Podcast Questions: How to Interview Podcast Guests

A podcast is a collection or series of digital audio files available for downloading or listening via the internet. Each audio recording is a podcast episode, created by a person called a podcaster. Podcast topics range from comedy to news to pop culture.

Typically, the content of a podcast features an individual (or group) who leads a conversation, shares stories, or reports the news. The podcast producer subsequently edits the episode and hosts it on a streaming application like Spotify, Stitcher, iTunes, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts. A podcaster may release their content as a monthly podcast or, more frequently, like weekly.

The history of podcasting began with the creation of the iPod. The word “podcast” is a portmanteau—a combination of the word “iPod” and “broadcast.”

Whether it’s your first interview or your fiftieth, here are some tips for conducting the best podcast interview:

• Do your homework. It’s rarely a good idea to go into an interview unprepared—without interesting questions, you can end up with a flat, unfocused interview. Instead, research your guest thoroughly to learn what interview questions they may already be used to answering and how you can tailor yours to generate specific, unique content.
• Keep your goals and audience in mind. If your podcast has at least a few episodes available to stream, you might already have a solid grasp on your goals and audience. Keep these in mind when you brainstorm a list of questions, since these details will significantly affect what questions you ask. For instance, an entertainment podcast is very different from a hard-hitting news podcast, and an informed audience is very different from a podcast audience of laypeople.
• Follow the conversational flow. When you prepare a list of good questions for an interview, you may feel tempted to stick to those questions to avoid veering off into the unknown. However, rigid structure can produce stiff or robotic interviews in which you rush to the next question. Instead, let the conversation flow naturally and use follow-up questions to dive deeper into the details, producing interesting, memorable answers for a good interview.

Here are a few question formats that can lead to strong, in-depth interviews for a good podcast:

1. 1. Open-ended questions: Open-ended questions are the key to a good conversational interview since they encourage extended responses and creativity from the interviewee. Popular open-ended podcast interview questions include “What’s a piece of advice that you’d give to listeners?”; “What’s a common myth about your work?”; “What has been your biggest challenge or biggest failure?”; and “How did your childhood influence your trajectory?”
2. 2. Questions you don’t know the answer to: If you stick only to questions you know the answers to, you run the risk of hosting a tiresome or predictable interview—and in the case of high-profile guests, your listeners may feel bored or disappointed when they don’t learn anything beyond what they’d be able to read online. Try to think outside the box or dive deeper when brainstorming questions for each podcast guest: If your guest typically answers questions about their career, consider asking questions about their hobbies or education to shake things up.
3. 3. Questions tailored to the guest: The best podcast interview questions don’t come from a template or list; instead, they’re questions tailored to the individual guest’s interests, life experiences, and expertise. For instance, if you’re interviewing a fashion designer, a strong, specific question may be asking about a particular item they designed or a certain color they seem to avoid in their work.
4. 4. Themed questions: Themed questions—around things like childhood, fears, strengths, or goals—can be a good way to mimic the natural path of a conversation, encouraging your guest to dive deeper into certain areas and discuss them at length. Themed questions can also be great podcast interview questions if your podcast has a particular angle or theme.
5. 5. Your signature question: Many podcast hosts have a unique, signature question that they ask every single guest. Hosts often include them at the very end of the interview. As a takeaway for listeners, consider asking your quests a favorite question that would work well for your podcast’s goal and audience.

There are a few types of questions that typically don’t produce great podcast interviews:

• Yes or no questions: Yes or no queries are generally unfruitful interview questions, since the guest can provide a one-word answer without elaborating. Such questions fail to encourage thought or creativity in a conversation, and they can often lead to dead ends. If you’re tempted to ask something like, “Did you like X?” consider a more open-ended version like, “How did you feel about X?”
• Invasive questions: While your audience may be waiting for an especially juicy tidbit from your guest, avoid jumping into personal questions too soon (or at all) in a conversation. Wait until you and your guest have built up some rapport, or give them a warning beforehand that you’d like to explore a sensitive topic, and see if they’re comfortable with the possibility.
• Questions your guests’ answers regularly: Especially if you’re interviewing a high-profile guest, chances are that other interviews with this person already pepper the internet. While it may be tempting to ask several simple questions in the beginning of the conversation, this is usually a waste of time and runs the risk of boring your guest.

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