Interviewing Guests on Your Podcast


Interviews are a staple of the podcasting medium. They provide an opportunity for you to bring your listeners information and entertainment that you might not be able to deliver on your own. Like other aspects of audio communication, interviewing is a skill that you can develop and improve over time.

Here are some tips and techniques that will make your interviews livelier, more informative, and more engaging for your listeners:

  • Do your homework.

    As a rule, interview subjects respond well to interviewers who demonstrate an interest in the topic at hand by having done some research before the actual interview. It's always a good omen for the rest of your interview when your guest asks, "How did you find that out?" Don't be afraid to keep a list of questions or facts in front of you while you're talking to your guests. Knowing that you won't forget something interesting can help keep you more relaxed in the discussion.

  • Avoid the obvious.

    Unless there's a compelling reason to do so, it's usually not a good idea to put your guest in the position of repeating some story they've already told a dozen times or more. Most guests react by going into auto-pilot mode, which rarely makes for a riveting podcast. If there is groundwork that needs to be covered for your listeners' benefit, it is often better for you to do it as part of the preface to the interview itself.

  • Make your questions as conversational as possible.

    This is particularly important when you're interviewing a guest who isn't accustomed to being interviewed. If you ask questions that sound like Raymond Burr in an old Perry Mason show, it can make your guest uncomfortable and, not surprisingly, make them feel as though they're being cross-examined. A conversational tone will make it easier for your guest to be conversational in return. As a result, they're likely to be more forthcoming.

  • Listen carefully to what your guest is saying.

    Sure, you've got a lot to think about, keeping one eye on your recording equipment and the other eye on the time. Still, your most interesting interviews will involve a genuine interaction between you and your guest. That can only happen if you're paying close attention to what's being said and reacting to it rather than worrying about asking your next question. When your guest says, "Well, we've been doing this for three years now," the most effective follow-up question is not, "So, how long have you been doing this?"

Take a Moment to Explicitly Get Permission to Podcast Your Interviews

It is distinctly uncool to record someone without his or her knowledge and explicit permission. In some instances, it may even be criminal. To protect yourself and make sure you're doing the right thing relative to your interview subject, take a moment after you've pressed the record button but before the interview has started to say something like, "I just want to make sure we're clear about the fact that I'll be using all or part of this interview in my podcast." You can edit that disclaimer out of the finished podcast file, but you'll have the raw file in your archives just in case any questions arise at a later date.


How Long Should You Keep Your Files?

One of the questions reporters deal with is, "How long should I keep my recordings and my notes?" In a perfect world, the answer would be to keep them as long as you might find them interesting, but in a world with libel, slander, and intellectual property laws, your considerations should go somewhat deeper than that.

Understand that the files we're talking about here are the raw audio files, photographs, and notes that you use to build your podcast. The podcast files themselves will, we suppose, be around as archives for as long as your feed is alive. For the source files, you have three broad options when it comes to a strategy: You can delete them immediately after you've completed the edit for the podcast, you can keep them forever, or you can decide on a length of time to keep them. The point is that you have a policy and stick with it while you're podcastingwe'll get into more depth on the reason in the next paragraph or two.

tip

Take the time to label each of the CD-ROMs on which you store your raw materials. It's a good idea to write down the range of dates from the last backup until this disk was created. If you've decided to keep files for specific length of time, go ahead and put the "Discard on…" date on the label, tooit makes things easier when it's time for the trash bin.


Deleting or discarding all your raw files adds a certain immediacy to everything you do (and an urgency to getting it right), but will keep you from going back and reusing material for later podcasts. Of the three options, this one is the most restrictive to your creativityit's really "working without a net" when it comes to building a collection of podcasts. Keeping your files for a set length of time balances the desire to revisit material with the reality of limited space in most buildings.

Of course, CD-ROMs really don't take up all that much space compared to the amount of data they'll store, so keeping stuff forever is an option. The key to this one is that, if you decide to keep things forever, you really take steps to do that; buy a banker's box and store your material in some sort of order just in case you need to get it out later.

The reason consistency is important is that someday, for reasons you can't now imagine, an attorney could come asking for those files. If you discard everything as soon as you're created the final product, you state that, prove that, and life goes on. If you keep everything forever, you provide the material. The problem arises if you keep most things forever, but for some reason didn't keep the piece of information they're looking for. Then, you get into tedious explanations and your life becomes more complicated than it should. Since we like simpler lives, it makes sense to just create a policy and stick to it.

Archive Your Interview Files

There are several reasons you should consider archiving the raw files from your interviews. The most important is that you might need them to establish the accuracy of any quotes you might use from the interview in written form, such as a blog or magazine article. Another reason is to establish the context of any excerpts you might use from the interview. Finally, as we noted elsewhere, there are occasionally questions about the permission you received to use the interview. Your archival copy of the raw interview will allow you to address all of these issues definitively.

The cost of computer storage today is so low as to be almost nonexistent. In fact, a pack of 25 blank DVD-R discs costs less than $10 at your local office supply store. With storage so cheap, there's simply no good reason to not archive your interview files.




Absolute Beginner's Guide to Podcasting
Absolute Beginners Guide to Podcasting.
ISBN: B001U8C03Q
EAN: N/A
Year: 2004
Pages: 167

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