Podcaster's Portal: planning interviews

Planning interviews

The better planned you are for your interviews, the better they will sound
The length of your interview is important so think carefully about optimum length
Prepare your questions in advance - don't "wing it"

By Jonathan Halls

Always plan your interview. Make sure you have done some background research on your topic and your guest.

You should know something about your guest’s history or career, their general interests, what area they live in and why the public might be interested in them. This is before you even start focusing on the topic on which they’re to be interviewed.

The more you know about them, the better prepared you are to pick up on interesting comments they make during the interview. Also, make sure you have their name correctly spelled and learn how to pronounce it.

Timing

It’s easy to get into the habit of asking a million questions and letting the interview drag on. There are four reasons you should watch the clock when you conduct an interview for your podcast.

First, your listener’s concentration span. Study after study has shown the average listener can’t maintain their concentration for more than about three minutes. There are exceptions such as with in-depth programs on PBS and BBC Radio 4. These exceptions are generally led by very experienced interviewers.

Second, your listener’s amount of physical time. Life is hectic and demanding and even if your listener could concentrate for a longer period, he has a lot of other competing priorities. Therefore, he may not make it to the end of your interview.

Third, it creates pressure on your guest. This is especially relevant for political interviews where you don’t want your guest to be so comfortable that they don’t get to the point, or don’t bother answering your question.

Fourth, we live in a digital world. Our culture is moving towards an on-demand, non-linear consumption pattern where people no longer want to listen to everything. They like to pick and choose. If they don’t have this option – in other words they have to listen for a whole ten minutes – they are likely to throw their loyalty elsewhere. It’s all part of managing information overload.

I like 3 minutes

Therefore, I’m a big fan of the 3 minute interview. When I started out in broadcasting, I was told that people’s interest started to wane at the two minute thirty seconds (2’30”) point. At three minutes (3’00”), I was told they’d be gone.

I believe the same applies to podcast interviews. Although, perhaps they could be even shorter depending on the audience and purpose.

Conducting short interviews is not easy, but they sound great. They’re tight and informative. And your listener feels as if he gets what he’s after in a very economical amount of time.

The other reason short interviews are good is that we live in an age of information overload. I often tell people, the more they hear, the more they’ll forget. Keeping it short respects the many listeners who are so busy they like to get their audio in bite-size chunks.

Preparing questions for your podcast interviews

If your interview is between 3 and 5 minutes (and I recommend you aim for 3), I suggest you plan on asking three questions. You’ll find it difficult squeezing in many more than three unless your guest is not very talkative. In some cases you will ask one or two additional questions based on your guest’s answers.

When you write your questions, make them straightforward and as short as you can. A lot of interviewers suffer ego spasms when it comes to asking questions. By ego spasms I mean they just can’t help but pollute the interview with their voice. If you’re conducting a factual interview, you’ve invited your guest to talk. Let her talk.

So the shorter your questions, the better your interview. Avoid sub-clauses. Use as few words as possible. And don’t fall into the trap of trying to show off your knowledge. A lot of broadcasters do this and it sounds lousy. The interview is not so you get an ego hit. It’s to hear your guest’s opinion. Allow her the space to do this.