Let’s open the floodgates here. The third annual Discover Pods Awards are now accepting nominations through Oct 22 at 6pm ET.

Once again, the bar continues to be raised as podcasts up their game, push their creative limits, and overall are creating better shows. I’m excited to see which podcasts are represented this year.

Last year, the second-annual Discover Pods Awards, over 10,000 people voted to determine the winners. See a full list of previous winners.

This year we’re adding some new categories and changing things up a bit.

Nominations

Similar to last year, nominations are open starting today until October 22nd at 6pm ET. Everyone is free to nominate podcasts and episodes, there’s no charge like other awards. Podcasters, feel free to campaign on your behalf and help spread the word. That said, ballot stuffing is not allowed and won’t benefit your podcast. Each email address only gets one nomination form — multiple get automatically deleted. Also, total nominations, while important are only one variable that’ll help determine the finalists.

Read more on voting and eligibility here.

Finalists

The finalists will be announced on November 5th. Together with a small group of podcast fans and advocates, we’ll sift through the nominations and ultimately determine the podcasts selected 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: Oct. 1 – Oct 22 at 6pm ET [CLOSED]

Finalists Announced: Nov. 5

Final Voting: Nov 5 – Nov 18 at 6pm ET

Award Winners Announced: Nov 21