I Was Editing Podcasts All Wrong Until This

📌TL;DR

• Edit like a doc – Cut, move, and tweak audio by editing text.

• AI does the heavy lifting – Fix mistakes, clean audio, and remove filler words in seconds.

• Save hours on editing – Turn days of work into just a few hours.

Estimated reading time: 4 - 5 minutes.

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MAIN STORY QUEST

How I Slashed My Podcast Editing Time by 90%

I produced a podcast called Career Transitions Podcast, where we interviewed guests about their career shifts… whether by choice or circumstance.

If you are in the midst of deciding a career switch, you can check out the podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify.

(Yes, shameless plug… BUT the stories shared are gold!)

Great conversations? Absolutely.

Easy to edit? NOT EVEN CLOSE.

Back then, I edited everything manually using Adobe Premiere Pro and Audition.

And let me tell you, it was a grind.

Here was my old workflow:
Listen to the entire recording—trim long silences, remove background noise.
Listen again—tighten up the conversation, cut unnecessary sections and craft a compelling story.
Listen a third time—enhance the audio quality to sound studio-level.

Now, factor in two hosts and one to two guests per episode, and you can imagine how much time this took.

If someone went off on a tangent, stumbled over words, or had a bad mic, my workload DOUBLED.

Depending on the episode, editing could take anywhere from half a day to three days.

At some point, I realized: I was spending more time editing the podcast than the hosts spent recording it.

That’s when I knew something had to change.

The Editing Shortcut That Feels Like Cheating

Then I found Descript and it completely flipped my editing workflow.

Instead of scrubbing through waveforms, I could SEE EVERY SPOKEN WORD on-screen like a document.

It was like moving from Morse code to full sentences overnight.

Here’s how Descript cut my editing time from 12-72 hours down to 2-4 hours:

📝 See it, edit it
No more replaying the same section 20 times just to figure out what was said.

With Descript’s transcription, I could edit like a Google Doc… delete words, move sentences, and instantly tighten the flow.

🎙 One-click cleanup
Instead of manually cutting every "um," "uh," or awkward pause, Descript let me remove them all in seconds.

It even standardized silence gaps so conversations didn’t feel choppy.

🔊 Studio sound, no studio required
Some guests had crisp audio.

Others sounded like they were broadcasting from inside a subway tunnel.

One click of studio sound, and the audio quality instantly improved.

No extra plugins needed.

🤖 Fixing mumbled words with AI
If a guest stumbled over a sentence or their mic glitched, Descript’s AI could regenerate the word… as long as it was captured in the transcript.

No need to chase down guests for retakes.

📜 Automated transcripts & marketing clips
I could export both the edited audio and a transcript, which meant no double work.

Plus, I used Descript to pull 30-60 second soundbites for promo clips.

From 3 Days to 3 Hours

Before Descript, I was trapped in a never-ending loop of listening, cutting, re-listening, and refining.

Now? Editing a full episode takes 2-4 hours MAX—with BETTER RESULTS.

That means:

• More time to focus on production instead of post-production.

• Faster turnaround time without sacrificing quality.

• Less frustration over tedious, manual editing.

Honestly, I can’t imagine going back.

The Final Byte

Descript didn’t just make my workflow faster—it made editing SO MUCH EASIER that I no longer dreaded it.

Instead of spending DAYS cutting and tweaking, I just drop the audio in, edit like a doc, and let AI handle the rest.

If you’re a podcaster still grinding through manual edits, this will change your life.

Try it for yourself—it’s free to test out.

(And if you made it this far, you’re clearly someone who appreciates a smarter workflow. Welcome to the club. 😏)

See you in the next one,

*Affiliate Disclaimer: Quick note! If you click on my affiliate links, I might earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you)—think of it as a high-five ✋🏼that helps keep this content rolling. I only recommend tools and products that I genuinely believe can boost your productivity and creativity.

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