Podcast Editing in 2026: "What to Cut, What to Keep, and How AI Does It For You"

Why Editing Is Critical for Podcasts

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What Actually Matters in Editing

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Welcome to the podcast about podcasting. I'm your host, Gabe Wheel, and today we're going to be talking about the one thing that can halt just about any podcast and its tracks. We're talking about editing. That's right, we're cutting into editing. Every podcaster hits this question Do I have to edit? Editing feels like homework, but it's also the fastest way to respect your listener's

Five Core Editing Benefits: Clarity, Pacing, Professionalism, Story, Accessibility

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time. Today, we'll cover why editing is essential, what actually matters versus what's just perfectionism, and when should you just ship it out wrong? Plus, we'll dive into the real pros and cons so you can decide your own editing philosophy. Because now with the advent of AI, there are just so many different philosophies on how you can edit your podcast. And we're gonna dive into the ones that'll work for you. There's no right or wrong way when it comes to editing, and we'll talk about it even more. Let's get started. All right, we're talking about why editing is essential. So we're gonna dive into what the core job of editing is. And when we dive into talking about editing, this is about removing the barriers between your ideas and the listeners' brains. That's right. So this is why it's so vital and important. So we're gonna talk about, first of all, five different things editing actually does. So let's start with number one, clarity. Clarity cuts filler words out, tangents, and dead air that makes listeners tune out. It really gives you an idea of what you're sending to your listener and why it really matters. So clarity is pretty important when we're gonna talk about number two, which is pacing. And this is more about a podcast attention span. Most podcasts average about 22 minutes. So tight pacing keeps them to the end. The better your structure is, your better, the better your approach is, the longer you're gonna retain your listener. And then the third thing that editing actually does, you know, it presents professionalism, mic pops, plosives, background noises. In people's minds when I hear these things, subconsciously, this is a signal to them that this is amateur. And for a lot of people who have their podcast and maybe don't look at it in terms of professionalism, it's something that you should consider. I'm just I'm just gonna lay it there and we'll move on to the next one. Number four, we're gonna but talk about story. You can rearrange for narrative flow, great conversations in the room versus great episodes. So when it comes to podcasting, we've had a few podcasters on who approach podcasting in the

The 80-20 of Podcast Editing: What to Fix

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terms of being a storyteller. So I think how you arrange and present to your audience is pretty important. And then number five, accessibility. Consistent levels mean people can listen while driving, working out, doing dishes. You know, the things that most people probably do while they're busy and want to consume an audio podcast. What they're listening to, what's going into their ears. So Edison Research says 80% of listeners who quit an episode cite audio quality or too much rambling as the reason. So think about that. 80%

Levels and Loudness: Getting It Right

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because people don't like the all audio quality, or they feel that the host is just going on and on and on. So remember those five things that we kind of talked about clarity, pacing, professionalism, your story, and accessibility, they do

Handling Distractions During Recording

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play a lot into those numbers. Essential doesn't mean Hollywood sound design, it just means intentionality. So those are the five things that we wanted to start out with. But here's where we get into the meat of what actually matters when you edit. Okay. So we're gonna be talking about the 8020 of podcast editing. So for many of those who don't actually know what that is, we're gonna talk about it, what to fix, what to fix, why it matters, and how long it should take. So let's start out with levels and loudness, okay? And here's why it matters. If they can't hear you, nothing else matters. So think

Top and Tail: Clean Intros and Outros

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of a targeting about 16 luffs stereo. And this is something that you should play around with and when you start learning the beginning of editing. And of course, the next thing we're going to talk about is obvious distractions. Your dog barking, your phone buzzing, coughing fit, 15 seconds of silence. These things are pretty important when it comes to what you're presenting to a listener. So think about when you sit down and record all the things that can become distractions. And sometimes there's no way to control every single thing, but the obvious ones, those are the ones we're talking about. You have control over that. So think about your distractions when you sit down to record. The next one we're going to talk about is top and tail.

Filler Words and Content Cuts

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So we're talking about trim dead air before and after certain segments, things that you're talking about where there's a lot of silence. Add an intro and outro cleanly. One of the things that I use to keep my intros very tight, my outros very tight, is I use 11 labs. Yes, I use AI to create my intros and outros, and I use it sometimes with my own voice, or I use some of the voices that are available inside of the uh AI voice generator itself. I fill in what I want it to say, then I create it, and it does a really great job of giving you a nice tight

What Doesn't Matter in Editing for Most Shows

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intro and outro. So think about that as well, top and tail. The next thing is fill a word pass. And it's okay to keep some of the ums and ahs in your nose. That's just sometimes part of natural speech. It's okay. Even some of the most well-seasoned podcasters and hosts, you hear it from time to time because it's just natural. Sometimes we have to think of a thought. We might not just mindfully think to put a pause here. So the ums and ahs, they kind of just fill in that little space. It's okay to have those in there, but cut clusters when you know that there's five or more. You can look in a conversation and you can look at a transcript and you'll be able to tell there's a lot of filler words in there. That's the stuff that you really want to take the time to cut out. So remember that. And then we're gonna call talk about content cuts. This is the last one where we're talking about what actually matters when it comes to the 80-20 of podcasting. And this removes tangents that don't serve the episode. When you're when you talk about a subject matter like podcasting, if I were to go off on a tangent talking about cost and reasoning of why I hate this or that, I don't think it fits well into the subject matter or the context that I really want to address for my listeners. So when you sit down and you think about your content, remember you want the most direct path for your listener to keep it very tight, straight, organized. Even in some of the most

The Role of AI in Streamlining Editing

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honest and vulnerable conversations, there is a way to direct your guest and yourself to stay on track. And remember, with a podcast, this is um unlike doing something live where you don't get the opportunity to edit. In a podcast, you get to sit down and listen to what you're gonna present to your audience. And if you feel if something just kind of goes off track and it doesn't fit the narrative, doesn't fit the story that you want to tell or present, you can remove it. Those are pretty important. Remember that your levels and your loudness, your obvious distractions, top and tell, your filler word pass, and then your content cuts. So here's what doesn't matter for 90% of the shows removing every single um or breath. Now there are some AI tools, whether you're using a tool like the script or within Riverside, it has its own. It gives you the option to take out every single one of those ums or breaths. And a lot of the times it leaves a lot of gap and it doesn't sound natural. So sometimes leaving some of those in context of what you're talking about really do fill the need of your episode. So you don't have to remove,

When to Skip Editing and Embrace Authenticity

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remember, that doesn't matter. This is 90% of shows, this is what doesn't matter. Surgical EQ on every track. Your levels don't have to be at you, you're not an audio engineer. Yes, you're a podcast host, and yes, you want to present very good quality. But unless you've gone to school and spent years in the industry as an audio engineer, it's not gonna sound perfect. Yes, you can rely on again on different AI tools. They have AI tools that can help you do this. So it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be presentable enough that you're you're satisfied with the quality and so will your audience. And then you don't have to do the whole matching Netflix documentary standards. Remember, you Netflix is getting into this world of creating companion piece podcasts for shows that they're having. And yes, they might be well put together, but you got to remember, listeners, podcasters, is that they have teams, they have audio engineers, they have the people to make it sound top-notch. You're not quite there yet. Someday you might have the ability to. I'm not saying that, but in the beginning, in the audience that I'm speaking to, it's mostly new podcasters, you don't have to match that Netflix style documentary of those standards of editing. Um, and of course, sound design,

Light Editing vs. Heavy Editing: Pros and Cons

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unless it's part of your brand. So, rule of thumb, if a listener would notice and be annoyed, fix it. If only other podcasters would notice, skip it. Again, you're you're playing to your audience. Do not compare yourself to other podcasters. And if other podcasters are listening in, you gotta remember they're gonna listen in with an editor's ear. They're they're listening to your podcast more about for the quality of sound than they are always the content. And yes, the content matters. So remember that. If a listener would notice and be annoyed, fix it. If it's only other podcasters who would notice, skip it. So let's move on to the next school of thought, which is should you even edit your audio? So let me present the case for the no edit or light edit, because there are some even professionals who've been doing this who don't. So there's a school of thought that people believe that authenticity sells. Shows like Joe Rogan or Dak Shepherd built empires on conversational, lightly edited audio. So, yes, those are higher up shows, very well put together, but they took on the philosophy that maybe early on I didn't have the time to do the editing, or it might not be worth the investment into putting into editing. And here's another one speed to publish. So there are some podcasters who do daily shows, and people that do daily, weekly news podcasts, they can't sit down and afford to do a four-hour edit session. So sometimes it goes a lot of the work gets done pre-record because they know they don't have time on the back end to sit there and edit down everything. So if you're one of those individuals who wants to start a podcast and it's going to be an everyday thing, you might throw the idea of editing right out the window. Now, it doesn't mean that you can't structurally formulate something that will help, but for the most part, you don't have that extra time unless that's all you're doing is podcasting and you have nothing else going on. But for most of the podcasters listening to this episode, we have other lives,

Burnout and Efficiency in Podcast Editing

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other jobs, other things that we have to invest in. So sitting down and spending that much time editing might be too much. So the next thing I want to jump into is low burnout. Again, when I started this episode, I said this is the number one reason podcasters quit by episode seven. They get burnt out. They get in the idea again of they have to have a perfect episode. It has to sound a perfect way. And I'm here to tell you, it doesn't. There are a lot of successful individuals who put out podcasts in the world that have really big audience, really big retention. And it's because sometimes they realized I don't have to spend four hours editing down a 30-minute piece of audio to prevent the burnout. That's a big one. And then there's a the community vibe. So again, it's the live to take feels like hanging around with friends and versus having a produced show. The live stream, the live feed. There are individuals that do create podcasts that are live streams with live feeds like this. You're not going to have the ability to edit unless you do a lot of the pre-production work. Now you can, but then again, there's things that can go wrong. So it's if you're having that community vibe and there are people that enjoy the live feed,

Editing for Educational and Scripted Content

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the live stream of what you're doing in creating a live podcast, that's a big one is the community vibe. Just think about that. When the no edit idea or or what you're thinking about when it comes to editing, these four things that I just mentioned authenticity sells, speed to publish, low burnout, and the community live are what what applies. And this is why no edit works. So when you're doing solo rants, interview shows with strong host, live play TTR PGs, live streams, fan community pods where people like the rawness, the authenticity part, the trust. So there's a lot of shows that people just enjoy that part about it, and they don't go back and

Benefits of Editing: Listener Retention, Brand, Monetization

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they don't spend the time to edit a show. And not everybody has to. If your audience is okay with it, cool. Move on. There's no need to worry about it. Like the only reason I would say that you must edit is when you're talking about educational content, anything that's scripted, you know, fiction that you want to create, if you're doing work for client or corporate shows, or you know, if you have audio issues or your episodes wrong, your episodes run about 60 minutes long. I would say it's okay to say, sit down, take the time to figure out how you can edit. And just don't, again, don't put yourself in a corner that you have to spend four to five hours editing something. So when you sit down with a plan with an idea, this is where we're going to jump into the pros and cons of editing. There are things that you should look at. So we're we're gonna talk about the pros of editing first. Okay. Number one again, listener retention. Some listeners, that's what they love is clean audio. People will listen, they'll download, they'll spend more time. You know, it gives the algorithms love it when you know listeners sit there and listen for such a long time. They they push out your podcast for discoverability. So when it comes to thinking about why you should sit down with an editing philosophy, listener retention is number one. Brand perception is number two. Sound intentional, not accidental. So some people like to have a they have a personal brand that they're trying to sell with their podcast. So yes, they want to be able to craft their

AI Tools for Editing: Descript, Riverside, Adobe Podcast

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narrative and make it sound good because that's what really does matter to them. That's what matters to their brand. So that's number two. Number three, monetization. Again, sponsors. When you're talking about sponsorship, they have expectations. Some podcasts, that's what they're looking for is the minus 16 luffs. They want the no F-boms where they didn't buy them. They they want to have a very clear, very clean, very straightforward podcast. So the the editing, the editing, the the better it sounds to them. You know, that's what that's what sponsors are looking for when it comes to the expectation of wanting to sponsor a brand, a podcaster, a creator. Anything that doesn't cross ways with you know with their with their with their plan for for following or monetizing that show. And then number four, repurposing. Repurposing is easier to clip for social media when when tangents are gone. So think about when it comes to repurposing. And you know, one of the things that I also wanted to jump into was uh when it when we're talking about repurposing and all the things that I've mentioned so far is we're talking about the AI toolbox. So I gave you the pros already. We're gonna jump into the cons, but uh I I wanted to give you the idea. You know, edit editing it can be a burdensome thing, but with the again, the advent of AI into the world of podcasting, it really has changed the game. And the reason I brought this up is because when when I was talking about repurposing and why that's important and what AI is able to do, is it helps clean up a lot of those things. So AI is not here to kill the editing process, it's here to it's here to clean out the boring parts of editing. And here are three tools that I've used myself as a podcaster to help with my editing. Number one, if you you've heard our episode, we talked about squad cast with the script. So the script gives you the ability to edit your podcast like a Google document using the transcript of the conversation. And you know, it it's one of the again, one of those tools that'll help you remove the filler words. It gives you the ability to overdub and clone your voice. You can delete text, audio. Um, and this is one for this really good for a lot of heavy editors, again, for your repurposing clips, which is why I brought it up right now. Uh the one that I'm using, Riverside, does the same thing. It's the record and edit all in one place. They have a function called magic audio that cleans your levels, room echoes, your backgrounds, your noise. It gives you again the ability to text cut, edit. That one is again, it's crucial when it comes to time saving and your ability to put out episodes. And a Adobe Podcast is another one that'll do an insane audio cleanup. Their enhanced speech makes you know a $20 a $20 microphone sound like a $200, a $2,000 studio. So and it's free. That's the good part, is it's free in beta right now. But again, when I talked about the things, the pros of editing, I will I'll I was making mention of filler words, retakes, the ums, the ums, the long breaths. The script again has a tool where you can go in and auto-dub. And so does Riverside. Those things are great when you stumble on words, when you need to take out a word, when the context doesn't sound right, those are great. Your

Challenges of Editing: Time, Perfectionism, Cost

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room echo and your noise using something like your Adobe Podcast will enhance the speech. It will it'll remove AC humming, echoes, dog barkings. Feels like it's almost cheating. But then with Riverside, you get the ability to do the level plus loudness, what I talked about already. Their magic audio will auto-level you and your guests to minus 16 lufts, broadcast quality standards. The script does the ability to shorten word gaps, tightening pacing without sounding robotic. And a lot of them have the ability to do to do multi-track cleanup. AI splits speakers, removes crosstalk, balances everyone automatically. So when it comes to the pros of editing, I wanted to make mention of those because they do help. Those AI tools do help when it comes to how you edit. Now let's talk about the cons of editing. And again, this is where it eats up so many podcasters. It's the time sink, it's the you know, one hour of audio will equal two to four hours of editing for beginners. So this is why some edit editing, some beginner podcasters really give up on the idea of editing in the beginning. And it it can become overwhelming when you're pumping out a lot of episodes. So when you're thinking about editing, those tools that I mentioned, the AI tools mentioned, save a lot of time. And if you don't put yourself into number two, which is what I'm about to talk about, perfectionism spiral, the idea of just one more pass that kills the momentum. It's a time kill. So when it comes to editing, you I'm trying to create the idea of these past of resist the least path of resistance for any podcaster. So if you get yourself in that perfectionism spra spiral, it's very hard because you've been listening to other podcasts just and you're comparing yourself to someone else, and that's just not gonna work. This one here is I've talked about it at nauseum on most of my shows. Loss of energy. This is a big one. This is why I talk about putting systems in place, and system is also understanding how to edit. So if you're not gonna have the energy to do this, over-editing can can make any conversation sound stilted or robotic. And when you're adding that with perfectionism, oof, man, does that weigh a lot? So I just think that the easier it can be for presenting your product, the easier it's gonna be for you to manage and maintain. So if you feel like editing is gonna be something that's overwhelming, maybe think about again investing in one of these AI tools that can help you. Or just if you think I still want to create, I just don't want to go through the process of editing, go with it. You know, it's what responds to your audience.

Developing Your Editing Philosophy

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Think about that, remember that. And then number four is the cost. Some pro editors can run anywhere from $50 to $150 an episode. And if you're gonna spend money for that, I'm here to tell you that's gonna be pretty that's gonna get pretty pricey pretty quick if you're putting out four episodes in a month, if you're only doing a weekly episode drop. You're talking about six hundred dollars a month on the high end. And some people have the money to pay that. That's okay. I'm not saying that's not something you should consider, but if you're a new or beginning podcaster, I am very Adamant about saying you got to do what you can afford. If it's then whatever's going to allow you the most flexibility in the beginning, that's what I'm all about. So that's number four. Number five is your skill barrier. And again, listening to other shows, you get comparative. There's a learning curve that people have to learn. And for a lot of people, this is what makes them quit. So when you sit down and you look at your skills of what you can do as an editor, you didn't get into this business to be an editor. You get in,

Editing Frameworks: NPR, GarageBand, Live Stream

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you got into this business, even if it's if it's a hobby, you got into doing this and to record the content and the message. And doing something like this, if you if it becomes more of a task, if it feels like work, it's going to be easier for you to give up because you're like, I didn't sign up for this. So here's the middle path that I'll I'll think. Content edit and just do a little bit of basic cleanup. Take 20 to 30 minutes max. And this will deliver 80% of the benefit. You'll still have a little bit of a clean product that you will be happy with. It'll be suitable enough for your audience to listen to. And it's not totally just terrible sounding audio quality. So think about that. And I'm going to just give you next what we're going to talk about is your what is your editing philosophy? What is that going to look like like for you? I'm going to give you three different frameworks to choose from. So number one is the NPR standard. Edit for story. Every second earns its place. This is best for growth. This is why I love having podcast storytellers come on because they focus in on the story. The content. So that's number one. Number two, the next framework is the garage band standard. Fix the distractions, ship it. And this is good for consistency and authenticity. It still gives you a little bit of both. It gives you, it gives you that mix of having taken out some of the stuff that sounds cluttered, cleans it up a little bit, and gives you a sound that your listeners, I think, will be happy with. And then the last one, of course, is the live stream standard. This is the no post edit. Again, this is best for quick turnaround if you're creating a daily podcast. Think about this. Because I ran an everyday live show four years ago. And obviously, I had no time for edits. So everything had to be done in pre-production. And that's what saved me the time and gave me the ability to do an everyday live stream was having everything set up ahead of time. Built me a template, a system. I had a system in place that would allow me to manage and maintain it. And it's the same thing of what I'm talking about and presenting to you. So let's kind of just go over those again real quick. The NPR standard. This is the storyteller. This is the one that, you know, it's it's

Quick Editing Tests and Blueprints

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best for your growth. The garage band standard. This is the clean, quick fix. It still puts out a very consistent sounding, authentic podcast. And then the live stream standard, which is the no post edit. This is the speed philosophy to get it out quick to your audience. So again, my show uses Riverside. And I use Riverside and I cut obvious mistakes and I tune the levels, but then that's it. I'm done. Again, my goal here is I do two episodes per week. Not one perfect episode per month. I am doing two episodes every week. I'm pumping out eight episodes every month. So the time and the ability for me to have a turnaround quick enough to push out those episodes, it is to do a lot of mid-level editing work that relies a lot on the tools that I've implemented into my system. So here are a few action steps you can do for your listeners to test whether or not you have a good editing philosophy in mind. Do a five-minute edit test. Set a timer, only fix what you can in five minutes. You'll be shocked how much better it sounds. Five minutes. And sometimes that five minutes is spent just waiting for the editing tool that you're using to clean it up a little bit. And that's that's great. You do that, you're probably ahead of the game of what a lot of podcasters actually spend in editing their shows. Number two, make an editing red line list. And this is just pretty much a list of what must be

Final Tips: Consistency, Feedback, and Philosophy

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fixed versus what you'll ignore. And then put it down, and that's what you look at when you sit down to consciously edit your shows. What do you want to fix? What is it you're gonna be looking for? Is it the filler words? Is it the tangents that you're trying to get rid of? Think about those things, look at them, and then you have kind of a blueprint or template to look at when it goes to editing. And then boom, you'll be done before you know it. And then number three, re record 10 minutes unedited, then edited, and then send it off to somebody that you trust, whether it's another podcaster, whether it's a friend, and then ask them to give you their feedback. Ask them to give you their opinion on what you just sent them. Which one was the better sounding one? Was it the 10-minute unedited one? Was it the edited version that you sent? Give feedback and decide whether or not you want to spend that much time on focusing on editing. So remember, editing isn't about perfection, it's about intention. Decide what your show promises, then edit just enough to deliver on it. It's simple. And this is why I wanted to share this with you guys because I'm doing this. I'm in practice with all of you who are listening here. We're

Call to Action: Share and Experiment with Editing

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going step by step by step in how you can help create your own podcast. And again, to be able to have the ability to maintain it. So my call to action today for you is if this helped, share it with one other podcaster who's stuck in editing hell. And tell me, are you team edit or are you team raw? So you can email me. It is podcast about podcasting at gmail.com, or you can send um a message through uh our buzz sprout. We do take messaging there. But again, think about that. That's your homework that you can go both record 10 minutes of unrecord uh excuse me, of unedited content and then your edited version and send it out and see which one sounds worse. I mean, sounds better, excuse me. Sounds better, and then run with it. And again, the the the whole idea too. Try the if that's not the thing you want to do, try the five-minute edit test. See what you can fix in five minutes and then roll with it. Put it out just for one episode. If you're unhappy with it, think about it. You can go back to your next episode and you can do it however the way you want. You can shift and change your position, you can shift and change your philosophy until you find a system that works for you. And that's really what I'm about here. So thanks again for everyone who's listened. We have again new episodes that are coming out every Tuesday and Thursday. So I would appreciate it if you would follow or subscribe. You can go check out uh uh our YouTube channel at Podcast About Podcasting. And then you can also check us out on Spotify and uh Apple Podcasts. Leave us a review if you think this was helpful, or tell us a note and say, hey, no, you know, work on this. It'll sound better. But I really want to hear from you. You guys are a big part of why I continue to do this, and I want to help as many podcasters as I possibly can. So until our next episode, thank you again. Appreciate it. Let's talk soon. Bye for now.

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That's a wrap on another episode of the Podcast About Podcasting, the show where we bring in podcast experts and hosts every single week to help you build, grow, and sustain your show. If you found today's conversation useful, do us a huge favor and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It truly helps us reach more podcasters just like you. New episodes drop every Tuesday and Thursday, so make sure you're subscribed and we'll see you next time.

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If you've been listening to this show, you already know the audio quality isn't an accident. Those intros and outros? Created with 11 Labs. And no, I didn't spend a fortune or waste hours in a studio to get there. 11 Labs gives you access to a massive catalog of professional grade voices. Or you can clone your own. Either way, you get broadcast quality sound that makes your content feel legitimate from the first second. Right now, you can start a free trial and get 10,000 credits for just $11 a month. That's professional level audio production for less than two cups of coffee. Click the link in the show notes and start elevating your creative process today.