Tables turn as adviser interviews editor in chief

While I learned a ton more about recording and editing audio while making my second podcast episode, the most valuable part of this experience was stepping into the reporter’s shoes with one of my students as my podcast guest.

As teachers and advisers it can be easy to forget how nerve-wracking—and how fun—interviewing can be.  I’ve realized from this experience how important it is to keep doing what I’m teaching and how great it can be for students to see teachers struggle.

For the second episode of my show, “Ethical Relics,” I was required to conduct an interview resulting in a 10 minute episode. Because I planned well and had a bit of luck, editing my recordings down to 10 minutes wasn’t as hard as I imagined it would be.

The hardest part was the interview itself, but I learned a lot in the process that I’m excited to pass along to my students.

The first lesson I learned, which I’m glad I realized before recording, is when conducting a podcast interview it’s essential to think about the order of your questions. Unlike when interviewing for an article, when it’s expected that the order of your source’s responses will be reorganized into a new order in your final piece, with audio you have one shot to get a pretty cohesive flow.

Sure, you can and will edit and cut pieces from the interview, but the final product needs to flow with the momentum the interview builds as it goes.

The next lesson is to let the guest know key details about the interview topics and even potential questions, especially ones that would benefit from some reflection, ahead of time.

While conducting an interview for a news article it’s completely fine for a source to stumble over their words, repeat themselves and pause for big spans of time, if that happens too much in a podcast interview, you’re setting yourself up for an editing nightmare. Of course, it’s equally important to ask spontaneous follow-up questions while recording the interview and to follow the unexpected paths that open up along the way.

My next lesson was to not jump into the interview the moment the guest arrives. Take some time to small talk and get comfortable. Practice using the mic and experiment with your seating and distances from the microphone. Let the guest know your goals for the interview and episode. Explain what to do if the guest stumbles over their words (pause for at least three seconds and start what they were saying again) and how you may signal to them to wrap up or slow down. I also found it useful to remind my guest that I won’t be responding to what she says with verbal affirmations, but I’d be doing a whole lot of head nodding.

All of that set-up ahead of time led to the interview going really smoothly. With my intro and conclusion the full recording came to about 16 minutes which were fairly easy to edit on Audacity by cutting a few questions and responses along with minimal stumbles and long pauses. Editing this podcast made me feel more comfortable with using Audacity, and I look forward to encouraging my students to try their hand at podcasting.

The best part of the experience, though, was being vulnerable in the position of a reporter with my own student in the expert role.  At first it was awkward and funny, but we fell into a groove quickly. I learned a lot from her and was incredibly impressed by her thoughtful and animated answers.

In many ways, even though I’ve worked closely with my guest, Catherine, for three years as her teacher and publication adviser, conducting this interview and succeeding together brought us closer.

The experience reminded me about the power of journalism: it brings people together as they share their stories and truly listen to each other.