Apple Podcasts Names Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ “Wiser Than Me,” from Lemonada Media, as the 2023 Show of the Year
The award-winning podcast will return for an all-new season in spring 2024
LOS ANGELES, CA (December 5, 2023) — It was announced today that Apple Podcasts has named Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ hit podcast ‘Wiser Than Me,” from Lemonada Media, as the 2023 Show of the Year — a recognition given each year to honor a show that demonstrates quality and innovation in podcasting. The award-winning series held the #1 spot for 29 days straight, the longest streak on Apple this year so far.
“Wiser Than Me” debuted in April 2023, and featured interviews with icons such as Jane Fonda, Isabel Allende, Carol Burnett, Darlene Love, and Amy Tan, among others. Season one launched to #1 on the Apple Podcasts charts in the U.S. across all categories. Lemonada recently announced the hit show will return with an all-new season in spring 2024.
Each week on the show, Louis-Dreyfus has candid conversations with women who have a ton of life experience. She sits down with these legends to get their take on life, how they’ve lived it in the past, and how best to live it right now. Each episode of the podcast ends with Louis-Dreyfus having a call with her 89-year-old mother, Judith, to unpack what she learned from that week’s guest.
“All of these women have demonstrated how to live a life,” Louis-Dreyfus says of her guests. “That doesn’t mean they didn’t make mistakes, but there’s something about being older where perhaps you feel not as protective in terms of sharing. And so I’ve taken advantage of the intimacy that it offers. That availability to be real and to be open is a great gift.”
A big part of Wiser Than Me’s appeal is Louis-Dreyfus’s willingness to be playful and stretch the bounds of the typical interview-podcast format, explains Stephanie Wittels Wachs, co-founder and CCO of Lemonada Media, the podcast’s home network. “Julia never wants to have a typical conversation,” she says. “She wants to play and weave and bob, and do all the fun things that you expect from something unexpected.”
“Wiser Than Me” also won big at the 2023 Signal Awards, where the show was named “Best Interview or Talk Show,” by both the judges and listeners choice, and Louis-Dreyfus was named as “Best Host.” The Hollywood Reporter named Louis-Dreyfus as one of the “40(ish) Most Important People in Podcasting in 2023.”
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ABOUT LEMONADA MEDIA
Founded in 2019 by Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs, Lemonada is an award-winning, independent, audio-first podcast network, with a mission to make life suck less. In 2022 and 2023, both Cordova Kramer and Wittels Wachs were named among the ‘Top 50 Most Powerful People in Podcasting’ by Podcast News Daily and Inside Radio. The company is also the creator of the audio reality™ podcast genre, and launched BEING Studios, where reality TV meets podcasting. Lemonada has created hit original series’ including Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, which spent 29 days straight at #1 overall on the Apple Podcast charts; Blind Plea, which launched to #1 overall on the Apple Podcast charts; Funny Cuz It’s True with Elyse Myers, which launched to #1 in comedy on the Apple Podcast charts; Gracie award-winners Last Day and Believe Her, Choice Words with Samantha Bee, as well as Webby award-winners In the Bubble with Andy Slavitt, Add to Cart with Kulap Vilaysack & SuChin Pak and BEING Trans. Lemonada also co-produced and distributed The Letter, which launched to #1 overall on the Apple Podcast charts. In 2023, Lemonada partnered with Apple Books to launch “The Lemonada Book Club” — a first-of-its-kind, free-to-join digital program that unites fans of nonfiction storytelling across books and podcasts. Lemonada’s roster of guests includes an array of luminaries from across the entertainment, media, politics and science worlds.
For sponsorship opportunities, contact: Sisi@lemonadamedia.com. For press inquiries, contact: Lemonada@metropublicrelations.com. For more information on Lemonada and its podcasts, please visit www.lemonadamedia.com.
