One thing I loved about podcasting when it came out is how refreshing it was to hear real human voices talking about things I loved. Real meaning uhms, ahhs, and pauses weren’t necessarily edited out.
These weren’t professional TV or radio presenters, polished by years of experience and/or editing (all of which are fine for the medium they were in) – but folks sitting around and talking about a thing they loved.
As podcasting grows, there’s nothing stopping those kinds of folks from continuing to podcast. But what I despise getting are emails from people saying we should be cutting pauses, uhms, ahhhs – and other human moments from conversations.
Don’t get me wrong: there’s a time and a place for concise editing and cleaning up dialogue.
But if you’re concerned about a 2 second gap while someone is thinking of how to best answer a tough question, or get annoyed because someone doesn’t talk the way you want them to, I don’t know how to help you because I don’t believe in algorithms or machines cutting out our humanity – and so I’m not going to either.
Not everyone got into podcasting to become a professional TV/radio presenter. Some folks enjoy having a conversation and sharing it with the world. The beautiful thing is: you don’t even have to listen if you don’t want to. If 5 “uhms” in a podcast is your limit, then just skip, unsubscribe, and move on.
Obviously a conversation like this is more nuanced than simply two sides shouting at each other: “Don’t edit anything out!” vs “edit everything down to the bare minimum with no human noises outside of the words they speak!”
I get antsy when I see individuals trying to push their personal preferences as what “Podcasting” should be. The beauty of podcasting is how diverse it is and that anyone and everyone should be allowed in.
Now go record episode 1 or 100!
(This rant brought to you by the dude who felt he needed to email me a screencast showing me how to edit out uhms and ahh’s from a podcast I edited as if I’ve never thought of that in my 10+ years of editing podcasts. Like… seriously.)
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