More than 90% of people believe themselves to be above-average drivers.
More than 90% of college professors believe themselves to be above-average teachers.
And when it comes to podcasting, it’s not a stretch to assume more than 90% of hosts believe themselves to be above-average interviewers.
Over the course of more than eight years and hundreds of conversations with podcasters across every show format, genre, and niche, I can think of just two or three instances where one of them told me their interviewing skills could use some work.
In fact, whenever I ask about what they see as the strengths of their show, almost every host is quick to tell me that they get great feedback on their interviewing skills.
Having personally audited many of these shows, however, I can safely say this is rarely the case.
Most hosts are passable interviewers.
Some are solid, even genuinely good.
Very few are great.
And why should they be?
Interviewing is not a craft most of us have any education in. Neither is it a skill we’re likely to randomly pick up through osmosis.
What little we do learn of interviewing tends to come from the world from journalism, which, while it certainly has its place, is not relevant to the types of shows most of us are making.
On the one hand, for many shows—especially those in underserved niches—the host doesn’t need to be a great interviewer for the show to be worth listening to.
And yet…
For any show built around the interview format, it’s clear that better interviewers = better episodes = higher audience retention = faster growth.
But this begs the question…
What exactly does it mean to be a better interviewer?
Given how closely entwined the interview format is with podcasting as a medium, it’s shocking that there isn’t a clear, universally agreed-upon rubric of the skills, traits, and practices of truly great interviewers.
Which makes it hard—if not impossible—for all of us as hosts to improve.
If we don’t know our destination, after all, how are we supposed to get there?
Of course, every interviewer is unique.
As is their particular approach, skill set, and line of inquiry.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some foundational guiding principles that great interviewers have in common.
And while I’m in no way claiming to be a great interviewer myself, I’ve analyzed enough interviews—ranging from awful to awe-inspiring—to have identified a series of traits to develop and lean into—as well as some to avoid—to improve your interviews.
Before we get into the specific traits of great interviewers, however, it’s worth taking a step back to identify what makes for a great interview itself.
What Makes For A Great Podcast Interview?
When embarking on any journey, it always helps to have at least a general idea of your destination.
Our quest to uncover what it means to be a truly great interviewer is no different.
So before we zoom into the specific skills, traits, and techniques employed by effective interviewers, it’s worth zooming out to assess the final product.
Specifically, what makes for a fantastic interview episode from a listener perspective?
I’d argue great interviews have 7 specific traits in common, the first four of which we’ll cover today.
1. Great Podcast Interviews Have a Guiding Vision
While great interviews often have a casual, conversational feel, we as listeners also have the distinct sense—from the first minute onward—that the episode is going somewhere.
Scrappy Podcaster Erin Scott, host of Believe In Dog summarizes this desire perfectly:
“While the goal is to feel conversational, that doesn’t mean it’s just a conversation. I don’t want to listen to people just “shoot the shit” without feeling like there’s some point or purposeful journey that I’m being taken on.”
Angelique Lusuan, host of both The Italian Escape and The AI and Digital Transformation Podcast echoes the sentiment:
“Aside from bad audio, a bad interview (for me) is one done in a chit-chat friends’ format with no direction.”
Listeners want to know that they’re in good hands with the host and that their time and attention is being respected.
To that end, great interviews are built around a clear, pre-determined vision encompassing:
- Why this guest is being invited on in the first place
- The intended outcome the interview is working toward delivering for the audience
- The framing for the interview that contextualizes it in the listeners’ lives
- The specific questions being asked and the purpose of each
This isn’t to say that great interviews don’t branch off in unexpected but interesting directions.
In fact, that is one of their hallmarks.
But in the best interviews, those side journeys are always tied back to the main theme, creating cohesive episodes that build and maintain momentum toward the promised destination.
2. Great Podcast Interviews Offer Listeners Something Novel
This novelty can take many forms, but the most common are:
Novel Insight, Ideas, or Information — Which allows the audience to learn something new that they haven’t encountered anywhere else before.
Novel Anecdotes — Or, getting the guest to share something they’ve never shared before.
These take on added importance if your guest has been interviewed widely before, as, over time, your ability to consistently elicit original anecdotes can become one of your primary differentiators, and the reason people choose to listen to your interview of a specific guest versus any of the dozens of others.
But original anecdotes aren’t only valuable when interviewing well-known, widely interviewed guests.
Mediocre interview shows in every niche are filled to the brim with largely interchangeable guests sharing generic, same-y, anecdotes that not only fail to connect with listeners but drive them to boredom.
Regardless of the guest’s level of fame or recognition, great interviews surface interesting original anecdotes that are particular to the lived experience of that guest.
In other words, they feature stories that only that guest could possibly tell.
Erin Scott, of Believe In Dog articulates this desire for novelty clearly:
“For me, a great interview uncovers new ground or a new angle, especially if the guest is someone known to speak about their certain topic.”
3. Great Podcast Interviews Leave The Listener Changed
The best interviews create a clear before/after moment in the listeners.
That change may be as drastic as a listener wholly reconsidering their life priorities and trajectory after listening to an interview.
Or, it may be as small as reconsidering a topic they thought they knew and taking on a new, deeper, or more nuanced understanding or appreciation of it.
Regardless of the scope of change, listener transformation is at the heart of the most resonant (not to mention recommendable) interviews.
These are the interviews we remember for years, relisten to multiple times, and talk about with everyone who will listen.
4. Great Podcast Interviews Connect with the Guest’s Humanity
Podcasts are a fantastic way to absorb knowledge and information.
But their real strength (and advantage over more efficient knowledge transfer mediums like writing) is their ability to infuse information with emotion, humanity, personality, and nuance that creates content that is both useful… and deeply connective.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of podcasts ignore this opportunity entirely.
Hosts may keep the guest at arm’s length for any number of reasons, including concern about crossing a line into uncomfortable personal territory or veering off course from the show and episode’s topic.
Regardless of the cause, however, the absence of humanity creates flat, forgettable episodes—even when those episodes are filled with useful information.
Note that connecting with the guest’s humanity is not simply about recounting their life story.
It’s about pushing into the messy, potentially uncomfortable, human emotions, struggles, and conflicts that underpin their, your, and your audience’s experience with the topic at hand.
Nick Korte, host of Nerd Journey identifies this desired feeling of connecting to the guest as follows:
“I want to finish listening feeling like I got some great information from the discussion… but at the same time, wishing there was more time with the guest.”
5. Great Podcast Interviews Are Intimate
While there’s certainly something to be said about the intrigue and drama of heated, contentious, or outright combative interviews, these aren’t the types of interviews most of our audiences are looking for.
Rather, they’re looking for interviews that have a clear feeling of intimacy between the host, guest, and—by extension—listener.
Scrappy Podcaster Amanda Bennett, Founder of podcast outreach & guesting strategy company Gotcha Mama describes the feeling of great interviews as:
“You can feel the rapport with the guest and host. The host seems excited to be there and talk with the guest. There’s a good flow of back and forth – not a lot of one person.”
In these interviews, it’s clear that the guest has enough trust, rapport, and respect for the host to feel comfortable opening up, deviating from their standard talking points, and sharing more than they previously have.
Which, as a result, leads to more humanity, connection, original anecdotes & insight, and ultimately, potential for listener change.
There’s a fine line to walk, however, in building and maintaining intimacy with your guest while keeping the interview listener-oriented, true to your vision for the episode, and filled with sufficient tension.
Speaking of which…
6. Great Podcast Interviews Contain Tension
Anything interesting is built around tension.
Between what is vs what could be.
Between what we know vs what we don’t.
Between competing or contradictory approaches to a challenge or visions for the future.
Between an action and the anticipated result or reaction.
When present, tension pulls a listener through an episode, keeping them actively engaged as they wonder where the episode is going.
Sadly, most podcast interviews are hopelessly devoid of any form of tension, and correspondingly, interest.
In great interviews, tension is most easily (and deliciously) introduced by the host pushing:
- The guest in a certain direction — ie. To go deeper, get more specific, provide a concrete example or story, etc
- Back on something the guest said — ie. Challenging them, asking for proof, staking out a competing argument and asking them to reconcile it with their view, playing devil’s advocate, etc
Like any of us, podcast guests by nature will stick well within their comfort zone unless prompted (or challenged) to leave it.
But leave it they must for an interview to be truly valuable.
Erin Scott from Believe In Dog articulates a common frustration among podcast listeners:
“[I love interviews where the] guests don’t just stick to their talking points or tell the same 3 anecdotes they’ve shared on 57 different podcasts while promoting their book.”
In addition to pushing the guest to step outside their comfort zone, tension can be created by the host through Angular Questioning, changes in direction, and introducing surprise.
Angelique Lusuan, Scrappy Podcaster and host of both The Italian Escape and The AI and Digital Transformation Podcast describes the result of this kind of tension.
“For me, great interviews leave me with the feeling like I’ve been taken to a roller coaster ride I was not forced to or dragged by.”
Keep in mind that while tension is often built around some form of conflict, you don’t need to get combative with your guest to create it.
Episode- & insight-driving tension can be just as easily produced through gentle prodding, nudging, and clarifying as mic drop callouts and rebuttals.
7. Great Podcast Interviews Enrich Every Participant
In the best interviews, all three parties—the host(s), guest(s), and listeners—leave the experience feeling personally enriched.
We’ve already discussed how the audience should walk away with something novel they’ve never encountered, undergoing a change in some way.
But the host and guest should also leave the interview better than when they came in.
Often, this enrichment emerges directly from the tension so many hosts avoid creating.
Personally, all my favourite interviews as a guest were those where the host challenged me, pushed for specificity and concrete examples… which helped me uncover new ideas I would have never arrived at on my own.
Coincidentally, these are the guest episodes I am most excited to share with my audience.
The same dynamic plays on the host side.
While many hosts—eager to portray themselves as “experts” or “authorities”—shy away from questions or topics they lack deep knowledge in, some of the best interviews emerge from a host who is willing to put their ego aside and enthusiastically explore the guest’s expertise and experience.
What Makes A Great Podcast Interviewer?
Now that we know what makes for a great interview from a listener’s perspective, we could define a great interviewer is someone who facilitates great interviews by hitting these notes on a consistent basis.
But how exactly do they do it?
Based on my experience, it comes down to a specific cocktail of skills, knowledge, traits, and techniques they employ and embody.
Some of these are obvious and relate directly to the desired outcomes mentioned above.
Others are subtle but essential to the creation of meaningful & engaging interviews.
All of them, however, can be learned, adopted, and cultivated by anyone.
1. Great Podcast Interviewers Are Personally Curious About the Topic & Guest
There are few bigger listener turn-offs than a clearly disengaged host.
And yet, so many podcast interviews feel as though the host is simply punching the clock, interviewing guests simply because that’s what they think they’re supposed to do.
Great hosts, on the other hand, are brimming with eagerness, enthusiasm, and genuine curiosity, both about their guests, and the topics they are exploring.
To a listener, this energy is infectious.
What’s more, when combined with proper preparation and research, a host following their internal curiosity compass is much more likely to find their way into interesting topics and angles that haven’t been covered elsewhere.
The result is novel, differentiated episodes that leave the host, guest, and audience enriched.
That said, unbridled curiosity can easily lead to unfocused episodes, which is where vision comes in.
2. Great Podcast Interviewers Have a Vision for the Interview
This vision extends across multiple planes including:
- Why this topic matters to their audience
- Why this is the right guest to explore the topic
- What is interesting & underexplored about this topic
- The specific outcome the interview is working towards
- The choice & sequencing of questions that will facilitate that outcome
A lack of vision makes for a frustrating listener experience, with loose, meandering episodes that lack forward momentum toward a destination.
It also results in episodes that are inherently hard to market, as they lack a clear, compelling hook or promise.
Great hosts have the vision for the hook and often even the title before they ever hit record, and in some cases, before they even find the right guest to fulfill it.
The result is a high “hit rate” of novel, differentiated episodes that both hold the audience’s attention and are easy to market… because they were designed that way from the start.
3. Great Podcast Interviewers Do Their Research
Amateur hosts often eschew any meaningful interview research and prep.
Perhaps they think coming in unprepared will lead to more “organic” or “authentic” interviews.
Perhaps they’ve heard that’s how Larry King did it and assume it will work for them as well.
More likely, they’re lazy and are simply looking for an excuse to justify it.
The truth is that proper research is not only of immense service to your listeners, it’s actually an essential enabler of deeper, more authentic interviews.
Good interview prep achieves 3 things:
- It wins the guest over by showing them that you’ve done your homework and are serious about the craft.
Not only does this improve the energy they bring to the show, but it also provides a strong foundation of respect which is essential if one of your goals is to build relationships with your guests.
Watch almost any episode of Hot Ones to see this principle in action.
- It shows you what topics and questions to either ignore and/or compress as they’ve already been covered extensively elsewhere.
- It uncovers interesting, novel, and perhaps unconventional threads to unravel or weave into your interview, either as primary themes or interesting accents.
While good interview research won’t guarantee a great interview, it will guarantee a novel one that avoids the same dozen questions the guest has answered on a dozen (or more) generic podcasts before.
That alone, is enough to make your interviews noteworthy.
4. Great Podcast Interviewers Are Low Ego
One of the most common complaints podcast listeners have about hosts is when they “make the interview about them.”
This isn’t to say that the host should remove themselves from the interview altogether, however. Many of the best podcast episodes feature a balanced conversation between the host and guest with both making valuable contributions to the discussion.
The problem is when the host’s interjections and contributions are rooted in ego and insecurity.
We all have egos, of course. And we all want to be seen as smart, charming, funny, and likeable (especially if the purpose of our show is marketing for our business).
The problem is that while we often can’t see it in the moment, listeners can detect try-hard, insecure energy from a mile away… and then do everything they can to maintain that distance.
Great hosts are not immune from ego.
Rather, they have the self awareness to recognize their triggers—often by reviewing past episodes—and the confidence to suppress the inevitable urges to inject themselves into the interview when it’s not in service to the episode.
In fact, listen to enough great interviewers and it quickly becomes clear that the real flex is to have the courage to ask the dumb questions in service of your audience.
5. Great Podcast Interviewers Think In Themes & Patterns
The biggest aha moments in an interview never come from straightforward, linear questioning of the guest.
Instead, they come from connecting a specific topic or idea to another seemingly unrelated one… and then unexpectedly (and delightfully) weaving them together into a cohesive whole.
To achieve this, great interviewers have developed a keen eye for pattern and theme recognition.
The result is episodes with a regular dose of entirely novel insights and ideas and a show for which there is no substitute.
Intellectual ahas are just the start, however.
By recognizing particular aspects of a guest’s story and connecting them to larger, universal themes, the host is able to form an emotional bridge between the guest and the listener.
This makes for episodes that are not only interesting and engaging but highly resonant as well.
The basis for this ability?
A particular distribution of knowledge common among great interviewers, hosts, and creators.
6. Great Podcast Interviewers Have T-Shaped Knowledge
While great podcast interviewers are often legitimate experts in a small number of fields, they supplement that expertise with a high level of competence in many more (which are often entirely unrelated).
This combination of breadth and depth of knowledge allows them to ask intelligent questions on a variety of topics and connect disparate ideas back to the core topic of the show.
What’s more, knowledge is an enabler of curiosity and a refiner of intuition.
Which means hosts with T-shaped knowledge distributions tend to find their way into the more interesting, less explored nooks and crannies of a topic than their counterparts with only deep or wide knowledge.
Great interviewers tend to accrue this knowledge through obsessive consumption of vast amounts of information across a wide variety of topics, generally following their own personal curiosities, hunches, and fascinations.
This level of consumption is a trait that doesn’t get talked about enough but is the backbone of most great interviewers, and by extension, interviews.
7. Great Podcast Interviewers Obsess Over Pacing, Structure, and Sequencing
New interviewers tend to view, think about, and structure their interviews based on one dimension: The “content” of the interview.
Great interviewers, on the other hand, approach interviews from a multidimensional perspective.
In addition to the content itself, they obsess over the dynamics of how that content is presented, mapping out—and then adjusting on the fly—the interview’s:
- Pacing — To build & maintain momentum and ensure a high level of Value Density.
- Structure — To ensure the content makes sense, has maximum emotional impact, and maintains & regularly resets listener engagement.
- Question Selection & Sequencing — Ensuring each question has a specific “Job” for the audience and/or the guest dynamic, and they are presented in the most effective order to maximize connection, emotion, audience learning, tension, and payoffs.
- Hooks & Open Loops — To keep listeners engaged and curious about how the episode will resolve.
- Signposting — To help listeners mentally navigate the episode without getting lost and ensuring the key points and connections between ideas are recognized and understood.
- Emotional Variation — To provide emotional connection on multiple levels that deepen the audience’s connection to the guest, the host, and the show.
- Narrative Arc — To subtly set up the content as a journey the audience is going on (even if the episode itself is not being presented explicitly as a telling of the guest’s story).
- And more
What these interviewers understand is this:
Content alone isn’t worth much if you can’t present it in an engaging, compelling way that gets listeners leaning in and wanting more.
Much of this skill is developed through doing their own editing (more on that in a minute) and ruthlessly assessing each episode, noting down the areas for improvement going forward.
They also enlist regular, honest feedback from other expert interviewers and producers to identify the issues with their presentation that they can’t see themselves.
The result is addictive episodes that keep audiences listening and coming back for more.
8. Great Podcast Interviewers Are Performers
There is a distinct difference between being a part of a great conversation and listening in as a third-party
Great interviewers understand that a podcast interview is a production that is being put on for an audience, and within that production, they must adopt the role of a performer.
This doesn’t mean donning a persona or becoming a caricature of themselves, however.
Performance of this type is about making intentional decisions about how they use their voice and body language to set and shift the tone of the interview.
This “performance” can include their:
- Energy level
- Posture
- Intonation
- Enunciation
- Tone & Timbre
- Volume
- Word choices
- Use of pause
- And more
I’ve worked with many indie creators and small business owners who were serious enough about the performance aspect of their shows that they took vocal training classes to improve their delivery.
You can get started on your own, however.
Pay attention to the way your favourite hosts use their voices and you’ll quickly notice: Their “podcast voices” are not the same as they (or any of us) would use in their day-to-day life.
This is the performance of podcasting that makes episodes feel polished and professional.
And much like two musicians can take the same piece of music and make it sound—and more importantly feel—radically different based on their performance of it, so too do great interviewers.
9. Great Podcast Interviewers Are Great Editors
While the best interviews begin with intentional preparation and structure, interviews are organic, unruly things that rarely go perfectly to plan.
Great interviewers understand and expect this, and embrace editing as one of the most important tools of the trade.
Knowing that the finished interview will be edited, they embrace the opportunity to probe a topic from multiple angles, in search of the most articulate or meaningful guest response and pull on threads that might just lead somewhere interesting, knowing they can cut them if they don’t.
In post-production they perform the typical polishing, cleaning up some of the awkward pauses, crutch words, and repetitions to improve the flow and pacing of the episode.
But that’s just the start.
More importantly, they make the (always painful) cuts to sections that—while interesting—don’t serve the core purpose of the episode or are addressed more succinctly elsewhere.
Always, they are thinking about Value Density and pacing, ensuring the episode never begins to drag.
Indeed, editing alone is enough to elevate a mediocre interview to a great one, simply by cutting out the unnecessary, slow, low-value sections and leaving the gold.
While generally overlooked, editing is perhaps the single most powerful tool in all creative work, and great interviewers make steady use of it in their craft.
