Anderson Cooper, Audie Cornish, Bowen Yang, Keke Palmer, Oprah Winfrey, Paul Giamatti, Penn Badgley, Sam Smith, Questlove & More Top The List For Third Annual Honors, In Addition to 99% Invisible, Death, Sex & Money, Diaries of the War on Gaza, Hysterical, In The Dark: The Runaway Princesses, On Being with Krista Tippett, Popcast, The Nightingale of Iran, The Paris Review & Numerous Other Series

Club Shay Shay, Carefully Reckless, Lovett or Leave It, What Now? with Trevor Noah, The Prof G Pod, She Pivots & More Mark First-Time Finalists For New Categories of Athletes, Artists & Designers, Comedians, Curators, Business People & Entrepreneurs Shaping Culture

All Podcast Fans Are Invited to Vote For Listener’s Choice Awards in Every Category, Starting Today Through Oct 17th:

https://vote.signalaward.com

Winners Announced Oct 29th, Winners Party Nov 12th

NEW YORK, October 2nd, 2024 – The Signal Awards has announced the Finalists for its Third Annual honors, recognizing the podcasts that define culture. As the only distinction that celebrates the most potent, meaningful and unprecedented audio projects being made today, The Signal Awards represents a diverse and discerning range of storytellers across both the content spectrum and creator ecosystem – mainstream and independent, underground and above the fold.

Leading the list of 2024 Finalists is on-mic talent such as Anderson Cooper, Audie Cornish, Bowen Yang, Esther Perel, Jess Hilarious, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Keke Palmer, Matt Rogers, Michele Norris, Oprah Winfrey, Paul Giamatti, Penn Badgley, Sam Smith, Shannon Sharpe, The Kid Mero, Trevor Noah, Questlove and Will Smith, as well as the newest generations of bingeable listens, audio documentaries, timely conversations and more from series like 99% Invisible (SiriusXM), Beyond All Repair (WBUR/ZSP), Broomgate: A Curling Scandal (CBC), Death, Sex & Money (Slate), Hysterical (Wondery), Diaries of the War on Gaza (Al Jazeera), Edge of Reason (The Atlantic), Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant (PBS), In The Dark: The Runaway Princesses (The New Yorker), Long Shadow: In Guns We Trust (Campside), Popcast (The New York Times), The Competition (Wondery), The Paris Review (The Paris Review) and Today, Explained (Vox), and independent productions including On Being with Krista Tippett, The Nightingale of Iran, Twenty Thousand Hertz, Voices in the River and more.

See The Signal Awards’ complete list of 2024 Finalists HERE, and find an overview of this year’s highlights below

All Finalists are eligible to win two of the podcast industry’s prestigious awards: a Signal Award and The Listener’s Choice Award. With demarcations for Gold, Silver and Bronze, each Signal Award is selected by the Signal Awards Judging Academy, an esteemed and newly expanded cohort of the architects, instigators and trailblazers of the medium, who have together reviewed thousands of hours of audio submissions from the US, Australia, Canada, China, UAE, UK, Vietnam and beyond. Members include Jay Shetty (Host, On Purpose with Jay Shetty), Dan Taberski (Host, Hysterical), Leon Neyfakh (Co-Founder and President, Prologue Projects and Co-Creator of Slow Burn), Shima Oliaee (Co-Host, Dolly Parton’s America and Founder, Shirazad Productions) and myriad other creators, in addition to Jonathan Hirsch (VP Global Podcasts, Sony Music), Chris Bannon (SVP, Head of Global Audio at Condé Nast), Jessica Cordova Kramer (CEO & Founder, Lemonada Media) and other industry leaders at Acast, CNN, KCRW, NPR, QCODE, Reductress, Vox Media, Stitcher and more.

The Listener’s Choice Award is voted on by podcast fans from around the world, and drew more than 130,000 public votes in 2023. Voting for the 2024 Signal Listener’s Choice Awards is open now at https://vote.signalaward.com, and will close on October 17, 2024, at 11:59pm PDT. All winners will be announced on October 29th, and then celebrated with a cocktail party at The Signal Awards’ new venue of Public Records (Brooklyn, NY), on November 12th.

“With more and more incredible shows being made, listeners and the industry are looking for a standard-bearer of excellence,” said Jemma Rose Brown, General Manager of The Signal Awards. “Our Judging Academy’s discerning selections this year represent the most renowned artists, organizations and storytellers shaping the podcast medium today. It is an honor to celebrate their work.”

“I loved how the Signal Awards exposed me to shows that weren’t on my radar,” adds Lauren González, Senior Manager of Programming at NPR, and member of the Signal Awards Judging Academy. “It’s a great way for growing shows to gain more visibility in the industry.”

In 2024, The Signal Awards is placing special focus on the podcasts that define culture. Through a new slate of categories – Athletes Shaping Culture, Artists & Designers Shaping Culture, Business People & Entrepreneurs Shaping Culture, Curators Shaping Culture, Comedians Shaping Culture – this year’s Awards shine a spotlight on the people and shows that have changed habits, rewritten the script or sculpted new perspectives. Notable finalists for these fist-time honors range from Club Shay Shay, hosted by Super Bowl Champion Shannon Sharpe, to Carefully Reckless with Jess Hilarious, Crooked Media’s Lovett or Leave It and What Now? with Trevor Noah, to Clever, Talkhouse Podcast, The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway, She Pivots and numerous others.

About The Signal Awards

The Signal Awards are mission-focused on uplifting the podcast medium by recognizing the most potent, meaningful and unprecedented audio projects being made today. Now in its third year, entrants to The Signal Awards are reviewed by The Signal Awards Judging Academy, an esteemed collective made up of the architects, instigators and trailblazers of the medium. The Signal Awards set a standard for editorial excellence by honoring the organizations, artists, mavericks, brands and storytellers who are shaping the podcast industry. 2024 Signal Award Winners will be announced October 29th, 2024.

Find The Signal Awards Online
Website: signalaward.com
Facebook: facebook.com/signalawards
Twitter: twitter.com/signalawards
Instagram: instagram.com/signalawards
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/signal-awards

2024 Finalist Highlights

Finalists for Best Host (Shows):
The Assignment with Audie Cornish, from CNN
Apple News Today, from Apple News
Your Mama’s Kitchen, from Audible and Higher Ground
Dark History, from Audioboom Studios and Align PR
Latinos Out Loud, from Latinos Out Loud
How to Fail with Elizabeth Day, from Sony Music Entertainment
Oprah’s Super Soul, from Warner Bros. Discovery and OWN
Reality with The King, from QCODE
Tosh Show, from iHeartPodcasts

Finalists for Best Documentary (Shows):
Monumental, from PRX
Finally! A Show About Women That Isn’t a Thinly Veiled Aspirational Nightmare, from Bradley Cooper’s Lea Pictures, iHeartPodcasts and Little Everywhere
Classic Black, from Crewest Studio
Criminal, from Vox Media Podcast Network
The Pirate of Prague, from Apple TV+
Magnificent Jerk, from Apple TV+
A Field Guide To Gay Animals, from Canadaland
HUMO: Murder and Silence in El Salvador, from Sonoro
Face-Off: The U.S. vs China, from Airwave
Pretendians, from Canadaland

Finalists for Best Interview Podcast (Individual Episodes):
Death, Sex & Money, from Slate
The Lede: On the Ground in Gaza With Arwa Damon, from New Lines Magazine
All There Is with Anderson Cooper, from CNN
Podcrushed, from Lemonada Media
Apple News in Conversation, from Apple News
Your Mama’s Kitchen, from Audible and Higher Ground
Time Sensitive, from The Slowdown
Marc Summers Unwraps, from Believe Limited

Finalists for Best News and Politics Podcast (Limited Series):
Uncounted Millions, from MSNBC Audio
Chameleon: The Michigan Plot, from Campside Media
Master Plan, from The Lever
The True Story of America’s Supremely Messed-Up Immigration System, from Freakonomics Radio
90 Days with Ana Marie Cox, from Loud Tree Media
The Modi Raj, from The Economist
If All Else Fails, from North Country Public Radio and Zach Hirsch

Finalists for Best Writing (Limited Series & Shows):
The Nightingale of Iran, from PRX
Foundering: The OpenAI Story, from Bloomberg
Searching for Hobey Baker, from ESPN
SNAFU with Ed Helms, from FilmNation Entertainment
Landslide, from Nuance Tales
Master Plan from The Lever
The Digital Sisterhood, from The Digital Sisterhood

Finalists for Best Sound Design (Shows):
The Story of Hind Rajab, from Al Jazeera Digital
Ominous Thrill, from Jeff Schmidt Productions
Moriarity: The Silent Order, from Audible and Treefort Media
Weight for It, from ohitsBigRon Studios
Who’s the A**, from Spiked Eggs Productions

Finalists for Best Indie Podcast (Limited Series):
Aisha, from Silver Sound
The Unmarked Graveyard: Stories from Hart Island, from Radio Diaries
The Loud Family, from The Loud Family
Ice Cold Case, from Tenderfoot TV
Back Fires, from Alex Vincent Blumberg

Finalists for Best History Podcast (Limited Series):
Pack One Bag, from LAist Studios
The 99% Invisible Breakdown: The Power Broker, from 99 Percent Invisible
Road to Rickwood, from The MLB
Inheriting, from LAist Studios
Who Killed JFK?, from iHeartPodcasts

Finalists for Athletes Shaping Culture (Shows) 
The Other 3 Years, from Bright Sighted Podcast
Club Shay Shay, from DraftKings
Podcast P with Paul George, from Wave Sports + Entertainment

Finalists for Artists & Designers Shaping Culture (Shows)
On Creativity with Paula Wallace, from Savannah College of Art and Design
The Artist Pivot Podcast, from Boundless Audio Network
Sounds Current: Angel Island, from The Creative Imposter Studios

Finalists for Comedians Shaping Culture (Shows)
What Now? with Trevor Noah, from Spotify Studios and DayZero Productions
Carefully Reckless with Jess Hilarious, from iHeartPodcasts
Lovett or Leave It, from Crooked Media
Seek Treatment with Cat & Pat, from Headgum

Finalists for Curators Shaping Culture (Shows) 
Clever, from Clever
The Stoop: Black, Queer and Free, from The Stoop
Finally! A Show About Women That Isn’t a Thinly Veiled Aspirational Nightmare, from Bradley Cooper’s Lea Pictures, iHeartPodcasts and Little Everywhere
Critics at Large, from CoBusinendé Nast
The GAUDS Show, from Ray Daniels Presents
Talkhouse Podcast, from Talkhouse
Belonging to Blackness, from Belonging to Blackness

Finalists for Business People & Entrepreneurs Shaping Culture (Shows)
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway, from Vox Media Podcast Network
Masters of Scale, from WaitWhat
She Pivots, from She Pivots
Bísness School, from NBCUniversal
That Moment with Daymond John, from iHeartPodcasts
Mind the Business, from Ruby, iHeartMedia

Finalists for Best Scripted Fiction (Limited Series)
George Orwell’s 1984, from Audible
The Seneschal, from Netflix
Kerri: Starring Pauline Chalamet, from Meet Cute
OMINOUS THRILL, from Jeff Schmidt Productions
Witness, from Audible
Safe Society, from Christopher Shimojima
Gripped: Second Son, from LiSTNR

Finalists for Best Kids Podcasts (Shows)
Ready, Set, Ride with Elmo, from Audible
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, from Rebel Girls
Dora’s Recipe for Adventure, from Paramount
Kaboom: An Audio Adventure Podcast, from BYUradio
Grimm, Grimmer, Grimmest, from Realm
Little Kids, Big Hearts, from Sparkler Learning
Blippi & Meekah’s Road Trip Podcast, from Moonbug Entertainment
Story Pirates Podcast, from Story Pirates

Finalists for Best Arts & Culture Podcast (Branded Shows & Advertising)
Samsung x Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, from SiriusXM Media and Samsung
Chanel Connects, from Sony Music Entertainment
Edge of Reason, from The Atlantic and Hauser & Wirth
Roundabout, from Acast and Nissan
About the Journey, from AT WILL MEDIA and Marriott

Contact:
For more information, contact Greg Jakubik at Shore Fire Media (gjakubik@shorefire.com, 718-522-7171).