Interviewing Techniques

​You should now be at least a little familiar with the elements that make for good podcasts and storytelling. What’s next? Analyzing and practicing effective interviewing techniques, another ingredient central to many podcasts.
From the list of NYT 500 writing prompts,  choose a prompt you could pose as a podcast interview question. You are going to practice taking on the role of interviewer and interviewee, and will have one minute to conduct an interview. Interviews should take up the entire minute, so if there is extra time, interviewers should be ready to ask follow-up questions.

Watch this Radio Rookies video (above) about a particular type of interview — the vox pop, or on-the-street, interview. You should continue adding notes on interview techniques. After the video, do a quick share with the person next to you about what you noticed in the video.

Vox pops are just one kind of interview. Often interviews are prepared, meaning the interviewee has time to think about the questions in advance (as opposed to the vox pop) and the interview includes multiple questions and takes place in a more formal, or at least quiet, setting.
Now should listen to the three brief audio clips below and take notes on the same handout.

Invisibilia: Episode 1: Dark Thoughts (Segment: 0:00 - 2:40) 

The Daily: Fired Over an Instagram Post (Segment: 0:00 - 3:45) 

StoryCorps: Gregory Bess and April Gibson (Segment: 0:00 - 2:36)

​For “The Daily” episode, you might notice that the interview questions are sometimes edited out — so the listener just hears the interviewee’s responses. You might even guess what the missing questions were.

What interviewing techniques did you hear?
Which ones do you think are the most essential to good interviewing?
​Which techniques might be most helpful to you in making your podcasts?