Most people hosting a firm's podcast have never interviewed anyone. Four habits cause almost all the damage, and each is easy to drop.
By Will Nash
9 November 2026
The person hosting your firm's podcast has probably never interviewed anybody. They are good at their job, they were willing, and now they are holding a list of questions and hoping for the best.
Interviewing is a skill, but the useful part of it is small. Four habits cause most of the damage, and dropping them will do more than any amount of preparation.
The four habits to drop
Asking two questions at once. The guest answers the second and forgets the first, or picks whichever is easier. One question, then stop talking.
Answering your own question. It usually comes out as a long preamble that contains the answer, and leaves the guest agreeing with you. If you know the answer, ask the guest to explain it rather than offering it first.
Moving on at the interesting moment. The guest says something unexpected and the host, conscious of the list, goes to the next item. That moment was the episode.
Reading the list. A prepared question asked in order sounds prepared, and it stops you hearing what was just said.
Prepare areas, not scripts
Three or four areas you want to get to is enough. Write them down, and let the order change.
Spend the preparation time working out what you genuinely do not understand about the subject. Those are your best questions, because curiosity is audible and so is its absence.
The follow-up is the job
Most of the value in an interview is in the second and third question about the same thing. The first answer is the one the guest has given before. The second is where they start thinking.
Four follow-ups that almost always work: why is that; can you give me an example; what did that actually cost you; what would have to be true for the opposite to work.
Leave a pause after an answer. People fill silence, and what they fill it with is usually more candid than what preceded it. Two seconds is enough and it feels much longer than it is.
When the guest gives short answers
Ask about a specific occasion rather than a general view. "How should firms handle this" gets an abstraction; "when did you last have to do this and what happened" gets a story.
Ask what they disagree with. People who are cautious in general terms are often precise about what they think is wrong.
When the guest will not stop
Interrupt gently and name it: that is interesting, can I stay on the previous point for a moment. It is far less rude than it feels, and every experienced interviewer does it.
If they have drifted well off the subject, let it run for twenty seconds and then bring them back. It is easier to cut a tangent in the edit than to recover a guest you made uncomfortable.
The end of the recording
Ask the question you have been slightly nervous about. By then you have established some trust, and if it lands badly you have a good recording already.
Then ask what you should have asked and did not. It is an unimpressive question that produces the best answer of the session more often than it has any right to.
Keep recording after you say you have finished. People relax and say the thing they meant to say, and you can ask permission to use it afterwards.
Where this does not help
If the host actively dislikes doing it, no technique will fix that, and it is audible from the first minute. The right answer is a different host rather than more practice.
If the guest has been told exactly what they may and may not say, you are not conducting an interview and no amount of skill will produce one. That is a problem to solve before the recording.
In short
Ask one question at a time, resist answering it yourself, and follow up rather than moving on. Prepare areas rather than a script, leave a pause, and ask for the specific occasion when you get an abstraction. Then finish with the question you have been putting off.
We are an AI-native podcast agency, and one of the things we take on is the interviewing, for firms where the person with the expertise would rather not also be the host. If your host is dreading the recordings, get in touch.
Related: Who Should Host Your Firm's Podcast?
