Slate, NPR podcasts win big at fourth annual Ambie Awards

For the fourth year in a row, the Ambie Awards celebrated the brightest creators in the world of podcasting. On March 26, drag queen Trixie Mattel hosted a lively ceremony that honored the best audio shows across 27 categories.

The Ambies are overseen and voted on by the Podcast Academy, a group that was established just a few months before the inaugural Ambies in 2020. The show has added a handful of new categories since then and has kept pace with a podcasting industry that has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. “You all look so gorgeous which is why you excel in a medium where no one can see you,” said Mattel, a former Streamy Awards co-host, at the start of the 2024 Ambies.

Prominent podcast producers and distributors celebrated multiple wins at the 2024 Ambies. Three NPR 

shows — The NPR Politics Podcast, Throughline, and Code Switch — took home awards, as did nine programs hosted on the Spotify-owned service Megaphone. The Podcast of the Year prize went to the eighth season of the Slate podcast Slow Burn, which explored the origins of long-serving Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas (pictured above).

The 2024 Ambies took place at JW Marriott LA Live. The Podcast Academy streamed the show on its YouTube channel, where a VOD version of the festivities is now available.

Beyond the shows listed above, other notable winners included the football-playing Kelce brothers, Jason and Kelce, who were recognized for their podcast New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce. A full list of winners is available via Podnews.