A former NPR host shares six principles for better interviews: keep your questions under 15 seconds, do your research so you don't ask obvious things, listen actively and follow up on surprises instead of sticking to a script, and use silence to let guests think. Keep episodes under 45 minutes.
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I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts, interview podcasts, and my God, there are a lot of bad interviewers out there. I think it's because people— anyone can start a podcast, right? People don't— you don't have to like go to school, you don't learn, you miss the part where you learn how to do an interview properly. I spent 20 years as a National Public Radio host. My interview skills are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But I thought I would pass along a couple of tips that helped me in case, in case you are a podcaster yourself, or you know someone who is. The most important thing that was drilled into me is that your job as a host is not to show off how much you know, or how interesting you think you are. Your job is to create space for your guest to shine. If you are talking more than they are, you are doing it wrong. Get your ego off the mic. Second, if it takes you more than 15 seconds to ask a question, rewrite it. If you find yourself saying, "This is more a comment than a question," Drop it. You are not moderating a Reddit thread. Get to the point and then shut up and listen. Third, do some research. You are not doing a live Google search with your guest. Read their book, watch their film, learn the basics. Don't ask questions that could be answered with a quick scroll of their bio. Lazy interviews make everyone look bad. Fourth, every question should have a job, a purpose. Are you trying to reveal something new? Are you trying to challenge a claim? Are you trying to get a story? If you don't know what a question is for, don't ask it. You know, where I think a lot of podcasters go wrong is that they think that an interview is a conversation. It is not. An interview is not a conversation. An interview is a conversation with a goal. Number 5, do not just sit there and wait your turn to speak. Pay attention to what your guest is actually saying. Ask follow-up questions. Challenge contradictions. Dig deeper. If your guest says something that surprises you and you just move on to the next question on your list, you have wasted the moment. And 6, don't rush to fill every pause. Let your guests sit with a hard question. Let them expand on a thought. Like, some of the most revealing things in the interviews that I've done have come after someone thinks that they're done talking. And if your interview podcast is longer than 45 minutes, it's just too long. I'm sorry. Like, just because Joe Rogan has one that's 3 hours long doesn't mean you haven't. In fact, you shouldn't. Audiences phase out, like fade out in their head, you know, every 3 or 4 minutes in a 45-minute show. Your audio on-ramps to get them back are still novel enough that it'll work. But any longer and they're not listening to a podcast, not a ramblecast. Anyway. Oh, also, probably you don't have to hold your microphone like this. That's probably also a good tip.
