The audience at Sunday night’s ceremony cheered on as the talk show host reminded the crowd that “making jokes about the President – in America – shouldn’t win you a prize. We have the right, guaranteed by the Constitution, to criticize and satirize our leaders. That is a right I took for granted, for the first 57 years of my life, until last September, when the FCC delivered an unpleasant surprise.”

“They sent a message that we do care,” he added. “And that we will stand up.  And that we will not stand by when comedy, and journalism, and dissent are censored, regulated and criminalized.”

Kimmel, on stage with sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez, was presented his award by Ben Affleck, who credited the host for showing us “what speaking truth to power really means. For years he’s used his show to challenge authority on a nightly basis — and by authority we all know that that means, one in particular, a credit-hogging narcissist named Matt Damon!”

Kimmel was far from the only recipient to take on the administration and other oppressive institutions — this year’s recipients focused on heavy, important subjects including the War on Gaza, shocking state of prisons, lack of attempt to bring sensible gun regulation to the U.S., failing medical system and so much more.

Entertainment fare won 11 Peabody awards this year, including wins for “The Pitt,” “Adolescence,” “Heated Rivalry” and “Pluribus.”

It was followed by documentary with ten (including two under the arts banner) and five for news, four for interactive/immersive programming and three for podcasts/radio. Children’s/youth received one win this year.

Comedian Mo Amer hosted this year’s event, which took place at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Sunday.

Amer noted some of the heavy subject matter: “This evening has everything from investigating war crimes in Gaza to ‘here’s Elmo!’ Those don’t usually go together. ‘Today’s episode is brought to you by the letters I,D and F!’ Seriously, tonight we’re honoring ‘No Other Land,’ ‘Cleared by Fire,’ “Fault Lines: ‘Kids Under Fire’ and ‘The Disappearance of Dr. Abu Safiya,’ ‘Investigating War Crimes in Gaza,’ and ‘Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,’ all of those tell stories about the systematic destruction of Palestine. The producers told me to whisper that word, because we don’t want anybody to get in trouble just for being honest.”

“It sounds ridiculous, but as I speak, the stories, the histories, even the bodies of Black people and Brown people in this country are under assault,” he said.

“Black people are literally been written out of representation of the government as we speak. Immigrants are being disappeared, speaking out against the death of Palestinian children results in getting thrown in jail or deported. This is not the hypothetical future. This is happening right now, and to do nothing is to be OK with it. As artists, we have a duty to tell these stories, and as people we still have agency to do something about it. We have to fight against this. Only then can we create a future that we want to live in. Fuck Trump, fuck ICE and free Palestine.”

Creator Tony Gilory, whose show Andor was honored for its prescient look at what happens when oppressive forces take hold in society, noted that “we spent six years contemplating a fascist takeover of a galaxy far, far away. Six years thinking about what happens to ordinary beings when an authoritarian, insane, unchecked regime comes into the deal, and the show is really kind of what we learned.

“If you’re not willing to fight for the things that you love, your family, community, your culture, your planet, your truth, freedom, there’s an asshole ready to come in and take it away,” he said. “We learned that bravery and sacrifice and resistance comes in all shapes and sizes, and we learned that courage is contagious.”

Gilroy paraphrased a character from “Andor” who noted that oppressors aim to commit so many atrocities at once and flood the zone so that citizens are too stunned and can’t pay attention to them all. That obviously sounds similar to what’s happening right now in this country. “There’s so much is happening, it’s a fire hose of crap that you just can’t get through,” Gilroy said. “And here we are. There isn’t a new cycle that goes by right now that doesn’t contain a variety of outrages that in any other time in our history in America wouldn’t be grounds for treason.”

“Alabama Solution” filmmaker Andrew Jarecki noted that his doc made waves because so few reporters are denied access to U.S. prisons, “even though we lock up more of our citizens than any democratic country that costs $160 billion a year. Added his fellow filmmaker Charlotte Kaufman: “What we are seeing now in Minneapolis and New York and beyond, is government violence and retaliation against those who document it. After making this film, we understand that that was incubated in our prison system. It’s not surprising that after ICE agents killed Alex Pretti, while he was filming with his phone, Kristi Noem said he was brandishing a weapon — because to an authoritarian regime a camera is a weapon.”

Presenters included Affleck, Anthony Anderson, Halle Bailey, Damon Lindelof, Elex Michaelson, Yara Shahidi and Michael Urie. They all gave their own unique, personal speeches; in hers, Bailey — who was tasked with introducing the winners bearing “confronting injustice” themes — alluded to the online vitriol she received for playing the live-action “The Little Mermaid.”

“There were voices that questioned whether I should be in a certain iconic world, because I didn’t look like what some have always imagined,” she said. “Being told in one way or another that you don’t belong in a space people have already decided wasn’t meant for you was a weight that I didn’t have to carry myself. I thought about my heroes, women like Billie Holiday, Eartha Kitt, and Nina Simone, artists who faced criticism, prejudice, and enormous pressure, yet still chose to create, to perform, and to stand fully in who they were. They reminded me that progress has never come from waiting for permission.”

PBS Kids was recognized with the Peabody institutional award, presented to PBS Kids senior VP and general manager Sarah DeWitt. “We were defunded, but we are not defeated,” she said in a rallying cry.

“The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening handed James L. Brooks the Peabody industry icon awatd.

Ethan Hawke introduced Peabody trailblazer award winner Sterlin Harjo.

“I’d like to thank my ancestors who survived before me,” he added. “The United States government tried to commit genocide against my people. We come from Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi, and Mr. $20 bill himself, Andrew Jackson, led a force removal act that removed my people from our homeland. There was a war, we were marched at gunpoint, and that’s how we ended up in Oklahoma. And let me tell you, they denied it, that they denied that it was genocide as well. Just like they do today, I feel like I was born into a rebellion and survival.”

“We should treat people with respect to try to give them time to go home to their families at a decent hour. No TV show or movie is worth not being a whole happy human being. You have an opportunity to change his industry. People pretend to have answers about where it’s going. I’d like to throw my hat to ring and encourage all of us in this room to hire real human beings to do the work and treat those human beings with respect.”

The night ended with Amy Poehler, who received the Peabody career achievement award.

“Summing up a career while you’re in the middle of it is a little strange,” she said. “It kind of feels like what I imagine is like when you’re stopped during a marathon, and someone hands you a banana. I don’t know, I would never run a marathon. But it’s like goo. This is that special goo the Peabodys are handing me to keep going. Thank you for the goo.”

According to Peabody, the 34 winners were chosen out of nominees from a list of more than 1,000 entries in all categories. The final winners were chosen by unanimous vote from 28 jurors.