Delete every 'um' in a podcast with Descript
Edit the transcript, not the waveform. Descript removes filler words across the whole episode in one pass.
The old way to clean filler was scrubbing the waveform and slicing hundreds of tiny gaps. Descript lets you treat the audio as text, so 'remove filler words' becomes a menu action.
Run the filler-word removal first, then listen. Descript catches ums and uhs reliably, but it can also cut a deliberate pause you wanted to keep, so review the result.
Don't delete every single pause. A few natural breaths make a host sound human; a surgically clean track sounds robotic. Keep the rhythm, cut the noise.
Fix the gaps afterward. Removing words leaves silence that Descript can shorten automatically, but check that sentences don't slam together unnaturally.
This is the single biggest time-saver in podcast production. What used to be an hour of editing is a pass and a listen.