The Ambies: 'Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas' & 'Weight For It' Win Top Podcast Awards

“You all look so great, so it excels in a medium where no one can see you.” Trixie Mattel he quipped early Tuesday night Ambie Awards inside the JW Marriott LA Live in Los Angeles. The winner of his third season RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars served as host of The Podcast Academy's fourth annual Audio Excellence Awards presented by Wondery, The Hollywood ReporterAudible, Dolby, Campside Media, The Podcast Show, Tenderfoot TV, Outfront, Castbox, Radio, Gumball, Headgum, Good Tape and IMDb.

The top honor of the night went to Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas, which was awarded Podcast of the Year. The show, now in its eighth season, is hosted by Shale staff writer Joel Anderson and tells his story Clarence Thomashis rise to power.

Weight for it, hosted by Ronald Young Jr., was the show with the most awards during the ceremony that recognized a total of 192 nominees in 27 categories. The narrative talk show about one's intrusive thoughts about their size won Best Indie Podcast, Best Indie Podcast Host/Host, and Best Society and Culture Podcast.

“I'm very happy to win this award because anyone who produces independently understands that you spend so much of your time alone,” Young Jr. said. in tears as he accepted the award for Best Indie Podcast. “You write, and you edit, and you cut tape, and you do all that, and then you have to ask yourself, 'is this good?' “Will people like it?” But I guess I don't have to wonder anymore.”

Additional highlights of the evening included Julia Louis-Dreyfus' turn conversations with supreme old women, wiser than me win the best interview podcast. Pop culture podcaster Ira Madison III, host Keep it!, receiving the Impact Award, which recognizes an individual or podcast that has had a significant positive impact on their listeners. And a writer Malcolm Gladwellits host and creator Revisionist Historyreceiving the Governors Award, which recognizes a podcast or individual for their impact on the industry.

“I started this thinking I was just going to do a one-off show or two and that was it, and here I am nine years later,” Gladwell said in a videotaped acceptance speech. “We've done so many things that I'm very proud of, from our Tokyo shooting series that was turned into a book, The bomber mafiain our big series on gun violence last year, in our big rewrite The little Mermaid, which was meant to make Disney wake up to what was wrong with one of its classics, on everything from why I hate McDonald's fries to why student councils should be elected by lottery and a million things in between. It's been an incredible ride, not to mention too many Ivy league shows, but that's what's great podcast. You can enjoy your personal idiosyncrasies, and that's what I've done.''

See the full list of 2024 winners and nominees below:

Podcast of the year

50 Years of Hip-Hop

Can You Dig It?: A Hip-Hop Origin Story with Chuck D

Built-in: Coverage

Exposed: Cover-up at Columbia University

Ghost story

Next year in Moscow

Questlove Supreme

Posts: The Empty Tomb of Comrade Bishop

Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas (WINNER)

The very worst thing that could happen

Best Business Podcast

Access & Opportunity

Behind the money

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Design Nerds Anonymous

Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried (WINNER)

The closest

Confidence

Best Comedy Podcast

Bad dates

Conan O'Brien needs a friend

How did this happen; (WINNER)

Let's Make A Rom-Com

Lovett or Leave it

The Big Flop

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me!

The best DIY Podcast

Beans without limits

Over 6 seconds

Black Is America

Culture Kids Podcast

Left

Latinx Can Podcast

PLEASE PICK UP (WINNER)

Best Podcast Documentary

Borrowed and Forbidden

Built-in: Coverage

Fever: The Hunt for Covid's Origin

Free From Desire: Asexual in the City of Love

Ghost story (WINNER)

King Slime: The Prosecution of Young Thug and YSL

Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas

Best Entertainment Podcast (Sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter)

50 Years of Hip-Hop (WINNER)

Creative Control

Movies to be buried with Brett Goldstein

HBO's The Last of Us Podcast

Films Against Capitalism

MUBI Podcast

Marvel Women

Best Fiction Podcast

Midnight Burger

People who knew me

Occupation

PREVIA: A Tech Heist (WINNER)

Supreme: The Battle for Roe

The Foxes of Hydesville

The very worst thing that could happen

Best History Podcast

Later knowledge

The secret heroes of history

Spy Valley: An Engineer's Nuclear Betrayal

Africa vs. America

This is History: A Dynasty to Die For

Unreformed: The Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children (WINNER)

Non-teaching

Best Indie Podcast (Sponsored by Tenderfoot TV)

Abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast

BEEF with Bridget Todd

Dragoncast

Expectant

Corporate Surfing

The Nocturnals

Weight for it (WINNER)

Best Indie Podcast Host or Hosts

Ali Block, MD – The Nocturnists

Ami Thakkar – Tuckered Out with Ami Thakkar

Emma Lehman – Gone

Jill Jonassen – The Cost of Extremism

Molly Miller – Night Raid

Ronald Young Jr. – Weight For It (WINNER)

Sequoia Holmes – Black people love Paramore

Best Interview Podcast

State of the Union Podcast by Alexis Lala

Apple News in Chat

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Questlove Supreme

The Skinny Confidential

Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus (WINNER)

Your mom's kitchen

Better knowledge, science or technology Podcast

Big Deep – An Ocean Podcast

Darknet Diaries (WINNER)

Moral Repair: A Black Exploration of Tech

As far as we know: Bright

Inexplicable

Voices from DARPA

Without

Best News Podcast

Odd Lots: Pot Lots

Queer News

Start here

The decibel

Today, it is explained (WINNER)

Tug of War: Israel-Hamas War

Up first

Best Original Music and Music Supervision

Calm It Down – Chad Lawson

Can You Dig It?: A Hip-Hop Origin Story with Chuck D – Bryan Master

Louder Than A Riot – Suzi Analogue, Kassa Overall and Ramtin Arablouei

Next year in Moscow

Othello – Lindsay Jones (WINNER)

The Cat In The Hat Cast – Jack Mitchell

The very worst thing that could happen – Alex Kemp

Better performance in sound imagination

Hidden Signal: Evergreen – Lana Condor

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol – Sean Astin, John Rhys-Davies, Lucy Punch, Ben Barnes, Juliet Mills, Ryan O'Quinn, Bethany Joy Lenz, Clive Standen, Maxwell Caulfield

Supreme: The Battle for Roe – Maya Hawke, William H. Macy, Abigail Breslin, et al.

The Foxes of Hydesville – Carey Mulligan

The Salvation – Rose Leslie, Toby Jones, Robert Bathurst, et al.

The Very Worst Thing That Could Happen – Antonia Desplat, Isaac Gonzalez Rossi Yvette Lu, et al.

Yes We Cannabis – Sam Richardson, Method Man, Langston Kerman, Punkie Johnson, Richard Kind, Laci Mosley, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, Heidi Gardner, Tichina Arnold, Tim Meadows, Rachel Dratch, Chris Parnell (WINNER)

Best Personal Development / Spirituality Podcast

Dear Alana, (WINNER)

How to become a better person

A meditative story

Moral Repair: A Black Exploration of Tech

Rituals

Second Sunday

SOL confirmations with Felicia & Karega

Best Podcast for Kids

African Tales with Miss Jo Jo

Disney Frozen: Forces of Nature

Greeking Out

Mina & Lucy's Guide to Slaying Dracula

Sesame Street – Foley & Friends Season 3

Arthur's Podcast

The Cat In The Hat Cast (WINNER)

Best Podcast Host or Hosts

Anderson Cooper – All There Is with Anderson Cooper

David Rind – Tug of War: Israel-Hamas War

Isaac-Davy Aronson & Rachel Maddow – Rachel Maddow Presented by Déjà News

Kerry Godliman – Stolen Hearts

Martine Powers – Post Reports: The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop (WINNER)

Malcolm Gladwell – Revisionist History

Rose Reid & Nando Vila – Shoot the Messenger: Espionage, Murder & Pegasus Spyware

Best Politics or Opinion Podcast

Bad Watchdog

National Emergency

Next year in Moscow

Publication of Reports

The NPR Politics Podcast (WINNER)

Those who can no longer teach

We're not talking about Leonard

Best Production and Sound Design (Dolby)

Chameleon: Dr. Dante – Garrett Tiedemann

Hidden Signal: Evergreen – Geoffrey Cannock, Jose Varon, The Audio Hive, Neely Oeftering, Sarah Ma, David Tatasciore, Ben Milchev

Long Shadow

People Who Knew Me – Martin Schulz

The Very Worst Thing That Could Happen – Alex Kemp and Beau Milkis

Via line (WINNER)

Undertow: The Sisters

Better reference

Dear Alana, – Simon Kent Fung

Imperfect Paradise: People vs Karen

Murder In Boston: The Untold Story of the Charles and Carol Stuart Shooting – Adrian Walker

Function: Tradebom

Shoot the Messenger: Espionage, Murder & Pegasus Spyware

The 13th Step – Lauren Chooljian (WINNER)

The age of the blog

Best Screenplay, Fiction

Ad Lucem – Troian Bellisario, Josh Close (WINNER)

Expected – Pippa Johnstone

Hidden Signal: Evergreen – Chloe Stearns, John Wynn

Pariah – Davy Gardner

The Foxes of Hydesville – Shawn Christensen

Trust Fall – Claire Friedman

Zoey's Mythical Menagerie – Leigh Joel Scott

Best case scenario, prose

Classy with Jonathan Menjivar – Jonathan Menjivar

Switch code – BA Parker (WINNER)

Dear Alana, – Simon Kent Fung, Laurie Polisky, Donald Albright

Exposed: Cover-up at Columbia University – Laura Bale

Founder: The John McAfee Story

The Banksy Story – James Peak

Who Killed JFK? – David Hoffman

Best Society and Culture Podcast

Can You Dig It?: A Hip-Hop Origin Story with Chuck D

Dear Alana,

Dynamite Doug

Exposed: Cover-up at Columbia University

ROS presents: Roughhousing

The story exchange

Weight for it (WINNER)

Best sports podcast

All the smoke

Four years of heat

The heart of the game

New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce (WINNER)

Reclaimed: The Forgotten League

Lead

The Playcallers

Best True Crime Podcast

Disappeared: The Bradley sisters

Heinous – An Asian True Crime Podcast

Smoke Screen: Just say you're sorry

The Girl in the Blue Mustang

The friends (WINNER)

The Vanishing Point

Who Killed JFK?

Best Podcast for Wellness or Relationships

Big eyelash power

Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Embodied (WINNER)

It can't just be me

Jillian for Love

Life Kit

Love letters

This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter