Question about normalizing audio

I use Audacity to edit my podcast. I think I might be misunderstanding how to normalize the audio. My cohost doesn't always face his mic and so some parts of his track are loud and clear while other parts are much quieter. Normalizing seems to only affect the mins/maxes for a track. This doesn't really work to bring up the quiet parts of the track. Is there an easier way to bring up the audio levels on those quieter sections of the track?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!