’d Podcast — Toronto Mike

Best Audio Fiction Podcast

Silvertongues — Josie & Michael Herman
The Inn at The End of Things — Luna Alexander
Josie’s Lonely Hearts Club — Rachel Music
Un(con)Trolled — Kimberly Renee

Best Limited Series Podcast

Shofar, So Good — Kate Mishkin
Shadow of Hope — Karen Ann Coburn
Uncovering Roots — Maxim Saakyan
Climbing The Walls — Danielle Elliot
The Final Service — Mateo Schimpf & Ray Suarez
Cramped — Kate Helen Downey
Floating Space — Katie Stokes

Best Humor Podcast

“Fine” Dining — Michael Ornelas
Dead And Kind Of Famous — Courtney Blomquist & Marissa Rivera
Another F*cking Horror Show — Monique Sanchez & Amy Traydon
The Incredible And Endlessly Fascinating Fate, Chance And Coincidence Show — Darren Keith

Best Podcasting Podcast

Podcasting Tech — Mathew Passy
Streamlined Solopreneur — Joe Casabona
Podcast Perspectives — Jeff Umbro
Podnews Weekly Review — James Cridland & Sam Sethi
Leverage Your Podcast — Lyndsay Phillips

Best Nature Podcast

Oceanography — Clark Marchese
6 Degrees Of Cats — Amanda B.
That’s Just Wild — Steve Backshall, Sarah Roberts, Lizzie Daly
TIL Climate — Laur Hesse Fisher, M.I.T.
A Matter Of Degrees — Dr. Leah Stokes & Dr. Katharine Wilkinson
What If We Get It Right — Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Best Lifestyle Podcast

Tails And Tassels — Gemma Smith
Sportly — Kavitha Davidson
Normal Curves — Regina Nuzzo & Kristin Cobb Sainani
This Is Propaganda — Josh & Malcolm
If Books Could Kill — Michael Hobbes & Peter Shamshiri

Best Podcast Network That Supports Indie Podcasts

Mercury Podcast Network

Best Podcast Service Professional Of The Year

Elsie Escobar
Chris Krimitsos
Rob Greenlee
Tangia Al-awaji Estrada & Maribel Quezada Smith (Founders of BIPOC)

Best Indie Podcast of the Year

Open To Debate
Salad With A Side Of Fries
If Books Could Kill
Multispective
5 Random Questions
Podnews Weekly Review

The Award Winners will be announced on Tuesday, August 26th.