diff --git a/server/utils/podcastUtils.js b/server/utils/podcastUtils.js
index ac96c8d0..627e24b2 100644
--- a/server/utils/podcastUtils.js
+++ b/server/utils/podcastUtils.js
@@ -59,8 +59,8 @@ function extractPodcastMetadata(channel) {
 
   if (channel['description']) {
     const rawDescription = extractFirstArrayItem(channel, 'description') || ''
-    metadata.description = htmlSanitizer.sanitize(rawDescription)
-    metadata.descriptionPlain = htmlSanitizer.stripAllTags(rawDescription)
+    metadata.description = htmlSanitizer.sanitize(rawDescription.trim())
+    metadata.descriptionPlain = htmlSanitizer.stripAllTags(rawDescription.trim())
   }
 
   const arrayFields = ['title', 'language', 'itunes:explicit', 'itunes:author', 'pubDate', 'link', 'itunes:type']
@@ -103,8 +103,8 @@ function extractEpisodeData(item) {
   // Supposed to be the plaintext description but not always followed
   if (item['description']) {
     const rawDescription = extractFirstArrayItem(item, 'description') || ''
-    if (!episode.description) episode.description = htmlSanitizer.sanitize(rawDescription)
-    episode.descriptionPlain = htmlSanitizer.stripAllTags(rawDescription)
+    if (!episode.description) episode.description = htmlSanitizer.sanitize(rawDescription.trim())
+    episode.descriptionPlain = htmlSanitizer.stripAllTags(rawDescription.trim())
   }
 
   if (item['pubDate']) {