Asking really great questions

Chances are good that if you're new to podcasting, you’ve never held an interview quite like this — an interpersonal, casual chat that could get a bit thought-provoking or downright controversial, depending on your podcast’s subject matter. The interview may be arranged by you, or it may be prearranged for you. There’s a science to it, and here are just a few tips to take to heart so you can hold a good, engaging interview:

• Know who you're talking to and what to talk about. When guests appear on your show, it is a good idea to know at the very least the subject matter on which you will be talking. Let’s say, for example, you are having an author appear on your show. If the author has written over a dozen books, be they fiction or nonfiction, trying to find the time to read all of your guest’s books would seem an impossibility. So do some homework. If the author guest has written a popular series, go online and research the series. Visit Wikipedia.org and see if the series has a summary there. If you can only find limited information, find websites relevant to the topic of the series. If the series is steampunk, dig up information about the Victorian era. If the series follows a snarky, sentient robot, look up Artificial Intelligence. This has two effects: (1) You sound like you have a clue what the writer is writing about and (2) it allows you to ask better questions. These same rules apply for nonfiction authors, and really for guests of any particular background.

  It's also a good idea to visit guests’ websites and social media platforms (provided they have ’em). You don't have to be an expert on their subject matter, but you should be familiar with it so you know in what direction to take the interview.

• Have your questions follow a logical progression. Say you’re interviewing a filmmaker who is working on a horror movie. A good progression for your interview would be something like this:

  • What made you want to shoot a horror movie?
  • What makes a really good horror film?
  • Who inspired you in this genre?
  • In your opinion, what is the scariest film ever made?

  You’ll notice these questions are all based around filmmaking, beginning and ending with a director’s choice. The progression of this interview starts specific on the current work and then broadens to a wider perspective. Most interviews should follow a progression like this, or they can start on a very broad viewpoint and slowly become more specific to the guest’s expertise.

• Ask open-ended questions. To understand open-ended questions, it’s simpler to explain closed-ended questions. Close-ended questions are the kind that give you one word answers — for example, “How long have you been studying plate tectonics?” Don’t be surprised if your interviewee comes back with “I started my studies in plate tectonics seven years ago.” And then … silence. Close-ended questions make the process harder than it needs to be. Instead, rephrase your question like “So what exactly got you interested in plate tectonics?”

• Prepare twice the number of questions that you think you'll need. Some interviews you hear grind to a halt for no other reason than the interviewer believed that the guest would talk his head off on the first question. You’re certainly in for a bumpy ride when you ask a guest, “Tell the listener a little bit about your experience at WidgetCo,” and the guest replies, “It was a lot of hard work, but rewarding.” (Yeah, this is going to get painful.) This is why you should always have far more questions than you need. If you plan that every question merits a 2-minute answer on average, and you have 20 minutes with the subject, have 15 to 20 questions ready to ask. It’s always good to have a few questions in your reserves.

  Have a pad and a pen on hand, ready to go. In the middle of your interview, an answer may inspire a brand-new question you would want to ask your guest. Jot it down so that you won’t forget it. Then ask this new question either as a follow-up or in place of another upcoming question.

• Never worry about asking a stupid question. When asking questions that may sound obvious or frequently asked, remember: Chances are good that your audience has never heard them answered before. Okay, maybe a writer has been asked time and again, “Where do your ideas come from?” or a steampunk, as seen in Figure 6-2, has heard, “So, how long did it take you to make this prop?” often. When you have a guest present for a podcast, there’s no such thing as a stupid question; what’s really dumb is not to ask a question that you think isn’t worth the guest’s time. He or she may be champing at the bit in hopes you will ask it.

Leave room for spontaneous questions. Listen to your guest’s answers and see if a new path has opened up. They may be tense while answering the same questions for the 50th time, but if you strike a chord and stumble on a piece they are passionate about, abandon the questions for a bit and follow the trail! It can lead to some extremely interesting conversations and stories.

Avoiding really bad questions

Before you start percolating and dream up a few questions based on the preceding tips, stop and think about the interviews you've listened to where things suddenly headed south. Usually the interviewer finds themselves with a guest they know nothing about and they are expected to interview them on the fly, or the host ambushes the guest with questions that dig into something that’s out of the guest’s scope or none of the interviewer’s business. We’ve piled up the typical gaffes in a prime example of a good interview gone bad.

Every podcaster should know how to turn a pleasant conversation sour (uh, this is a satire and not a recipe, okay?), and the following blunders should do it faster than an Uwe Boll movie is in and out of theatres:

• Ask inappropriate questions. Keep in mind your podcast is not 60 Minutes, HardTalk, or even Judge Judy. If you want to fire off hard-hitting-tell-all-mudslinging questions, think about who you’re talking to and whether the question is within the ability of the guest to answer honestly and openly. If not, an awkward moment may be the least of your worries. Inappropriate questions can also be those irrelevant, wacky, off-the-wall, and far-too-personal questions for your guests. “Who was the rudest person you have ever worked with on a set?” could put a stunt performer’s career into jeopardy if answered earnestly. “What’s the worst book you've ever read?” could drop a writer into hot water with their colleagues. Asking athletes “You are in fantastic shape. Do you sleep naked?” could easily derail an interview. Maybe these “wild card” questions work for shock jocks, but when you have an opportunity to interview people you respect in your field, do you really want to ask them something like, “Boxers, briefs, or none of the above?” Think about what you’re going to ask before you actually do.

• Continue to pursue answers to inappropriate questions. If a question has been deemed inappropriate by a guest, don't continue to ask it. Move on to the next question and continue forward into the interview. Podcasts are by no means an arena for browbeating guests into submission till they break down in tears and cough up the ugly, sordid details of their lives.

  And news flash: They’re not going to.

  Are there exceptions to this exception? We would say, yes, depending on the content of your podcast. Say after reading — and enjoying — Podcasting For Dummies, you decide to become the Zach Galifianakis of podcasting, complete with foliage for a backdrop. (And yes, we had that in the early years of podcasting with Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine’s Ask a Ninja, archived at https://www.youtube.com/askaninja.) Of course, if you’re after irreverent material for your show and push that envelope as far as you can, your guests may not want to play along — especially if they don’t get the joke. If that’s the case, expect your guests to get up and walk away. Even in the most idyllic situations, guests can (and do) reserve the right to do that.

• Turn the interview into the Me show. Please remember that the spotlight belongs to your guest. Tee recalls a podcast where — no kidding — the three-person crew invited a guest on their writing podcast to talk about their books and their methodology of writing … only to launch into a 15-minute discussion between themselves on a completely unrelated topic, leaving the guest on the other side of their mic. Silent. For 15 minutes.

  Yes, it is your podcast, but when a guest is introduced into the mix, you’re surrendering control of the show to him or her. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Let guests enjoy the spotlight; your audience will appreciate them for being there, which adds a new dimension to your feed. One way to avoid the “me factor” is to think of yourself as a liaison for the listener. Ask yourself, “As a listener, what questions would I ask or information would I be looking for from the guest?”

• Respect your guests. Period. It has happened to Tee, both as an interview subject and as an interviewer. He’s answered some questions that made him uncomfortable, and requested podcasters to please edit out the question and related awkward response. In most cases, the podcast respected his request. The others who did not bother to edit their podcasts? Well, he no longer fields queries from them. With that experience, Tee extends the same courtesy to his guests. Why? Interview subjects talk to their friends and you want them to speak positively of you and your podcast. Show them respect, and your guests will do the same.

Feelin’ the synergy

One final note on preparing for interviews: We’ve heard some guests say, “I’m doing these interviewers a favor by going on their show.” And we’ve been told by other show hosts, “We’re doing you a great favor with this chance to showcase your work on our show.”

Both of these opinions are very subjective.

The reality is that host and guest are working together to create a synergy. The interviewer has a chance to earn a wider audience and display mastery of journalistic techniques. The guest has a chance to get into the public eye, stay in the public eye, and talk about the next big thing he or she has coming in sight of said public eye. Working together, guest and host create a seamless promotional machine for one another. And if you are lucky, the interview subject might just take complete control of your show. That is what actor Lani Tupu did to Tee in a recording session captured in Figure 6-3. This reflected the trust as well as the fun the Farscape actor was having alongside Tee.

If you decide to take on the art of the interview, keep these facts in mind; you and your guests will have your best chance to work together to create something special.

If your format allows it, ask your guest for an ID that you can drop in from time to time. You’ve probably heard these before on radio stations “Hi, this is Rex Kramer, danger seeker. You may remember me from such films as Airplane and Kentucky Fried Movie, and you’re listening to The Shameless Self-promoting Podcast.” If the interview guests want to be more creative, let them. These are a great self-promotion tool, a whole lot of fun, and a way to remind your listener of previous accomplishments. Remember to ask politely, and be aware that not everyone will (or can) comply.

Recording using Skype

Recording using software or hardware — once again you’re faced with choices. Software solutions are typically less complex to set up and use and cost less; however, they can put more load on the computer’s CPU. If the CPU is too busy, it could impact the quality of the recording.

Recording a Skype call is really very simple.

1. Launch Skype on your device.

2. Call the person you would like to interview.

   This is a good time to enter contact information and place the call. Let your guest know you will begin to record now.

3. Click the menu in the lower right.

   The menu choice is three horizontal dots, often referred to as meatballs. This menu is available on both mobile and desktop; however, it may not show up on the desktop application until you move your cursor over the Skype window.

4. Choose Start Recording from the menu, as shown in Figure 6-4.

   The person on the other end sees a message that the call is being recorded.

   

5. Use the same menu to stop the recording.

   When you’re ready to end your recording, use the same menu in the lower right and choose Stop Recording. If you disconnect the call, the recording will automatically stop so remember to restart another recording if you get disconnected and call back!

6. Open the recording.

   The recording is available in your Skype chat window. This is normally displayed after you end the call, or you can find it at any time during the call using the chat icon.

7. Save the recording.

   The recording begins to play. This is a good way to verify everything went as planned. Use the meatball menu and choose Save As to save your file. The file is saved as an MP4, a standard video format. If you just want the audio, ensure that your editing software can handle importing. We recommend doing a simple test with a friend before your big important interview to make sure that you don’t end up with your masterpiece in a file you cannot use.

Skype call recording is available for Skype-to-Skype calls. If you want to record Skype-to-phone (landline or mobile) calls, it requires additional software that goes beyond the scope of this book. A quick search of “Skype recorders” should turn up several options.

Skype uses VoIP (Voiceover Internet Protocol) to do what it needs to do in order to help you host and hold audio and video conferences. If you have a good Internet connection and want an all-in-one solution, consider looking into Zencastr (http://zencastr.com/) as a possible solution for recording interviews. It will require that your interview subject on the other side of the website has audio hardware hooked up on their end, but the end result is audio so cleanly recorded, you would think both host and guest are in the same room together.

Recording using OBS

If Skype-to-Skype calling isn’t an option, then it’s time to bring in another player: OBS. We talk a bit about Open Broadcast Software (OBS, found at https://obsproject.com) in Chapter 17, but we briefly touch on it here, using it as a virtual mixer for recording an interview. If you are thinking “Wait, I’m working with a mixer?” we’ve got good news : We cover a few affordable options and offer more details on mixers in Chapter 2. We’re taking those principles and applying them with OBS.

The idea behind a mixer is to take multiple inputs and mix them to create a singular output. Input sources can be a microphone, a computer, a MP3 player, an electronic keyboard, or just about anything with an audio output you feed into the mixer. With OBS, your input sources will come from any hardware or software connected to the computer. For this exercise, we employ another communications app, Discord (https://www.discordapp.com), to host our interview subject, and use OBS to record our interview subject.

There are legal restrictions concerning the recording of calls, video or audio, and these restrictions vary from country to country, state to state, and region to region. Compliance with these laws falls on the content creators. Always ask for permission (or better yet, get it in writing) before recording.

Before going to Discord to bring in your guest(s), you’re going to want to get set up on OBS first:

1. Download OBS Studio from https://obsproject.com, install, and then launch the app.
2. Go to the Scenes window on the bottom-left of the UI and right-click on the default Scene displayed there.
3. Choose Rename and call this the Recording Booth scene.

4. Next to the Scenes window is a Sources window; click the + option to view the Source menu, as pictured in Figure 6-5.

   OBS transforms your computer into a fully working recording studio, complete with multiple incoming sources that create a scene. We are creating a scene for our recording session in Discord.

   

5. From the Source menu, choose the Audio Input Capture option.
6. In the Create New option, label it as Discord Capture and click the OK button.

7. Select the Default option and then click the OK button.

   As OBS is recording your audio, you do not need to set up any additional input sources as you have already done this in Discord. OBS records the default audio, the particular input sources are handled by Discord.

8. From the Source menu, choose the Image option.
9. In the Create New option, label this as Background and click the OK button.
10. Click the Browse button and select an image from your hard drive.

11. Click the Open button to drop in the image and then click the OK button to return to the OBS interface.

    Adding the background image is purely optional. We’re doing this as we’re exporting video from OBS once we are done.

12. Go to OBS ⇒ Preferences in the Application menu and choose the Output option.
13. From the window that appears, look at the Recording section and review the Recording Path featured.

14. Designate where your files are saved (see Figure 6-6).

    You can either click the Browse button and leave the location on default or designate a new save location.

    

15. For the Recording Format section, click on the drop-down menu and choose mp4 as your recording format.
16. Launch Discord and set up your interview meeting.
17. With OBS and Discord running, go to OBS and click the Start Recording button.
18. Return to Discord and begin your interview; when you are done, single-click the Stop Recording button.

19. Go to the folder you designated as your Recording Path and find your recording.

    Congratulations! You just recorded an interview using OBS.

Presently, the video file you have is your background image, and the interview is audio only. You can go into a video-editing program or a player as simple as QuickTime and export the audio from this video file. From here, you can take the audio and prep it for podcasting or whatever you want to do for your interviews. Again, in Chapter 17, we work with OBS more in depth; but if you want to know more about other capabilities of OBS beyond this exercise, take a look at Twitch For Dummies from our own Tee Morris.

And if you are wondering “This Discord thing is cool. Where can I find out more about it?” then take a look at Tee’s other title, Discord For Dummies.

If you’re doing an interview with multiple participants (known as conferencing), it’s often best to have the person with the highest power CPU host the meeting. Optimally, that is you. That person should initiate the call and invite the other attendees one at a time. The better the CPU, the better the conference will run, and the better your recording will sound. Also, the conference host may or may not be the same as the person recording the call. Remember, your goal during an interview is to minimize the chances for problems.

Recording using hardware

If recording using software has your head spinning, using hardware may simplify things. So instead of a virtual mixer like OBS, we’re using a physical mixer. The input source can be a microphone, a computer, a MP3 player, an electronic keyboard, or just about anything with an audio output to feed in to the mixer. As seen in Figure 6-7, your input as the interview host will come from the microphone while your subject’s audio will come from a computer running call-in software you are familiar with. The output needs a destination, such as a recording device like a Zoom H4n.

All right, we admit that while Figure 6-7 looks a bit challenging, it’s not that complex. Whether you have a basic four-channel mixer or something the size of a cruise ship, most mixers have the same basic layout and features. Plugging in a microphone to a single audio channel is pretty straightforward. Adding the stereo output of a destination device (a second computer, a digital recorder, and so on) is also pretty simple, provided you have the right connecting cables. The real fun begins when you need to get your output back to the call-in computer and the recording device. This is where you need to take advantage of your mixer’s aux send (sometimes called effects send) port. This is an output port that you will feed back to your call-in machine. So the question now becomes, how do you get your microphone input sent out the aux send?

Most mixers have the ability to create multiple mixes. The main mix is what you typically record, but often hidden mixers, called buses, let you create an alternative mix. How cool is that? You thought you were just buying one mixer, and you got yourself one (or more) for free! To make use of this additional output mix, locate the row of knobs on your mixer labeled Aux, often red in color. (If you have more than one row of Aux knobs on your mixer, each row corresponds to a separate aux send channel.) These are the volume controls for your aux send. If you turn up the volume on your microphone, whatever is connected to listen to the aux send output will hear it.

For example, if your call-in computer is connected to input channels 3 and 4, you want the red knobs on those channels turned all the way down so that input isn’t fed back to the output on the aux send channel. This is called mix minus 1 because you’re taking the entire mix minus one input (the call-in computer). For a short video tutorial, watch the video at https://bit.ly/mixminus.

Welcoming in-studio guests

When you have guests visit your facilities — and because you’re podcasting, this is probably your house — make them feel at home. Offer them something to drink. Offer to take them on a tour of your humble abode. Introduce them to your family. The point is to be polite. You don’t have to cook dinner for them, but offering a hint of hospitality, be it a glass of water (or a beer, if you’ve ever worked closely with the Binary Studio crew), is a nice touch.

If you’re having in-studio interviews, it's also a good idea to get your home and yourself ready to receive guests. Sure, Tee has recorded quite a few podcasts in his pajamas, but because he’s working with his wife or recording short stories for his podcast, he’s allowed. If fantasy and science fiction authors Elizabeth Bear and Scott Lynch ever come over to his house for an interview, don’t think he’d be greeting them in his Avenger jammies and Stone Brewery slippers.

Okay, maybe he would greet them wearing the Stone slippers, but he would be bathed and dressed and have his teeth brushed and hair combed. The key word here is guest. Treat them as such. Be cool, be pleasant, be nice. And if you’re a guest on someone else’s podcast, the same rules apply. Don’t prop your feet up on the furniture, don’t demand hospitality, and don’t be a jerk during the interview.

The in-studio visit is an audition for both guest and host. If the guest is abrasive, abusive, and just plain rude, chances are good that the guest will never be invited back, no matter how well the previous interview goes. If a host asks unapproved questions, continues to pry into personal matters that have nothing to do with the interview, or seems determined to take over the interview spotlight as if trying to impress the guest, said guest may never return, even if extended an invitation.

Meeting guests on their own turf

Be cool, be pleasant, be nice. These same rules apply when you take your podcast on the road. You may find yourself at a person’s home, place of business, or some other neutral place. You’re now practicing — for the lack of a better term — guerilla journalism, ambushing unsuspecting people with questions that may not strike you as hard and probing but could be to people who don’t expect them. Make certain to show respect to your guests, wherever you are when the interview takes place.

A good approach for getting good interviews is to ask permission of your guests, be they passers by or experts at their place of business, to interview them. Shoving a microphone in someone’s face and blurting out a question is hardly a great way to introduce yourself and your podcast to the world. If the guest you want to interview has a handler or liaison, it’s good protocol to follow the suggestions and advice of the guest’s staff.

If you start out with a warm, welcoming smile and explain what you’re doing and why, most people open up and are happy to talk.

When interviewing people on the street or in the moment, there are some easy ways to identify yourself. Michael Butler of The Rock and Roll Geek Show (http://www.americanheartbreak.com/rnrgeekwp/) uses a mic cube around his microphone, also called mic flags (shown in Figure 6-8). The classic cube usually has a logo identifying a network, a show, or an organization affiliated with the interviewer. You can find mic cubes online (unprinted) starting around $25. There’s also the simple greeting, “Hi, do I have your permission to record this for a podcast?”

Whatever your setup is, test your equipment before recording an interview. You’re now out of the controlled environment of your home studio; you have to deal with surrounding ambient noise and how well your interview is recording in the midst of uncontrolled background variables. Set up your equipment; power up your laptop, mixing board, and mics; and record a few words. Then play back your tests and set your levels accordingly. When you have your setup running, you’re ready to get your interviews.