Adobe Audition and Premier Pro--Sound Quality changing after rendering file

Recently I recorded and mixed an episode for my podcast. I am using a Mac studio that's up to date and the latest Audition (2023). Everything sounded great, I rendered a wave and an MP3 copy of the final project, and dropped it into Premier Pro to add captions for YouTube. Halfway through editing the video, I stepped away for dinner. I saved the file but did not close the application as I was coming right back. 

When I returned, the audio quality was completely different, full of static like an old radio recording. I opened the audio file in QuickTime Player and Adobe Audition and it still sounded terrible. I then re-opened the Auditon file where I mixed the multitrack, and it sounded fine. So I mixed the multi-track down again and resaved it as a wave and then an MP3. Everything sounded good in QuickTime, so I replaced the old audio in premiere pro with the new mixdown and once again, the audio returned to terrible. 

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling both programs as well as restarting my computer, and now Audition won't play when I hit play. The play button turns green but nothing moves. It won't record, either. And still, the audio quality greatly decreases after I mixdown the file and save it.

I have no idea what happened or where to even start with fixing this. Please help!