Cut or Uncut?

Doing a podcast is teaching me the importance of editing. It is a waste of an audience’s energy and time to require it to wait out long pauses, endure a hailstorm of “um’s,” or to subject them to giggle-filled inside jokes. You have to cut that stuff out and hand over a product that is tight and easy for the audience to relate to. Cut the fat off the bone.

And yet one of my favorite podcasts routinely offers the uncut version of their episodes alongside the one edited for broadcast, and I almost always choose the uncut version. Maybe some gems are buried ‘neath the editing floor scraps. Maybe I’ll hear something that few others will. There could be a connection lurking there, and I don’t want to miss it. So I choose the longer, less polished product.

Do you do that?

Here’s the unedited version of my most recent podcast episode, which I haven’t even edited yet, much less posted. But if you’re into this sort of thing, here are comments about time limits, sound checks, and an admission about ratatouille.