An Army of Normal Folks - Why Did Life Expectancy Grow By 4 Decades?!

Episode Date: November 28, 2025

For Shop Talk, we explore why did human life expectancy stick around 30-40 years old for thousands of years and then suddenly increased by 4 decades in less than 200 years! Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney. Welcome to the shop for Shop Talk number 80. I got two numbers for you. Uh-oh. Let me ask you first, which football players were number 80? Which football players were number 80? Most famously. Jerry Rice.

There you go. That was one of them. Another 80? Jerry Rice, was Michael? No, Michael. Chris Carter. Chris Carter. That makes, yeah, Chris Carter was a player.

But Jerry Rice and Chris Carter. Or Jerry Rice, yeah, 80. That's pretty cool. So, welcome to Shop Talk number 80. Today we're going to talk progress, freedom, and energy. Three things that are interesting and important. And somehow interrelated. Yeah, but Alex has found a way to time together.

And it centers around Chris Wright's commencement speech at the University of Colorado at Denver's Global Energy Management Program in 2000. Oddly, I've spoken at the University of Colorado at Denver, but it was not this speech, nor my Chris Wright, nor was it in 2016. So, right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors, we're going to talk progress, feed them, and energy through the lens of Chris Wright's commencement speech at Colorado University at Denver, right after these brief messages from our general sponsors. Black Friday at Abercrombie is here with 25 to 50% off everything and IHart listeners are getting an extra 15% off with code IHARAF. It's the sale you've been waiting for. Shop Abercrombie in the app online and in stores. 30% of everything valid in stores and online from November the 24th, 2025 to December 1st, 2025 in UK-EU.

It excludes clearance and gift cards, online price reflects discount. Use code IHAR AF to get an additional 15% off everything in stores and online at checkout from November the 24th, 2025 to December 1st, 2025 in the UK-EU. It's who's clearance and gift cards, see details online. I'm Robert Smith, and this is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history. And some of the worst people, horrible ideas and destructive companies in the history of business. Having a genius idea without a need for it is nothing. It's like not having it at all.

It's a very simple, elegant lesson. Make something people want. First episode, how Southwest Airlines use cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline business. The most Texas story ever. There's a lot of mavericks in that story. We're going to have mavericks on the show. We're going to have plenty of robber barons. So many robber barons.

And you know what? They're not all bad. And we'll talk about some of the classic great moments of famous business genius. along with some of the darker moments that often get overlooked. Like Thomas Edison and the electric chair. Listen to business history on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What do you get when you mix 1950s Hollywood, a Cuban musician with a dream, and one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time? You get Desi Arnest, a trailblazer, a businessman, a husband, and maybe most importantly, the first Latino to break prime time wide open.

Valderama, and yes, I grew up watching him, probably just like you and millions of others. But for me, I saw myself in his story. From plening canary cages to this night here in New York, it's a long ways. On the podcast starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderama, I'll take you in a journey to Desi's life, the moments it has overlapped with mine, how he redefined American television and what that meant for all of us watching from the sidelines, waiting for a face like hours on screen. This is the story of how one-man's spotlight

lit the path for so many others and how we carry his legacy today. Listen to starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama as part of the MyCultura podcast network available on the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Podcasters, it's time to get the recognition you deserve.

The IHart Podcast Awards are coming back in 2026. Got a mic? Then you've got a shot. Every year, we celebrate the most creative, compelling and game-changing voices in podcasting. Is that you? Submit now at iHeartPodcastawards.com for a chance to be honored on the biggest stage in the industry. Deadline December 7th. This is your chance. Let's celebrate the power of podcasting and your place in it. Enter now at iHeartpodcastawards.com.

Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google doc and send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one-page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. It's not his fault. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet.

My name is Evan Ratliff. I decided to create Kyle, my AI co-founder, after hearing a lot of stuff like this from OpenAI CEO Sam Aldman. There's this betting pool for the first year that there's a one-person, a billion-dollar company, which would have been like unimaginable without AI and now will happen. I got to thinking, could I be that one person? I'd made AI agents before for my award-winning podcast. Shell Game. This season on Shell Game, I'm trying to build a real company with a real product

run by fake people. Oh, hey, Evan. Good to have you join us. I found some really interesting data on adoption rates for AI agents and small to medium businesses. Listen to Shell Game on the IHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everybody, welcome back to Shop Talk. almost didn't ring the bell by the way welcome the shop Alex how are you thank you bill I'm doing great I didn't even welcome you in I'm so sorry I was so rude you can have a 5% discount on anything today in the shop for my rudeness okay today Chris Wright's commencement speech at the University of Colorado at Denver's global energy management program in 2016

discussing progress freedom and energy three interesting topics all of import that aren't often found together. So I'm interested to see what Alex dug up. I mean, I'll just give five seconds of context. I've interviewed Chris before. You have. So he grew up with a single mom. Actually, when I've interviewed him, I mean, he, like, brings up his mom and he can't not cry. I mean, this guy's got a real soul to him, and he ends up creating his multi-billion-dollar energy company called Liberty Energy. So anyway, this is a super compelling speech that I think you guys will find of interest. Okay.

here is this speech less than 20 years ago in our country life expectancy was about 40 years old globally i say 20 200 years did i say 20 i think you said 20 oh sorry 20 wouldn't make sense 20 would not be true less than 200 years ago in the u.s life expectancy was only about 40 years globally life expectancy was actually 35 years old 2 000 years ago global life expectancy is thought to have been little more than 30 years. Only a few years, at most, were added to the average human lifespan

over many millennia, but somehow we've added an additional four decades to human life expectancy over the last two centuries. First of all, that's really interesting before we go away. I've never, I mean, that's obvious, but I've never even considered that. I had an either until this. Two thousand years, we managed to add five years

of life expectancy and then in a couple of centuries we add 40 years it's incredible okay i'll continue you're about to learn why hey well he says why how of course there are many reasons and public health advancements were likely the most critical proximate cause but why did those advancements only occur so recently what was the ultimate cause i believe that there were two major ultimate causes, first and foremost, the dramatic expansion of individual liberty and property rights in the first half of the 19th century. Expant individual liberty and property rights replaced mercantilism, a system where kings and queens, governments, tightly controlled the granting of corporate charters to only the wealthy, connected, and favored. Mercantilism

was replaced with a system where citizens could more freely and equally engage in commerce, this newfound freedom unleashed human enterprise innovation and creative and creativity like never before most famously in the rapid spread of the steam engine pioneered in the previous century by thomas newcomb and james watt to power water pumps textile machinery and trains for the first time in human history the standard of living of the average person began to consistently grow and by now has increased in the developed world by roughly 25-fold since 1840, 10-fold globally. Humans not only doubled their life expectancy, they also became dramatically wealthier and freer. We are all quite lucky to be living today

and not 200 years ago for economic freedom and human liberty to bear fruit. One other factor had to be present. Energy, and lots of it before these dramatic changes in property rights and human liberty unleashed economic growth. Nearly all human energy was supplied by biomass. This meant the burning of trees, sticks, grass, and dung,

a rather limited energy source that could never power the Industrial Revolution. Something much vast, denser, and more uniform would need to power machines. Coal was first to fit the bill, and the rest is history. Sadly, biomass remains the primary source of energy today for over a billion humans who still lack access to electricity and nearly another billion who have only unreliable electricity. Burning biomass not only provides warmth,

but it is critical for cooking food. Unfortunately, pollution from indoor burning of wood, grass and dung kills roughly 3 million people per year together with hunger, lack of access to clean drinking water, and malaria. These four killers are responsible for 15 million deaths per year, bringing affordable energy to the world's will be essential to eradicating these four scourges.

Advancements in energy made the modern world possible from planes, trains, and automobiles to computers, the internet, modern medicine, and wireless communication. Abundant, cheap energy-powered air conditioning, which enabled cities to develop in the tropics. Energy allowed modern medicine to spread across the globe and perhaps the most relevant to this room. Energy enabled widespread higher education, like, at the University of Colorado's Global Energy Management Program. The British intellectual and author Matt Ridley gives a very fitting example of how advancements in energy and technology have revolutionized something fundamental to education, the reading light.

In 1800, it took the average person six hours of labor to earn one hour of reading light from a tallow candle. How rare bedtime stories must have been back then. 1882, decades after the first oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania, kerosene lamps lowered this by 24-fold to only 15 minutes of labor to learn one hour of reading light. That is so interesting. However, there was still a rather significant investment for the average worker. Today, it requires the average worker only a small fraction of a second of labor to earn an hour of reading light. The excuse I couldn't finish my assignment because I ran out of reading lights simply no longer exist.

Coal was the first major source of energy beyond biomass. It pioneered the spread of the Industrial Revolution by the middle of the 19th century. It became a meaningful contributor to total world energy consumption. Oil became significant 50 years later as automobiles and internal combustion engine burst on the scene. Before long, oil enabled high-speed mass transportation, to spread across the globe. Natural gas didn't become a major source of energy until after World War II,

as it required a large pipeline network to transport it. These three hydrocarbons, coal, oil, and gas, have supplied over 80% of the US and world energy during my lifetime. Nuclear, hydro, and buyer mass have supplied almost all the rest. The biggest energy transformation during my career has not been from a new energy, source, but instead, within the realm of hydrocarbons.

American in entrepreneurship, innovation, and determination launched the American Shale Revolution that has radically altered the American and world energy landscapes just over the last 10 years. The Shale Revolution was simply a different way to execute hydraulic fracturing and older technology and advancements in drilling technologies to tap oil and gas from the source rocks where oil and gas were originally created. This recent revolution has been transformative.

Natural gas now heats over half of U.S. homes and provides nearly 40% of our electricity. Two years ago, it surpassed coal as our largest source of electricity. It is the dominant fuel-powering factories and a major feedstock for petrochemicals and nitrogen fertilizer. A surge in the supply of American natural gas not only dramatically lowered, energy costs for U.S. consumers, but it is also launching a renaissance in U.S. manufacturing. Due to our tremendous energy cost advantage over all other industrial countries, the U.S. has now become a net exporter of natural gas. In fact, we're now the third largest export of natural gas in the world. Quite a reversal of fortune is only a decade ago. We were building multi-billion

dollar terminals to import natural gas into the United States. Now these terminals, export. natural gas. The Shell Revolution impact on oil markets has been even more profound. U.S. dependent on oil imports dropped from 60 percent 12 years ago to only 15 percent today and remain falling. The more than doubling in U.S. oil production over the last eight years has made the United States the largest producer of liquid fuels, which is oil and natural gas liquids, and has supplied roughly 80 percent of the growth in demand for world globally over the last five years. The result of a surge in supply is inevitable, a price drop. And this has been no exception over the last three years.

Oil prices have averaged about $50 a barrel versus $90 a barrel in the five years before that. Since the U.S. consumes over 6 billion barrels of oil a day, that equates to a quarter of a trillion dollars of savings to U.S. consumers every year worldwide. The result has been a trillion-dollar annual wealth transfer from more. world producers to world consumers each year, each of the last three years. We'll be right back. Black Friday at Abercrombie is here with 25 to 50% off everything, and IHart listeners are getting an extra 15% off with code IHRAF.

It's the sale you've been waiting for. Shop Abercrombie in the app online and in stores. 30% of everything valid in stores and online. from November the 24th, 2025 to December 1st, 2025 in UK-EU. It excludes clearance and gift cards, online price, reflects discount. Use code IHAR AF to get an additional 15% off everything in stores and online at checkout from November the 24th, 2025 to December 1st, 2025 in UK-EU. It includes clearance and gift cards, see details online.

I'm Robert Smith, and this is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history. and some of the worst people, horrible ideas, and destructive companies in the history of business. Having a genius idea without a need for it is nothing. It's like not having it at all. It's a very simple, elegant lesson. Make something people want.

First episode, how Southwest Airlines use cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline business. The most Texas story ever. There's a lot of mavericks in that story. We're going to have mavericks on the show. We're going to have plenty of robber barons. So many robber barons. And you know what? They're not all bad.

And we'll talk about some of the classic great moments of famous business geniuses, along with some of the darker moments that often get overlooked. Like Thomas Edison and the electric chair. Listen to business history on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What do you get when you mix 1950s Hollywood, a Cuban musician with a dream, and one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time? You get Desi Arness, a true. trailblazer, a businessman, a husband, and maybe most importantly, the first Latino to break

prime time wide open. I'm Wilmer Valderrama, and yes, I grew up watching him, probably just like you and millions of others. But for me, I saw myself in his story. From planning canary cages to this night here in New York, it's a long ways. On the podcast starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama, I'll take you in a journey to Desi's life. The moments it has overlapped with mine, how he redefined American television, and what that meant for all of us watching from the sidelines waiting for a face like hours on screen. This is the story of how one man's spotlight lit the path for so many others and how we carry his legacy today. Listen to starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama as part of the MyCultura

podcast network available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Podcasts, it's time to get the recognition you deserve. The IHeart Podcast Awards are coming back in 2026. Got a mic? Then you've got a shot. Every year, we celebrate the most creative, compelling, and game-changing voices in podcasting. Is that you? Submit now at iHeartPodcastawards.com for a chance to be honored on the biggest stage in the industry. Deadline December 7th. This is your chance.

Let's celebrate the power of podcasting and your place in it. Enter now at iHeartpodcastawards.com. Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finish drawing up that quick one-page business plan for you. Here's the link.

But there was no link. There was no business plan. It's not his fault. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. My name is Evan Ratliff. I decided to create Kyle, my AI co-founder, after hearing a lot of stuff like this from OpenAI CEO Sam Aldman. There's this betting pool for the first year that there's a one-person billion-dollar company,

which would have been like unimaginable without AI and now will happen. I got to thinking, could I be that one? in person? I'd made AI agents before for my award-winning podcast, Shell Game. This season on Shell Game, I'm trying to build a real company with a real product run by fake people. Oh, hey, Evan. Good to have you join us. I found some really interesting data on adoption rates for AI agents and small to medium businesses. Listen to Shell Game on the IHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. How can I celebrate the consumer savings when I'm an oil producer?

Well, that's a good question. In a market economy, the primary beneficiaries of innovation are always consumers. I applaud the improved standard of living that comes with cheaper energy, particularly for lower income folks. We producers have to compete hard to share some small part of the gains from technology. We are indeed fighting hard these days. likely the prices of oil and gas have overshot on the downside during the downturn, but the new equilibrium appears to have been arrived with oil prices still far lower than they

were in the five years before the energy shutdown. The energy business has always been cyclical and always will be. It is exciting and meaningful, but we are forced to live with cyclical enough on energy markets. Today, fossil fuels are viewed by some as the enemy of the environment, but is that true? The United Kingdom is quite wet and lush. It is, after all, the land of Raman Hood, Sherwood Forest. Yet over 85% of the land is barren of tree cover.

Why? Because coal arrived too late to save the United Kingdom Forest, but it did arrive in time to save the forest of continental Europe and together with wool and glass, the forest of the United States. That's interesting. I've been all over the United Kingdom. and there's not a lot of forest, but it once was all forested, because it's really, even though it's kind of northern, it's a tropical land, and they cut it all down.

And it hadn't grown back. That's really interesting. Fortunately, oil drilling, which began in Pennsylvania in 1859, arrived just in time to save the whale population, which is being rapidly decimated to supply the cleaner burning whale oil that is displacing candles for coal for indoor lighting. nearly a thousand whaling ships were trawling all four oceans of the world because of the impact this clean lighting fuel had kerosene saved the remaining wells and the whale population has surged in the last 150 years that's it i want to add something to that i'm in the lumber business and i'm just going to say this inconvenient truth we have three times as many lightning strikes east of the Mississippi River as we do west of the Mississippi River but out west we have tons of forest fires and out east we have very few I actually want you to do a whole shop talk on this topic well I'll just brief it all right so how is it that we have three times the lightning strikes I mean think of it it just rains more on the east draft the United States than does west draft so along with that comes more lightning we have more forest land and we have more lightning strikes

But we have about a tenth of the forest fires. And the answer is this. Because of really unwise environmental policy, out west, we stopped harvesting trees and managing the forest in a responsible way. We just stopped it because cutting down trees became bad. Well, when you don't cut down some trees and you don't harvest, you don't professionally manage your forest, you have what's called deadfall, which is a tree just dies. Well, when it dies and it sits there, it creates tender. And when you don't have logging roads, you don't have fire breaks.

So when a fire catches fire in one area, when it hits a logging road, it runs out of tender. So out east, where we log and we professionally manage forest, one, we have fire breaks, two, the tenders kept off the ground. and three, because we've professionally managed a forest, contrary to popular belief, there is 60% more harvestable timber in the east half of the United States, and there was in 1970. We've actually grown the forest. And out west, where there has been no log, no real professional forestry management, and no logging, one year of forest fires burns more harvestable timber that could be consumed in 40 years. So the point that oil and gas and all of that is the enemy of the environment, there's a lot of notions that started with the 70s movement for conservation that I do think we're well-intentioned that morphed into some environmental causes that are in fact harmful to our environment and make no sense.

And I think this does a really good job of pointing out that energy consumption, freedom, growth, lifespan, all of it is really, really intertwined. And we need to have a really thoughtful approach to how we literally power our world and the health and freedoms and liberties and opportunities that energy provides. what a great speech this guy may you met this guy yeah i've interviewed him a couple of times and what's he like he's amazing one day hopefully you can meet him too yeah i want to i want to meet him why can't we interview him does he do anything for their communities and stuff so he's actually the current energy secretary oh is he yeah he's secretary of the united states right now but and i mean he left is you know big job to do it so it's really a sacrifice on his part to leave his company but you know regardless of whatever people think about which administration

That's irrelevant to a speech. He gave this speech a decade ago. So there's nothing to do with any of that whatsoever. That's interesting. All right. So let's recap. Progress. Progress.

What is it? What? Progress. What's the title? Yeah, I don't know. I just said it over here and I got to look it up. It's basically progress, freedom, and energy. Yeah, progress, freedom, and energy.

It's pretty interesting. But freedom and energy being the enablers of this massive human progress over time. And one thing just based off of your riff, And then kind of what he covers, too, is a lot of this is the law of unintended consequences. Like, you think you can be doing something good. But there's always consequences to any action, right? And we need to think through that. And that's the problem of a managed economy where, you know, top down, try to control is you can't possibly imagine all the consequences that are going to happen. And so this kind of Chris makes the point, too, if you unleash human freedom and you have these bottom-up solutions and bottom-of-business, you can experiment with a whole bunch of ideas and see what works and what doesn't. and ultimately that's what leads to human progress.

That's really good point. I mean, it'd be interesting if people all stood together with bottom-up solutions. Yeah. I mean, I think 90% of us, no matter your political party, believe we could do a better job than these people. I think so, too.

I think so. All right, so that's it. Shot Talk number 80. Food for thought. Think about what you've heard and think about energy and freedom and growth and health and gratitude for living at this time and era

the related point is like John D. Rockefeller supposedly the richest man in human history I re-looked this up but back in his era he made, I don't have you even had access to air conditioning I think and then like the infant mortality rate was 14 times higher than today so something like 8% of kids and his era would die you know now it's like so infinitely low And so, I mean, we are just incredibly blessed to live in this time.

Well, I think about this. I'm wearing glasses. Actually, I swear to you, this is not just an off-the-cuffalo frivka. About a week ago, I'm 57. I'm wearing glasses that are, I can read on the bottom. What are they bifocals or whatever, I guess? Thankfully, I don't do with that. Whatever.

I'm wearing glasses. I'm wearing a hearing aid. I have sciatica, and I get a nerve block every problem. seven or eight, nine months so that I can even bend over and walk. When you put it that way, you're even more broken than I think about it.

Listen, man, I beat my body up my whole life. But the whole point is 200 years ago, I would be deaf, blind, and couldn't walk. I'd have been dead 10 years ago. There's no way you can survive like that.

Actually, that reminds you... And we take so for granted a hearing aid and glasses and run into a guy to get a shot in your back so you can feel... It's like, commonplace to us, but 200 years ago, I would be dead because there's no way a bed-ridden, deaf,

blind guy could function. Do you know the eyepensile story? The who? The eye pencil story? All right, that's going to be a future shop talk. It's on that topic. Oh, okay. Well, then we just tease two future shoppers.

Imagine how many individuals are involved with creating a pencil, something so cheap as one singular pencil. How many human beings touch that process? Well, you got lead. rubber wood, you've got metal, you've got ink, and you've got wood. And you've got transportation and you've got energy and like, all right. We're going to do a shop talk on that. We're also going to do a shop talk on responsible forestry because, you know, we should have done one already on that. Yeah. We're going to do a shop talk on responsible forestry and a shop talk on Alex's

pencil. Okay. That's shop talk number 80, everybody. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope it's food for thought, and I hope you really will consider all of what was said there. If you enjoyed this, rate it, review it. If you have ideas for Shop Talk or an Army Normal Folks, please email me at Bill at NormalFolks.us. Rate us, review us, tell your friends about us, wake the kids, phone the neighbors, help us out, grow this thing. That's Shop Talk number 80.

Anything else, Alex? Yes, we mentioned this in our primary episodes, but we are launching six local chapters coming up in January, February, Milwaukee, Atlanta. Oxford, Wichita, Clinton, New York. I hope I'm not missing one. Memphis. Memphis. Yes, that's the most exciting new one. And so if you live in these areas and you're interested in being involved, I would love for you to be involved.

Email me at Army at normalfokes.us and we'll get you plugged in. Yeah. Let's actually help convert all of this work into action, guys. That's Shop Talk number eight. I'll see you next week. Black Friday at Abercrombie is here with 25 to 50% off everything and IHeart listeners are getting an extra 15% off with code IHARAF. It's the sale you've been waiting for. Shop Abercrombie in the app online and in stores. 30% of everything valid in stores and online from November the 24th, 2025 to December 1st, 2025 in UK-EU.

It excludes clearance and gift cards, online price reflects discount. Use code IHAR AF to get an additional 15% off everything in stores and online at checkout from November the 24th, 2025 to December 1st, 2025 in the UK-EU. It scoes clearance and gift cards, see details online. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News keeps you on top of the biggest stories of the day. My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day. Stories that move markets. Chair Powell opened the door to this first interest rate cut. Impact politics, change businesses.

This is a really stunning development for the U.S. AI world and how you think about your bottom line. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Robert Smith, and this is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history.

And some of the worst people, horrible ideas, and destructive companies in the history business. First episode, how Southwest Airlines use cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline is. The most Texas story ever. Listen to business history on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What do you get when you mix 1950s Hollywood, a Cuban musician with a dream, and one of the

most iconic sitcoms of all time? You get Desi Arness. On the podcast star in Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama, I'll take you in a journey to Desi's life, how he redefined American television. and what that meant for all of us watching from the sidelines, waiting for a face like hours on screen. Listen to starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcast. Podcasters, it's time to get the recognition you deserve. The I-Hart Podcast Awards are coming back in 2026. Got a mic? Then you've got a shot. Every year, we celebrate the most creative, compelling, and game-changing voices in podcasting. Is that you?

Submit now at I-Hart. Podcast Awards.com for a chance to be honored on the biggest stage in the industry. Deadline December 7th. This is your chance. Let's celebrate the power of podcasting and your place in it. Enter now at iHeartpodcastawards.com. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.