Well, what’s there to say about 2020 that you haven’t already cried thinking about?
How about we forget the existential dread, suffering, and apocalyptic foreshadowed doom and instead celebrate good podcasts? Ok? Deal.
If you’re reading this it means the 2020 Discover Pods Awards are now open for nominations. If you don’t want to read anything else, that’s fine. They’re open, go nominate.
That said, there are some new awards and eligibility requirements this year you should know about.
Nominations
As with previous years, nominations are open starting today through October 11th at 6pm ET. Nominate your own podcast, nominate friends, tell others to nominate for your podcast. It really doesn’t matter and all campaigning is encouraged. However, ballot stuffing is not only not allowed, it will disqualify your podcast. Further, like every year, the number of nominations alone does not determine the finalists.
There are new award categories this year to further expand our diversity and inclusivity, notably specific awards for LGBTQ, women, and POC. To be eligible for the LGBTQ category, your podcast needs to be centered around those themes or feature them prominently within the podcast. Your podcast isn’t eligible for the LGBTQ award unless it deals with queer life, culture, or history.
Read more on voting and eligibility here.
Finalists
We’ll announce the finalists on October 19th. Together with a small group of podcast fans and critics, we’ll look through the nominations and narrow down to select the finalists ready for the final round of voting. There’s an intentional gap between the closing of nominations and the finalists announced because we intend to spend significant time going through all the nominations to select those most deserving.
Full Schedule
Nominations: Sept. 28 – Oct. 11 at 6pm ET [CLOSED]
Finalists Announced: Oct. 23
Final Voting: Oct. 23 – Nov. 6 at 6pm ET
Award Winners Announced: Nov 9th