When to hire an editor
Hiring an editor isn't a luxury — it's an insurance policy against quitting. If editing is the bottleneck stopping you from publishing, the maths usually favours outsourcing.
Two paths to sustainable editing: simplify your process until you can do it yourself in 30 minutes, or hand it to someone (or something) else. Most podcasters try to muscle through the first option and burn out. The signal that you should consider the second: you keep missing your release schedule because editing is sitting on your desk.