How to conduct a good podcast interview: preparation, questions and technique

What separates a good interview from one nobody finishes

Everything shows up in a podcast edit. After post-producing hundreds of interview episodes, at Bostak Films we can spot the exact minute a conversation catches fire and the minute it dies. And it almost never depends on the guest. It depends on the person asking.

Interviews people listen to until the end have three things in common. The host knows why they brought that person in, and does not just go through their biography. They really listen, so the best question in the episode comes from an earlier answer rather than from their list. And they let the guest think, without filling every pause.

The ones people abandon also look alike: questions the guest has already answered on twenty other shows, a host who talks as much as the guest, topic jumps with no thread and an ending that drags on.

Aladetres, a Spanish conversation podcast for which we have post-produced more than a hundred episodes, is a good example of the first kind: long interviews with economists, historians and thinkers where the conversation has room to go places nobody planned. That feeling of a free-flowing chat is not improvisation: it is preparation, well hidden.

This guide is about the technique of the person asking. If what you are after is how to prepare your guest, we cover that in how to prepare a podcast guest.

Before recording: research and a single guiding question

Preparation starts with a question you ask yourself: what do I want the listener to take away from this person that they cannot find anywhere else?

To answer it, do your research. Read what they have written, listen to two or three recent interviews and note what they always tell. Those are the stories you will avoid or come at from another angle. Look too for what nobody has asked them: a change of mind, a failure they mention in passing, a hobby that does not fit their public image.

With that, write a guiding question, the idea that gives the episode its point. For example: "how you decide when everyone tells you no" or "what twenty years in sports medicine have really taught them". You do not put it to the guest in those words, but it works as a compass when the conversation drifts.

Then prepare between eight and fifteen questions, no more. Order them in three blocks: an easy opening so the guest warms up, a middle where the interesting material lives, and a close that looks ahead. We go into more detail in how to write a podcast script.

Prepare your first line too. The guest's introduction should be short and specific: who they are and why they are worth listening to today. No reading out their whole CV.

What to ask: question types and examples for a podcast

The podcast questions that work best are open, specific and short. Open, because they cannot be answered with yes or no. Specific, because they lead to a story rather than a general opinion. And short, because a long question confuses the guest and bores the listener.

These are the types we use, with some examples.

Moment questions. "When did you realise this was serious?" or "Do you remember the day you decided to quit?". They lead to a scene, and scenes stick.

Contrast questions. "What do you believe today that seemed silly to you ten years ago?". They bring out changes of mind, which are among the most interesting things anyone can share.

Process questions. "Walk me through how you prepare for a tough negotiation". Useful in business, sports or craft podcasts.

Concrete advice questions. "If someone listening starts tomorrow, what is the first thing they should do?". The listener leaves with something practical.

Follow-ups. "Why?", "What was that like?", "Give me an example". They are the most important questions and the least prepared.

Fun or rapid-fire questions, a common search for podcasts among friends, work as a regular segment at the end of an episode. Use them to close, not to open: at the start, the guest is still nervous.

During recording: listen, follow up and stay quiet

The most useful interviewing technique fits in one sentence: the next question comes from the last answer, not from your list. The list is the safety net, but the gold is in what the guest says in passing. If they mention "that year was awful" and carry on, stop and ask what happened that year.

Listen more than you talk. If we see in the edit that the host takes up half the time, something is wrong. A good ratio in an interview is for the guest to speak three or four times as much as you.

Do not fear silence. When someone finishes an answer and you wait two more seconds, they often add the most honest thing in the whole conversation. Long silences are trimmed in the edit without anyone noticing. Things that are never said, on the other hand, cannot be recovered.

Do not interrupt to agree. Constant "right", "totally" and "yes, yes" muddy the audio and distract. Nod instead, especially on video.

And on video, look at your guest, not at your notes or a screen. If you need your notes, keep them on a tablet at knee height and check them while the other person is talking. The camera picks up every glance at the script, and the audience notices. It is worth reading how to speak to camera naturally.

How to open and how to close an interview

The opening decides whether people stay. On YouTube the first thirty seconds are where you lose the most viewers, so do not spend them on greetings. It works better to open with a strong moment from the interview itself, a few seconds long, and then a brief introduction of the guest. We do it this way in many of the intros we cut: a powerful moment, the show's opening and then the conversation.

For the first real minute of talk, choose an easy question that is not a cliché. "Thanks for coming, tell us who you are" is a cliché. "I hear you cycled here from the other side of town today" is easy and opens a real conversation.

The ending deserves as much care as the opening. When you feel the important things have been said, wrap up, even if you have not finished your list. Interviews that drag on to tick boxes lose listeners in the last quarter of an hour.

To finish, use a question that looks ahead ("what would you like to happen in the next five years?") or a rapid-fire round, then where to find the guest. Say thank you briefly and sincerely.

After recording, keep your notes: the strong moments you remember are the ones you will ask for as clips. In the edit we mark those moments to cut them as clips for social media.

What editing fixes and how we help

Editing does not turn a bad interview into a good one, but it does turn a good one into an episode people watch from start to finish. In the post-production of an interview podcast we remove repetitions and false starts, trim unnecessary silences, adjust the pace so nothing drags, match the sound of the two voices and choose the best shot at each moment.

What editing cannot fix is the questions that were never asked. That is why, when we work on a full podcast from the start, we hold a session with the host before the first episodes are recorded: we go through their questions, practise the introduction and, after the first episodes, show them in the edit where the conversation catches fire and where it fades. It is the fastest way to improve.

At Bostak Films we do full podcast production in our studio in Viladecans, next to Barcelona, and remote post-production for shows from all over Spain, Europe and, with our partner Dull Light, the United States. If you have an interview podcast or are about to start one, book a free diagnosis and we will tell you how we would work on it.

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