How to Conduct a Public Interview

A public interview (whether pre-recorded or live-streamed) is a particular type of conversation. I often get complimented on how well I conduct the Millenniyule interviews, so I will presume to advise on how to do such things.

It is first important to understand that, as the interviewer, how it goes is largely down to you. The verb “conduct” is instructive. You are not there to merely ask questions robotically; you are conducting a sort of performance. Your job is to prompt and nudge the guest in various ways so as to get a good performance out of him.

An interview is a conversation in which either:

• questions are answered, or

• a narrative/story is told

Of course, usually both things happen. A particular question might be answered with a short narrative/story. A long narrative/story might give rise to questions along the way. It is important to know in advance which type of interview it will be: questions that might give rise to stories, or a story that might give rise to questions.

It is crucial to understand that, while an interview is indeed a conversation, it is not just “a chat with a mate”. Even if you are friends with the guest, the fact is, there is an audience and they don’t want their time wasted. You mustn’t get lost in your own thoughts, nor the guest in his, nor the two of you in whatever in-jokes or understandings exist between you; everything that is said should be understandable to the audience.

Another thing to note is that a public interview is not the same thing as, for example, a private research interview. There, the goal is to extract information from the guest, so you will want exactness and clarity and to get all of your questions answered. A public interview is very different and it needs to be very different - much more laid-back and free-flowing. There are several goals:

• it should be interesting for the audience

• it should be enjoyable for the audience

• a topic should be satisfactorily (but probably not comprehensively) covered, whether via questions or a story

I have my own style and it suits my particular personality. The advice I will give is how I have learned to do my style of interview well. You might have a very different style, in which case this advice - at least some of it - will be less applicable.

We need to discuss two different phases: before and during the interview.

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Before the interview…

Negotiate the topic

Have at least some notion of what you are going to talk about. This enables you to ensure that the interview will be interesting for the audience, useful for the guest, etc. and won’t run aground halfway through. It also enables the guest to brush up on certain things beforehand, if necessary.

Red lines

Ask the guest whether there is anything he definitely doesn’t want to be brought up during the conversation. The answer will almost always be no, but it’s good practice to ask this anyway because it prevents awkward situations arising.

Skeleton

Come up with a written “skeleton” of the interview, just a few brief notes. The better you are at conversation, the less you will need these notes, but even the most competent interviewer is aided by having them.

For a “question” interview, you might think you will be able to come up with sufficient questions on the hop, but I would strongly advise against taking that risk. I also advise against caring too much about getting every question answered. In a public interview, it’s much more important that the audience enjoy it and find it stimulating. Sticking pedantically to questions you devised beforehand can get in the way of that.

For a “narrative” interview, make a list of points that the guest should cover in order to tell the story effectively. Because of that, these points are more important than questions. The order in which they are covered will also be important. Show the list to the guest beforehand so that he can say if anything is wrong.

If you allow the guest to write the skeleton himself, do not accept a very lengthy one. This suffocates the interview and prevents you, as the “conductor”, from making judgement calls along the way. Negotiate a more “bare bones” version which will free you up.

As a rough guide… Assuming 60 minutes duration, the skeleton should have between 5 and 10 questions (or narrative points).

Before beginning the interview, paste the skeleton into a text editor. You might need to edit it as you go. It is your map of the territory, but the territory will evolve so the map has to as well.

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During the interview…

Minimise the opening waffle

The very beginning is important, because there is an initial burst of energy that shouldn’t be wasted. Therefore, I try to keep opening waffle (eg. about the schedule, how people can send in questions, etc.) very brief. Four or five sentences, about thirty seconds.

Introduce the guest (briefly)

I think it’s important for the audience to hear the guest speaking soon, and a good way to achieve this is to let him introduce himself rather than do it for him. But, again, this should be brief. Don’t let him veer into telling his life story. It’s boring to have that stuff at the beginning of an interview; you want to get to “the meat” as soon as possible. So, when I ask the guest to introduce himself, I always append the word “briefly” or say “just thirty seconds or so”.

Also, URLs (where the audience can find him) are much better supplied in text form in the show notes than spelled out orally during the interview.

Set the frame

Right after the opening and the guest introduction is the most critical juncture in the interview. This is when you set the frame for the conversation that is to follow. You can do this in various ways and you will have your particular style, but you must do it, and you must do it at this point.

You are naming the conversation’s purpose. This defines the arena in which you and the guest can operate. If you say “we are going to talk about fruit”, that means the focus is on fruit. It also means the focus is not on vegetables, meats, nuts, microchip manufacturing, or the guest’s mother-in-law.

Tackle the focus by discussing other things inside the frame. If you exit the frame, get back into it as soon as possible.

Sticking to the frame should be your iron law throughout the interview. Inevitably other topics will be mentioned (it would be a strange interview if they didn’t) but the frame must be maintained.

Launch into the frame

Having set the frame, launch into it immediately.

Spend at least ten minutes strictly within the frame - this establishes it, which makes it much easier to return to after any tangents that occur later on.

I can show an example of what happens if you don’t do this: my 2023 Millenniyule interview with Semiogogue. We had agreed a topic (the geopolitical events of the year) and I set that as the frame, but then, at 3:10, when I should have been launching us into it, Semiogogue unexpectedly started talking about something else entirely (British sitcoms). I allowed this because he seemed to expect it to be a brief tangent. However, that was still foolish on my part because even a brief tangent uses up precious early momentum and gets the conversation off to a messy start. But then things got worse, because the tangent ended up lasting 40 minutes. By that time, neither of us had enough energy to approach the very weighty topic we had intended. Our only choice was to continue meandering, so we did. It was an enjoyable enough conversation but a total misfire of an interview, and all because of one simple mistake I made early on. (I want to emphasise that the fault was mine, not Semiogogue’s. I was the interviewer so I should have been more “on the ball”.)

Start general

The guest might not realise the need for this since he is so immersed in the topic; as the conductor such concerns fall to you.

Whatever the topic, begin by telling the audience how it is relevant to them, why they should be interested, why it’s important, etc., or otherwise what the topic is, so as to get them “clued in” so that they won’t be baffled.

This might involve giving some context around the topic. For example, if the topic is the Trans-Europe Express, you might briefly outline the European love of train travel, why it was popular in the post-war era versus travelling by car, how the TEE was seen as high-class, and where it fits in the timeline, etc.

Of course, ideally it should be the guest doing all of this, not you.

The point is: start in very general terms before getting into specifics. You want to draw the audience into the topic. You can’t expect them to know or be interested, off the bat.

Listen

Listening is absolutely essential to interviewing. It makes your guest feel respected and comfortable, and enables you to react fluidly to what he says. Also, if you aren’t visibly listening, the audience will take their cue from you and phase out.

Be ready to react (and always react)

You should always react to whatever your guest has said (after he has finished saying it). He wants your feedback and the audience want a break from hearing his voice.

There are various ways to react - pick up on a detail of what he said, give your own opinion, request clarification or elaboration or evidence, or ask a new question - but you should know in advance how you are going to react, because he could stop talking at any second.

This is probably the most important piece of advice I can give. Awkward silences are kryptonite for a public interview. They make the audience tune out, make the interviewer look (and feel) incompetent, and make the guest feel disrespected.

How to react

If the guest has only just started his answer but he says something you want to pick up on, quickly add it to the skeleton so that you won’t forget it. On occasion I have made three or four notes during a single answer, then gone through them all afterwards.

Alternatively, if the point is one he could address briefly, interrupt and ask it, since he will be able to get back to his “flow” easily.

If it has been some time since he said the thing you want to pick up on, gently bring the conversation back to that point - “let me take you back to… earlier you said… before all of this, you mentioned…”

Have the next question ready

There might be no way to react to the guest’s answer except to move on to a new question. Therefore, always have the next question ready before he stops talking.

When asking a new question, try to segue to it from what he has just said. The alternative is an abrupt change which can be awkward - but you can get away with that by simply saying, “okay, and now for an abrupt change…” or “to change the topic somewhat…” Acknowledging it makes it okay.

Mute is your friend

Always mute when you are not speaking. Nobody needs to hear you coughing, moving around in your chair, typing on your keyboard, clicking your mouse, etc. It distracts the audience and the guest and makes the whole thing feel less professional. I also think it makes the interviewer seem lazy and surly.

Pedantry can be useful

Never be afraid to ask for clarification. If you don’t understand what the guest just said, the audience probably don’t either.

You are not the subject

It is natural to proffer your own opinions, and an interview would be quite dull if the interviewer never did so. Apart from anything else, it helps to liven up the conversation to contrast what the guest has said with your own opinion. It also provides aural variety, which is more important than you might think. However, you should do so briefly. As the interviewer, you must accept that the conversation is not about you nor is it an opportunity for you to “sound off” about things. Your job is to help the guest do that. You are the conductor, not the musician. Your job is to orchestrate much but speak little. Two relevant adjuncts to this:

1. When the guest can explain something instead of you, just let him do it.

2. When you’re asking a question and the guest has clearly got the idea and is bristling to begin his answer, stop speaking.

Maintain clarity

Be on the look-out for the guest saying something or casually mentioning something that the audience won’t understand. Either you or the guest should explain - whoever can do it more briefly.

Maintain focus

The goal is not merely to keep the guest talking (ie. any old verbiage will do), but to keep him answering specific questions or to keep him telling a particular narrative that the audience have tuned in for.

Depending on the guest, it can be necessary to get him back on-topic. Some guests entirely lack awareness of the need for focus and will go off in random directions constantly. You will need to interrupt.

It often happens if a guest has misunderstood a question, in which case you should interrupt immediately to clarify.

Sometimes, a guest will answer at too much length, going into boring detail. There are polite ways to hurry him up: “right, but how does this relate to…” or “perhaps we’re losing sight of…” or “yes, and that presumably explains how…”

In other cases, it happens simply as a result of the guest giving a long, round-about, comprehensive, meandering answer. Such answers can be enjoyable and useful, but they carry the danger of going off-topic or becoming aimless. If that happens, politely interrupt and say something like “well, that’s interesting, but perhaps for another conversation…” or “maybe we can get to that later, but for now I’d like to focus on…”

After the answer, interject

Ideally, the guest will stop talking once he has answered the question. But some guests don’t; they just shift to some related topic and begin sounding off about that. If the new topic is relevant to the interview, allow this. If the new topic is not relevant but clearly excites the guest, allow it, but intervene soon. If the new topic is neither relevant to the interview nor exciting to the guest, interrupt immediately.

I once had a guest who talked for ages, because he would answer a question but then immediately veer to some other topic, then to another, and another… and each time, I daren’t stop him because I didn’t want to rudely interrupt. At the end, he complained that I hadn’t asked enough questions, and that’s why he had just kept talking. But the reason I hadn’t asked more questions was that he just kept talking! An unfortunate failure of chemistry; had he ever paused, I would have asked a new question. I think he expected me to simply interrupt, and wouldn’t have been offended had I done so.

Basically, some guests need you to interrupt them. Just try to do it gently.

The story needs to be told!

This relates to narrative interviews. It is essential to stop the guest from jumping ahead in the narrative. He might not realise that the audience lack his knowledge of his subject and therefore will be confused if he jumps from A straight to Z. If he does this, you must interrupt. Politely say something like “yes, but before we get to that…” or “well, one thing at a time, though…” or “yes I’d like to get to that, but first we should lay the ground” etc. (A guest will be less angered by an interruption if you act a bit befuddled and harmless.)

I can remember two interviews where this happened. The guest kept jumping to the end summary of his story, instead of moving from Stage A to B, and from Stage E to F, etc. He didn’t understand that, if the story hadn’t been told, the summary wouldn’t pack a punch. It was infuriating for me as he repeatedly deflated his own story. I had no choice but to interrupt him each time and bring him back to whichever stage we were at.

I’m not sure what I could have done to prevent this, but it is something you might want to clarify with a guest beforehand. You might say something like: “Don’t rush to the conclusion. Follow my lead.” The private text chat is useful for conveying this during the interview.

The topic needs explaining!

This is similar to the above problem. I once did an interview where the guest didn’t seem to realise: his topic was interesting, his purpose was to talk about it, the audience were expecting to hear about it, and if we didn’t talk about it the interview would have to finish after just 5 minutes, 9 minutes, 17 minutes, etc. We had agreed beforehand that the interview would last about 60 minutes, but he didn’t seem to understand that this meant he had to talk about his topic for that length of time.

I simply didn’t know beforehand that he was going to be like this. Nowadays, if I suspect a guest is shy about their topic, I always say something like: “Don’t be afraid to go into detail. The audience want that.” The private text chat is useful for communicating such things.

Protect the momentum

Never interrupt the guest when he is reaching the culmination of an answer. I don’t think this needs explaining, but one does need to be reminded of it - including me, as I’ve inadvertently done it myself recently. It’s something to consider when you are thinking of interrupting: “will it do more harm than good?”

Another part of protecting momentum is not letting the guest drone on and on, inadvertently sapping the energy. You should aim to be saying something (reacting to what he has said) every few minutes.

Match the guest’s energy

If your guest is high-energy but you respond to him in a sleepy manner, not only is that insulting to him but it kills the energy. Don’t do that. Even if sleepiness is your natural setting, rise to the occasion for the sake of what could be a great, fast-paced, exciting interview.

Conversely, if you are naturally high-energy but you have a sleepy guest, don’t try to force him into a fast pace. In almost all cases, this will fail and you will have to awkwardly laugh it off, etc. Instead, take it easy, match his pace, and have a nice, leisurely, in-depth conversation.

You might say that it should happen the other way around, and the guest should match the interviewer’s energy. Good luck with that!

Clarify or summarise answers

This shouldn’t be done religiously as that could irritate everyone, but done in moderation it can be useful. For example, summarising what the guest just said can help you to come up with a follow-up question, or prompt him to expand on something.

Don’t be afraid to do this kind of thing during an interview. The audience are expecting to hear you as well, not just the guest talking non-stop. That would be mind-numbing. Your interventions shouldn’t dominate, but break up the interview into chunks; this refreshes the audience’s attention every so often.

Your input is needed - it just has to be brief and oriented around helping the guest to convey his ideas.

End when the job is done

End the interview once its purpose has been fulfilled. Don’t continue until you or the guest are worn out. Don’t continue until the maximum time is up. Keep it short and sweet, if you have the opportunity to do so. (This is a key difference between an interview and a chat with a mate.)

Control how it ends

Sometimes you reach a natural end point but the guest doesn’t realise it is a natural end point.

One time I had a guy on with an agreed topic and for an agreed maximum duration (90 minutes). We finished the topic at around 70 minutes, and as I was trying to wrap things up, he asked if there were any other topics I wanted to get into. That was annoying. He created an awkward situation, trying to elongate the interview when the audience had surely gauged that I wanted to end it.

Since then, I’ve learned to be very brisk about it. Don’t give the guest a chance to mess things up. Just pull it out of nowhere: “well, that was a good conversation. Thank you.” This makes it clear to him that the interview is now over. Then you can do the pleasantries of thanking him for appearing, etc. It might seem cold, but you are preventing embarrassment.

A more gentle way to do it is like this: “well, before we end, is there anything you’d like to say in closing?” That gives two hints (“end” and “closing”) - even the most autistic guest should get the idea.

Give yourself a break

Don’t be too perfectionist. Accept that you will make mistakes. There will be dud questions, jokes that don’t land, references that the guest doesn’t understand or vice versa, etc. And there will certainly be technical screw-ups.

This is part of the deal, and frankly part of the charm, of doing anything live. Let yourself enjoy it. Maintain discipline, but enjoy yourself. This is good for the interview. If you’re not enjoying it, odds are nobody else is either!