Had this rattling around my head for a few months. I listen to a tonne of podcasts, and a good portion of them are the interview format: regular host, new guest every week, forty or so minutes of chat one on one. You could probably say that Marc Maron is the grandfather of the form, but I'm interested to hear who you folks think takes the crown.
For me it's a toss up between Michael Ian Black and Adam Buxton. They're wildly different in style, but I think they both make an effort to really branch out with both topic and interviewee, rather than limit themselves to a specific field or industry.
Michael Ian Black is probably the most astute interviewer I've listened to in ages, constantly surprising the interview subjects with links between topics that the person he's talking to weren't aware of, and quite regularly manages to cut to the meat of a subject in a way that is both incisive and disarming. Some highlights are his interviews with Daniel Kanneman, Suzy Favor Hamilton, Tim Gunn, and Valarie Plame.
Adam Buxton, on the other hand, is incredibly conversational, but he does a really lovely thing of allowing the interview to just ramble in whatever direction, without forcing it into a rigid structure. It allows you to get a really human, personal view of his subjects, in a candid, often almost uncomfortably intimate context. Highlights include Charlie Brooker, Paul Thomas Anderson, Johnny Greenwood, a massive two part interview with Brian Eno, and a startling interview with Syrian refugee Hassan Akkad.
So who else you got, Era?
For me it's a toss up between Michael Ian Black and Adam Buxton. They're wildly different in style, but I think they both make an effort to really branch out with both topic and interviewee, rather than limit themselves to a specific field or industry.
Michael Ian Black is probably the most astute interviewer I've listened to in ages, constantly surprising the interview subjects with links between topics that the person he's talking to weren't aware of, and quite regularly manages to cut to the meat of a subject in a way that is both incisive and disarming. Some highlights are his interviews with Daniel Kanneman, Suzy Favor Hamilton, Tim Gunn, and Valarie Plame.
Adam Buxton, on the other hand, is incredibly conversational, but he does a really lovely thing of allowing the interview to just ramble in whatever direction, without forcing it into a rigid structure. It allows you to get a really human, personal view of his subjects, in a candid, often almost uncomfortably intimate context. Highlights include Charlie Brooker, Paul Thomas Anderson, Johnny Greenwood, a massive two part interview with Brian Eno, and a startling interview with Syrian refugee Hassan Akkad.
So who else you got, Era?
