iHeartMedia Celebrates the Best in Podcasting During the Eighth Annual iHeartPodcast Awards Live at SXSW
Monday night, the 2026 iHeartPodcast Awards Live at SXSW brought together the most influential names in podcasting to honor the most entertaining and innovative podcasts of 2025, celebrating the incredible talent and wide variety of leaders across the podcasting industry live in Austin, Texas at ACL Live at the Moody Theater. The show was hosted by comedian Ego Nwodim and streamed live exclusively on VEEPS. The event also broadcasted on select iHeartMedia radio stations at 11p.m. local time and was available live on the iHeartRadio app.
The night featured a variety of appearances by award nominees, celebrity presenters and special guests including Podcast of the Year winners Hannah Berner and Paige DeSorbo, presenters Clayton Echard, Eric Andre, Iliza Shlesinger, Jennie Garth, Jonathan Goldstein, Juju Green, Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, Lele Pons, Rider Strong among others, as well as TikTok creators Caroline Vazzana, Clifford Taylor IV and Timothy Martin. Special guests included Andrea Gunning, Chris Wylde, DJ Dramos, Elyse Myers, Laurie Santos and many nominees.
In addition to the fan-voted and category awards, iHeartMedia presented three Icon Awards – the Social Impact Award to Jay Shetty, the Audible Audio Pioneer Award to Terry Gross and the Innovator Award to Hrishikesh Hirway – honoring individuals who have made groundbreaking contributions to the podcasting medium.
The 2026 iHeartPodcast Awards event highlights include:
- Will Ferrell kicked off the show in full Team USA speed skating gear as he joked to the crowd full of a “few of his peers and many of his admirers” that he almost made the team for the 2026 Winter Olympics. He then introduced host Ego Nwodim.
- Host Ego Nwodim, who was also nominated in the Best Emerging category for her podcast “Thanks Dad,” welcomed the audience and talked about the importance of podcasts while reminding the audio-savvy audience not to peak the mics.
- “My Favorite Murder” hosts Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark presented the Best Travel Award to “Women Who Travel.” Host Lale Arikoglu thanked the women who shared their stories.
- Lele Pons, host of the upcoming “Suite 305” podcast, presented the Best Emerging podcast to “Smart GirlDumb Questions with Nayeema Raza.”
- “Broken Record” host Justin Richmond presented the 2026 Social Impact Award to Jay Shetty and his “On Purpose” podcast. Shetty accepted the award via video message.
- Jennie Garth, host of “I Choose Me,” celebrated the shows nominated for Best TV & Film for keeping us all engaged before presenting the award to “Watch What Crappens.” Hosts Ronnie Karam and Ben Mandelkeraccepted the award by first being excited to talk to Garth and thanking Bravo for providing plenty of TV to escape into.
- Host Ego Nwodim pitched her own True Crime podcast to uncover the missing person sitting in an empty chair, delighting the audience with her on-the-spot trailer for the show.
- Rider Strong presented Best Crime to the “Wisecrack” team who recounted the six-episode show’s 10-year journey to being made and celebrated the balance between light and darkness.
- Eric Andre joked about SXSW hangover and the founding of podcasting before presenting Best Comedy Award to “Good Hang with Amy Poehler.” Poehler accepted via video message and thanked her listeners, teasing her next episode with Viola Davis.
- Juju Green presented the Innovator Award to Hrishikesh Hirway who recounted the beginnings of “Song Exploder” and his want to dive into every beat of creating the music we hear.
- “Love Trapped” hosts Clayton Echard and Stephani Young presented Best Advice/Inspirational Award to “Thanks For Asking with Nora McInerny,” who offered some advice to her fellow nominees Michelle Obama, Chrissy Teigen and Jay Shetty to “stick to it.”
- TikTok creators and podcast hosts Clifford Taylor IV and Timothy Martin presented Best Business & Finance to “The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett.”
- Hannah Berner and Paige DeSorbo took the stage to award the Best Ensemble Award presented by Gatorade Lower Sugar to “The Basement Yard.” Hosts Joe Santagato and Frank Alvarez accepted the award by shouting out how they’ve been friends since they were four and get to live their comedy dreams together.
- Jonathan Goldstein presented the Audible Audio Pioneer Icon Award to “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross, who accepted her award via video message. She recounted her beginnings as a volunteer at her college radio station and gaining her skills by broadcasting in front of nearly no audience.
- TikTok creator Caroline Vazzana presented Best News to “The MeidasTouch Podcast.” Hosts and brothersBen, Brett and Jordy Meiselas thanked their wives and shouted out podcasts with the courage to call out injustice.
- Iliza Shlesinger presented Podcast of the Year to Giggly Squad hosts Hannah Berner and Paige DeSorbo. Hannah joked how Paige first said no to their podcast because she “has a face for television” before Paige thanked their listeners for always tuning in.
The full list of 2026 iHeartPodcast Awards winners are:
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Proud partners of this year’s iHeartPodcast Awards include Audible, Avocados from Mexico, Gatorade Lower Sugar and She Rises Studios.
Executive producers for the 2026 iHeartPodcast Awards are John Sykes, Tom Poleman, Conal Byrne and Bart Peters for iHeartMedia.
The 2026 iHeartPodcast Awards is part of iHeartMedia’s roster of nationally recognized events including the iHeartRadio Music Awards, the iHeartRadio Music Festival, the nationwide iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Concert Tour, iHeartRadio Fiesta Latina, iHeartCountry Festival and iHeartRadio ALTer Ego.
For more information on the iHeartPodcast Awards, visit the website here.
The above list of podcasts is available as an OPML file for your podcast player
About iHeartMedia
iHeartMedia, Inc. [Nasdaq: IHRT] is the leading audio media company in America, with 90% of Americans listening to iHeart broadcast radio in every month. iHeart’s broadcast radio assets alone have a larger audience in the U.S. than any other media outlet; twice the size of the next largest broadcast radio company; and over four times the ad-enabled audience of the largest digital only audio service. iHeart is the largest podcast publisher according to Podtrac, with more downloads than the next two podcast publishers combined, has the most recognizable live events across all genres of music, has the number one social footprint among audio players, with seven times more followers than the next audio media brand, and is the only fully integrated audio ad tech solution across broadcast, streaming and podcasts. The company continues to leverage its strong audience connection and unparalleled consumer reach to build new platforms, products and services. Visit iHeartMedia.com for more company information.
This is a press release which we link to from Podnews, our daily newsletter about podcasting and on-demand. We may make small edits for editorial reasons.