Podcast episode kitA recorded episode starts as a raw WAV and ends as whatever a hosting platform will actually accept. Trim the dead air and flubbed takes, normalise loudness to -16 LUFS -- the exact preset this catalogue's own WAV normaliser labels 'Podcast' -- convert to the MP3 every host expects, and pull a waveform image for a social teaser. None of these re-encode until the format itself has to change.