Dan Taberski with the 2024 Apple Podcasts Award for ‘Hysterical’
Apple has bestowed the top spot in the annual 2025 Apple Podcasts Award to “Hysterical,” honoring the seven-part show for its high quality as well as longevity in the podcast charts.
Each year, the Apple Podcasts award is given out by Apple to the show that demonstrates quality and innovation in podcasting. For 2024, that award went to “Hysterical.”
A seven-part series produced by Wondery and Audacy’s Pineapple Street Studios, “Hysterical” investigates how an illness spread among a group of New York high school girls.
Creator Dan Taberski heard news of “Havana syndrome,” an illness that affected diplomats and CIA agents around the world. This triggered memories of a mystery illness a few years ago that affected high school girls in Le Roy, New York, and wondered if both were affected by a “hysterical illness.”
Originally debuting on Apple Podcasts in July 2024, it quickly became the top show on the platform. The success of the show has held up over time, with fans helping the podcast end 2024 as the ninth most popular new show.
“Dan Taberski has continually been at the forefront of podcast documentary, and with “Hysterical,” he is operating at the top of his game. He uniquely taps into the zeitgeist with humor, insight and a breeziness that listeners have always flocked to,” said Audacy’s executive vice president of Podcasts Jenna Weiss-Berman,.
“We could not be more excited that Apple Podcasts has chosen to recognize “Hysterical” as its Show of the Year,” according to Wondery chief content officer Marshall Lewy. “Dan is a breakthrough storyteller and a true podcast auteur — he has a singular ability to present questions, and with his own unique approach, he will leave you completely enraptured and ready to go down the rabbit hole with him.
Taberski talks about the show in a special conversation on Apple Podcasts for Creators, in which he discusses how he enjoys the journey of production.
“There’s something that’s so fresh about it, and you really are figuring it out as you’re going along, and the people that you’re working with are figuring it out as you’re going along, even though they are able to build on what they already know and what they’ve already learned, and that struggle keeps it really interesting,” Taberski offers.
“Enjoying that struggle instead of freaking out about it is a big part of how to approach a limited series.”
In November, Apple released charts of the most popular shows on Apple Podcasts in 2024. At the time, the top show in the United States was “The Daily,” with “The Tucker Carlson Show” the most listened to new show.
