Interview Tips For Podcasters and Livestreamers: Dos and Don’ts For Brilliant Broadcasts

With more than two decades in the media — as both interviewer and interviewee — Taz Thornton shares insider knowledge for hosting podcast and livestream guests.

I STILL remember conducting my first interviews as a junior reporter. I was just 16 years-old and cutting my journalistic teeth with a regional newspaper group in Leicestershire.

It was 1990. My desk was in the middle of a bustling newsroom and my kit consisted of an old-fashioned push-button phone, wired into the telecoms system, a notepad and an Amstrad word processor with a black screen and green typeface.

At first, I was tasked with re-writing press releases and accompanying a ‘grown up’ reporter to cover court proceedings but, as my confidence and writing skills grew, I started to feel that uneasy stretching sensation in my comfort zone (nope, not a euphemism)!

I needed to interview people.

Over the telephone.

In the open office!

HORRORS!

What if I messed it up?