[This article originally appeared, in a different form, on Podcast Free America.]

Why does your podcast sound very different from 'This American Life?' Well, aside from the expensive studio equipment and Ira Glass, the reason a professional radio show sounds so polished is that it employs all kinds of sound-editing tricks.

Why is editing so important? To answer that question, let's think about how the human brain listens.

The brain is a mighty multi-tasking machine. If you and I were in the same room, having a face-to-face conversation, our brains would be processing all kinds of information alongside our spoken words. We’d be monitoring the temperature, ambient sounds, and movement in the room. We’d be unconsciously reading each other’s facial expressions and body language. And we’d probably be running today’s grocery list and planning for the weekend in the back of our minds.

To get either of us to drop all those side-channels of information, and focus solely on our conversation, that conversation would have to be momentous.

Similar things are going on when someone listens to your podcast. Because it’s such a portable medium, podcast listeners are very often doing other things while they listen. So the question is: do you want your listeners to skim the surface of your podcast while they focus on lots of other tasks, or do you want them to drop everything else and really listen to you?

If you want attentive listeners, you need to make your audio sound momentous. And by that I mean: clean, authoritative, and polished.

The good news is, you don't need expensive equipment -- or Ira Glass -- to create well-edited sound. All you need are a little time, and these simple tricks.

(I should add here: this article is more of an ideological how-to piece than a technical one. There are many great references on the subject of audio editing. This article assumes that you have a sound editing program of some kind, and know something about how to use it. If you don’t, I highly recommend Audacity, which is free and simple to use.)

Taking Out the Trash -- Verbally Speaking
Every one of us has some kind of verbal idiosyncrasy. Some people say “ummmm” a lot when they speak. Some people insert “you know” into every sentence. Some employ the word “like” as every part of speech. We tend not to notice this stuff in face-to-face conversation, because, again, our brains are busy doing lots of other things at the same time.

But when we listen to recorded audio, all these verbal tics can become very distracting. And in many cases, they suck all the authority from what the speaker is trying to say.

Consider these two sentences:

“So like, you know, I think that, ummmmmm, 'Citizen Kane' is like the greatest film, ummmmmm, ever.”

“'Citizen Kane' is the greatest film ever.”

Which version sounds more like the speaker knows what he (or she) is talking about?

Whether it’s just your voice on your podcast or you have many people speaking, it’s crucial when you edit the recording to cut out all that distracting verbal litter. It will make your content sing.

Oops, I Did It Again.
It’s interesting, how many podcasters flub words during their recordings, and then leave them there. Flubbed words and stumbled sentences have the very same effect as verbal litter: they take the authority out of what you’re saying.

It’s easy to remove flubs and stumbles from your recording if you just use one good recording habit. While you’re recording, any time you stumble over a word or phrase, just stop speaking for a few seconds. Then, say the sentence over again. Later when you edit the recording, you can easily delete the flubbed sentence. No one will ever know.

Be Not Afraid of Silence.
When we’re nervous in front of the microphone, we have a certain fear of silences. And yet, short pauses are crucial to the pacing of a podcast. Pauses are powerful: they render whatever you said right before the pause, twice as important.

If you’ve recorded a podcast, and your nerves had you rattling on and on with barely a breath, then you can (and should) insert some pauses when you edit your audio. Here’s a trick: when you’re recording, just leave the recorder on for a minute at the end, and record some silence. (This will actually be a recording of the hushed ambient room noise, but it will sound like silence in your podcast.) Then, you can copy and paste bits of this “silence” into your podcast wherever it’s needed. The best places to do this: right after every key point in your show.

Level It All Out.
The last tip for editing is this: make sure every element of your show is at the same volume level. How many times have you listened to a podcast where the spoken parts were very quiet, so you cranked up the volume on your player, only to have a music bumper explode into your ears at deafening levels a few seconds later?

As you edit your show, pay close attention to volume changes. When you add music, you can amplify or de-amplify it as needed to make it match the volume of your voice track. If you’ve recorded an interview, make sure both you and your interviewee are at the same volume.

If you’re having trouble hearing volume changes, you might try this trick: Instead of staring at your computer screen while you listen to your audio, listen to it while you’re focusing on some simple task, like filing or tidying your desk. This occupies your mind slightly, so you’re listening to your show with more casual ears. You’ll be surprised at how those volume changes will jump out at you. And if they jump out at you, you can bet they’ll jump out at your listeners.

It takes so little effort to clean up your podcast, and it makes a huge difference in the quality of your show. Try it and see.