How to interview a podcast guest: preparation, questions and flow

A good podcast interview sounds like two people talking who happen to have a microphone in front of them. That ease is almost never an accident. It comes from preparation the listener never hears, and from a few habits during the recording that keep the guest relaxed and the conversation on track.

This guide goes through the whole interview in order: choosing and researching the guest, writing the questions, the first few minutes, the flow of the conversation and what you do once you stop recording.

Before you invite anyone: know why this guest

Start with your listener, not with the guest. Ask yourself what your audience will know or be able to do after this episode that they couldn't before. If you can answer that in one sentence, you have a reason for the interview. If you can't, a well-known name won't save it.

When you invite the guest, tell them that sentence. Something like "I'd love to talk about how you rebuilt your sales process after losing your biggest client" gives them a clear picture of the episode and something to think about in advance. A vague "come on the show and tell us about yourself" tends to produce a vague episode. If you're still shaping the show itself, our guide on how to start a podcast covers the format decisions that come first.

Research: an hour well spent

You don't need to read everything the guest has ever written. You need enough to ask questions they haven't answered a dozen times already. A reasonable routine:

• Listen to one or two other interviews they've given, and note the stories they always tell. You can skip those, or ask about the part they usually leave out.
• Read their website, their recent posts and anything they've published in the last few months. Recent work is where the fresh material is.
• Look for a turning point: a decision, a failure, a change of direction. That is usually where the best conversation is.
• Write down two or three specific facts you can mention early. It shows the guest you did the work, and they open up faster.

Writing the questions

Write more questions than you'll use, then put them in a rough order. You won't follow the list strictly, but having it frees you to listen instead of worrying about what to ask next.

Open questions get stories. Closed questions get "yes" or "no". Compare "Was it hard to leave your job?" with "What was the week you decided to leave like?" The second one gives the guest a scene to describe, and scenes are what listeners remember.

A few kinds of questions worth having on the list:

• A story question: "Take me back to the day you..."
• A how question: "Walk me through how you actually do that, step by step."
• A mistake question: "What did you get wrong at the start?"
• A disagreement question: "What do most people in your field believe that you don't?"
• A practical question: "If someone listening wants to try this tomorrow, where should they start?"

Avoid stacking two questions in one breath. The guest will answer the easier one, and you'll lose the other. Ask one, then wait.

Send the guest a short brief

A few days before, send the guest a short email with the topic, the rough areas you'll cover, how long the recording will take and how to join. Some hosts send the full list of questions. Many prefer to send only the themes, so the answers stay fresh. Either way, the guest should know what the episode is about and that nothing will catch them off guard.

Add the practical details too: a quiet room, headphones, a wired connection if they have one, and a browser that's up to date. If the recording is remote, our article on how to record a remote podcast covers the technical side, and webinar and podcast equipment helps if your guest asks what microphone to use.

The first ten minutes, before you record

Don't press record the moment the guest arrives. Spend a few minutes talking about anything else. Check that you can hear each other well, that their headphones are on and that notifications are off on both sides.

Then explain how it will go: roughly how long, that you can stop and redo a section, and that anything they regret saying can be cut. Guests who know they can take something back say more interesting things.

During the interview: listen more than you talk

The single most useful habit is to listen to the answer instead of thinking about your next question. The best follow-up questions come from something the guest just said: "You mentioned you almost quit in the second year. What stopped you?"

Some other habits that help:

• Leave a short silence after an answer. Guests often add the most honest part in the pause.
• Keep your own stories short. One sentence to show you relate, then hand it back.
• If an answer is abstract, ask for an example. "Can you give me a case where that happened?" turns theory into something a listener can picture.
• Keep the "mm-hm" sounds quiet, or nod instead. On a recording they pile up.
• Watch the time. If a good thread is running long, let it run and drop a later question instead.

When things go sideways

Every host meets these sooner or later. The guest gives very short answers. Ask for a story, not an opinion, and get more specific: "What happened next?" works better than "How did you feel about it?"

The guest talks for ten minutes without stopping. Wait for a breath, summarize what they said in one line, and steer: "So the key was the pricing change. Let's talk about how you tested it."

The guest says something wrong, or something they shouldn't. Ask about it calmly on the recording, or make a note and raise it after you stop. You can always cut it in editing.

The connection drops. Stay calm, wait for them to come back, and pick up from the last full question. A remote setup that records each speaker on their own device keeps the gap small.

Closing the interview

Save a good question for the end, one that sums up the conversation: "What's one thing you'd want listeners to take from this?" Then ask where people can find the guest, and thank them by name.

After you stop recording, stay on for a minute. Ask how it felt for them, and whether there's anything they'd like left out. Tell them roughly when the episode will be out and that you'll send them the link.

After the recording

Write down the best moments while they're still fresh, with rough timestamps. They'll help you edit, and they're the obvious candidates for short clips. When the episode is live, send the guest the link along with one or two ready-made clips. Guests share episodes far more readily when the work is done for them. For what happens next, see how to distribute a podcast.

Try it without committing

The Kolcast podcast studio lets you record with up to three guests, who join from a link on a computer or a phone with nothing to install, and check their camera and microphone before they come in. Each speaker is recorded on their own device, and you get a separate file for every one of them plus a mixed file. You can read more on the podcast studio page, or check the common questions.