✊ The secret to better interviews is so simple
1,393 WORDS | READ TIME: 5.3 MIN Happy friends, Sunny and warm here in Barcelona today. Had two scheduled calls cancel which means more time to write more of our ongoing series on interviewing. As a reminder, you can find all previous installments of this guide here. Let's gooooo 🤙 So far in this guide, we’ve discussed nine of the traits that set great interviewers apart, including:
Today, we're going to look at how great interviewers wield one of the most important tools in content creation: Tension. Great Interviewers Find, Create, and Lean Into TensionNothing keeps an audience engaged like tension. And while the specific source of this tension can vary, all tension boils down to the same thing... Uncertainty.
Uncertainty is gripping. The fact that we don’t know what’s coming next—let alone the outcome—is precisely what makes sports, games, gambling, art, well-told stories, and indeed life itself interesting. And it’s the utter lack of uncertainty—and therefore tension—that hamstrings nearly every podcast interview available. Listen to 10 interviews of any reasonably well-known guest and this dynamic becomes immediately clear. Almost every interview is made up of the exact same set of expected questions, which result in expected answers, expected takeaways The result? Wholly unsurprising, undifferentiated... not to mention emotionally and intellectually unsatisfying episodes. As a listener, it feels like these hosts are simply overseeing a series of assembly lines, each applying a different coat of paint but ultimately all working off the same interview blueprints. As a host of an interview show, these blueprints might help you build a streamlined production process, but they will not help you build an audience. The good news is that the bar for tension—and thus audience intrigue—in podcasting is so low, it’s not hard to stand out… if you’re willing to get a little uncomfortable.
5 Levels of Tension to InjectIn a typical interview, tension tends to emerge in five distinct ways:
As you move down the list, the amount of tension—and thus audience intrigue—each tactic injects increases. But so too does the level of discomfort the host must endure to introduce it. Which is exactly why so few shows contain any type of meaningful tension. In many cases, the hosts are unwilling to risk rocking the boat—especially if the guest is someone they perceive to be of higher status than themselves. While understandable, this logic is based on two assumptions:
These assumptions couldn't be further from the truth, however. Curious Not Combative InterviewingLeft to their own devices, any guest will generally revert to the simplest, most top-of-mind answer to a question. More often than not, however, that easy automatic answer isn’t all that insightful or interesting. As the host, it’s your job to guide them deeper, towards a more helpful, more interesting, and perhaps more honest answer. This isn't achieved through direct confrontation, but by gently nudging them to go deeper, expand on their statements, clarify details, provide specific examples, and more. The goal of this probing exploration isn’t to produce some sort of “gotcha!” moment. It’s to explore the nooks and crannies of the topic in a way that is of service to the listeners. As it turns out, this kind of exploration often benefits the guest as well. Which is why truly good guests are more than happy to engage in a dynamic conversation that attacks and defends its way to interesting new insights for everyone involved. Good Guests Relish A ChallengeContrary to what most hosts think, truly great guests are eager to be pushed on their thinking. The reasons are simple:
As a guest, all of my favourite interviews have been those where the host challenged my thinking, presented me with hypothetical scenarios, and forced me to react in the moment. In these cases, I left the interviews with not only a ton of respect for (and often a budding friendship with) the host, but also a list of new ideas to create content around. On the flip side, one of the biggest red flags for a guest is someone who insists on sticking to their talking points, resists all prompts to clarify their statements, and bristles at the slightest challenge to their thinking. This is not a guest who will do anything positive for your show… and is likely not a true expert, which means you shouldn’t be featuring them in the first place. Ratchet Up The TensionThe tactics discussed here are valuable devices to introduce more tension into your interviews. But they work best when used to tap into an existing tension that exists around the guest and/or the topic in the minds of either you or your audience. Or, said differently... If there's nothing about the guest and their approach to the topic that you or your audience have unresolved questions about (or even flat-out disagree with) you probably don't have the seeds of a great interview. Respectful discussion, debate, and disagreement have been the foundation of progress in every field for millennia. Which means if you’re serious about furthering the conversation and uncovering new knowledge in your field, they—and the tension inherent in using them—are some of the most valuable tools at your disposal. Use them. What Else Makes For Great Interviews (and the People Behind Them)?Thanks so much to everyone who's already contributed thoughts, ideas, personal reflections, and resources for this series. I'll be including all of these in a wrap up issue to close out the series as well as in the finished guide. If you haven't already contributed, hit reply and let me know:
Be sure to include the name of your show so I can give you a backlink :)
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