And the winner is… Catch up on the big winners of the 2022 Ambies, hosted by Ross Mathews and Nikki Boyer

The second annual Awards for Excellence in Audio (Ambies) handed out 25 awards on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, presented by The Podcast Academy. The Ambies celebrate the pod-o-sphere, and bring attention to podcasting as a superb medium for storytelling, expression, information, and entertainment.

We were particularly excited about this year’s ceremony since so many Podsauce favorites were nominated, with 178 nominees across 25 categories. Amazon, Pineapple Street Studios, and Wondery’s “9/12” were in the running for Podcast of the Year, Best Original Score and Music Supervision, and Best Reporting awards. Pineapple Street Studios’ “70 Over 70” was nominated for Best Interview Podcast, hosted by Max Linsky.

Lemonada Media’s “Believe Her” was nominated for Podcast of the Year, Best True Crime Podcast, and Best Reporting. Radiotopia’s “Song Exploder” and Pineapple Street Studios’ “Back Issue” were nominated for Best Entertainment Podcast awards. Cadence13’s “We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle” was up for a Best Wellness or Relationships Podcast award.

Ross Mathews and Nikki Boyer hosted the ceremony and they’re also podcasters. Nikki hosts Wondery’s “Dying for Sex” and Cumulus Podcast Network presents “Straight Talk with Ross Mathews.”

Scroll through the list below to see which of your favorite shows were nominated and which walked away with an Ambie (Amby?). The winning podcasts will be highlighted blue.

Podcast of the Year (Sponsored by Audacy)

• 9/12
• A Slight Change of Plans
• Alligator Candy
• Believe Her
• Bill Simmons Podcast
• Earth Eclipsed
• False Idol
• Have You Heard George’s Podcast?
• Hooked
• The Imperfection

Best Business Podcast

• An Arm and a Leg
• Business Wars
• Masters of Scale
• Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
• Planet Money
• The Indicator from Planet Money
• The McKinsey Podcast

Best Comedy Podcast

• Best Friends
• How Did This Get Made?
• Nosy Neighbors
• The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: Ears Edition
• The Sarah Silverman Podcast
• Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me
• Why Won’t You Date Me with Nicole Byer

Best Documentary Podcast

• AMERICAN VETERAN: Unforgettable Stories
• CBC Podcasts: Life Jolt
• Embedded
• Fiasco: Benghazi
• On Our Watch
• Post Reports
• Stay Away from Matthew MaGill

Best Entertainment Podcast

• Back Issue
• Even the Rich
• New Rory & MAL
• Song Exploder
• The Boys: The Official Podcast
• The Friendship Onion
• The Plot Thickens

Best Fiction Podcast (Sponsored by Apollo)

• Black Box
• Orphan Black: The Next Chapter
• Princess of South Beach
• Tejana
• The Miseducation of John Mark
• The Zip Code Plays: Los Angeles
• Treat

Best History Podcast

• Black Cowboys
• Human Resources
• Making Gay History – The Podcast | Season 9: “Coming of Age During the AIDS Crisis”
• Mogul
• Slow Burn: The L.A. Riots
• Telling Our Twisted Histories
• Throughline

Best Indie Podcast (Sponsored by TenderfootTV)

• Aftershock
• An Arm and a Leg
• Because I Said So!
• Earth Eclipsed
• For Blood or Justice
• Walzon Prime
• What Happened in Skinner

Best Interview Podcast

• 70 Over 70
• Billie Was a Black Woman
• I WEIGH
• Jemele Hill is Unbothered
• Profoundly Pointless
• The Problem with Jon Stewart
• Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller

Best Knowledge, Science or Tech Podcast

• Dope Labs
• Music Blocks
• Overheard at National Geographic
• Road to Resilience
• TED Radio Hour
• The Extortion Economy
• Twenty Thousand Hertz

Best News Podcast

• 60 Minutes
• Consider This
• Post Reports
• Start Here
• The Journal
• The Times
• Up First

Best Original Score and Music Supervision

• Have You Heard George’s Podcast?
• The Duolingo French Podcast
• Operation Midnight Climax
• Carcerem
• Great Grief
• Gravity
• 9/12

Best Performer in Audio Fiction (Sponsored by Audible)

• Aftershock – David Harbour
• Date with Daddy – Marisa Grant
• Edith! – Rosamund Pike
• Melon’s House Party – Parvesh Cheena & Jessica McKenna
• Passenger List – Kelly Marie Tran
• Radio Rental – Rainn Wilson
• We Stay Looking – Full Cast Including: Terri J. Vaughn, Karrueche Tran, Marsai Martin, Kandi Burruss, Amin Joseph, Desi Banks, Kyla Pratt, Jason Weaver, Kev On Stage, Kway, Karlous Miller, Tristen Winger, Max Greenfield and more.

Best Personal Growth / Spirituality Podcast

• Great Grief
• Life Kit
• Making Space with Hoda Kotb
• Meditative Story
• Money Moves with Toni Tone
• SOL Affirmations with Karega and Felicia
• The Happiness Lab

Best Podcast for Kids

• African Folktales with Miss Jo Jo
• Imagine This
• Music Blocks
• Nice to Meet You
• Operation Ouch! The Podcast of Everything
• The Big Fib
• The Vivo Songbook

Best Podcast Host

• Crime Show – Emma Courtland
• Human Resources – Moya Lothian-McLean
• It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders – Sam Sanders
• Jemele Hill Is Unbothered – Jemele Hill
• King of The World: An American Muslim Story – Shahjehan Khan
• Revisionist History – Malcolm Gladwell
• Why Won’t You Date Me with Nicole Byer –  Nicole Byer

Best Politics or Opinion Podcast

• Billie Was a Black Woman
• Can He Do That?
• Pod Save the World
• Post Reports
• Skullduggery
• Stay Tuned with Preet
• The Messenger

Best Production and Sound Design (Sponsored by PRX)

• Iowa Chapman and the Last Dog
• King of the World: An American Muslim Story
• Not Past It
• The 11th: Time Machine – The Score
• The Bering
• The Turning: The Sisters Who Left
• Twenty Thousand Hertz

Best Reporting

• Stolen: The Search for Jermain
• Un(re)solved
• The Turning: The Sisters Who Left
• 544 Days
• Believe Her
• Post Reports
• 9/12

Best Scriptwriting, Fiction

• Edith! – Gonzalo Cordova, Travis Helwig
• Hit Job – Broadway Video
• Soft Voice – James Bloor
• The Burned Photo – Nicole Exposito, Jeremy Novick, Kwynn Perry
• The Imperfection – Alexander Kemp
• The Lamb – Tad Safran
• We Stay Looking – Kindsey Young, Chris Sanford, Phylicia Mpasi

Best Scriptwriting, Nonfiction

• Death At the Wing – Brian Steele, Adam Mckay, Raghu Manavalan, Jody Avigan
• Have You Heard George’s Podcast? – George the Poet
• HiberNation – Mallika Rao
• Radiotopia Presents: S***hole Country – Afia Kaakyire
• Southlake – Antonia Hylton, Mike Hixenbaugh, Frannie Kelley, Reid Cherlin, Julie Shapiro, Michelle Garcia
• Storytime with Seth Rogen –  Seth Rogen, Richard Parks III, Frida Perez
• Throughline – Rund Abdelfatah, Ramtin Arablouei, Julie Caine, Laine Kaplan-Levenson

Best Society and Culture Podcast

• Billie Was a Black Woman
• Cheat!
• Ear Hustle
• Heavyweight
• Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay
• Into America
• Storytime with Seth Rogen

Best Sports Podcast

• Crushed
• False Idol
• Goats: On the Bump by Ross Stripling
• Spinsters
• The Greatness with Kareem Maddox
• The Lead
• The Long Game

Best True Crime Podcast (Sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter)

• Believe Her
• Confronting: Columbine
• Criminal
• Do You Know Mordechai?
• Firebug
• Over My Dead Body: Fox Lake
• Suspect

Best Wellness or Relationships Podcast

• Call Your Grandmother
• Lovers and Friends with Shan Boodram
• Making Space with Hoda Kotb
• My Body, My Podcast
• On Purpose with Jay Shetty
• Really Good Shares
• We Can Do Hard Things