Thread
If anyone is interviewing philosophers for podcasts or radio programme’s, here’s my advice on a thread after doing over three hundred of these…
Don’t have a list of pre-pared questions. Rather think in terms of topic areas. Pre-prepared questions always sound stilted and are often verbose.
Keep intros and questions as short as possible, and resist the temptation to show off. The point is to stimulate the interviewee to say something interesting not to pre-empt them
If possible interview face to face. It’s much easier to pick up important non-verbal cues that are often lost in Zoom interactions
Listen to what your interviewee actually says rather than thinking that they’ve given the answer you expected them to give. Sounds obvious but many interviewers press on pass points at which something really fascinating could have emerged
Occasionally give a brief summary of what you believe the guest has said. Helps listeners - a pause, a consolidation - but also if you get it slightly wrong then that’s an opportunity for them to expand and clarify
Try to think on your feet. The best interactions come from that rather than over-planned interviews
Ask for examples that illustrate abstract ideas - that’s far easier to follow and usually far more memorable and interesting
Nod encouragingly and smile rather than make little noises of agreement
Best advice on audio presentation I ever had was to smile when you speak - the quality of the voice changes and is audible
The other useful bit of advice I had from audio training was to place both feet flat on the ground (adjust your chair if necessary)
Make sure you have a way of getting out of the interview with a cadence that suggests an ending. You can say ‘One final question…’ or similar to trigger the appropriate sort of response
Finally, I’ve found that playing Everyman works better than displaying your philosophical knowledge - try and ask questions that listeners might ask, not insider questions that academics quibble about and really don’t make much difference
