Tutorials Audio

Podcast Interview Technique: Asking Better Questions

Intermediate · ~25 min

Overview

A prepared question list gets an interview started, actual technique is what makes it good. This guide covers the conversational craft behind a great podcast interview: follow-ups, silence, listening, and steering, meant to be used alongside the site's Interview Question Generator rather than as a replacement for it.

What You Need

A prepared question list (the Interview Question Generator works well for this)
Genuine curiosity about your guest's answer, not just the next question on your list

Steps

Prepare questions, then be ready to abandon them

A prepared list is a safety net, not a script. The best moments in most interviews come from following an unexpected answer rather than rigidly working through every planned question in order.

Ask one question at a time

Stacking two or three questions into one turn ("What got you started, and was that hard, and do you regret it?") gives your guest an easy out to only answer the last, easiest part. One clear question gets a fuller answer.

Follow up on what's actually interesting

When a guest says something unexpected, specific, or emotionally charged, follow it immediately rather than moving to your next prepared question, "Wait, tell me more about that" produces better content than almost any prepared question ever could.

Get comfortable with silence

A pause after a guest finishes speaking often prompts them to add more, unprompted, new interviewers frequently jump in to fill silence, cutting off the guest's best material before it surfaces.

Steer without steamrolling

If a guest goes off on an unproductive tangent, a gentle redirect ("That's interesting, coming back to X...") keeps the conversation on track without making them feel cut off or unheard.

Pro Tips

Research your guest specifically, not generically. A question that shows you've read their actual work lands very differently than a generic "tell us about your journey" opener.
Avoid yes/no questions when you want depth, "How did that feel?" opens a conversation. "Was that hard?" invites a one-word answer.
Take brief notes during the interview on moments to follow up. It's easy to forget an interesting thread a guest mentioned ten minutes ago.

Knowledge Base

Preparation vs. Presence

Good interview preparation (research, a question list, understanding your guest's work) builds the confidence to then set the list aside and actually listen. The paradox of interview prep is that its main value is letting you worry less about what to ask next, not giving you a script to follow rigidly.

The Follow-Up Is Usually the Real Question

Prepared questions get the conversation started. Follow-up questions get the actual insight. Most memorable podcast moments come from an interviewer noticing something worth chasing in real time, not from a particularly clever prepared question.

Listening Is an Active Skill

It's easy to spend a guest's answer mentally rehearsing your next question instead of actually processing what they're saying, genuinely listening (and it showing in your follow-ups) is what separates interviews that feel like a real conversation from ones that feel like an interrogation checklist.

Where This Fits

This guide covers one specific part of story and editing craft. The wider picture, hooks, stakes, structural templates, pacing against retention data, and how structure gets rewritten in the edit, is in Story Structure for YouTube: Hooks, Stakes, and Payoffs, which frames the discipline as a whole and links out to the detailed guides underneath it, including this one. If you are starting from scratch rather than solving a specific problem, read that first and come back here.

FAQ

Q: Should I share the questions with my guest beforehand?
A: Sharing general topics is usually fine and puts guests at ease. Sharing exact questions can produce more rehearsed, less spontaneous answers. Use judgment based on the guest's experience and comfort level.

Q: How do I handle a guest who gives short, closed answers?
A: Switch to more open-ended "how" and "why" questions, and don't be afraid of a longer pause after their answer. Both invite more elaboration than immediately moving to the next question.