Picture this: You’ve landed an interview with an interesting, controversial, or knowledgeable subject. This is a great opportunity for any aspiring content creator, whether you’re a writer, podcaster, YouTuber, streamer, or blogger. However, interviewing is also a difficult task that, when done poorly, not only risks upsetting the subject and ruining both the content and your relationship with the subject, but also risks hurting your audience’s respect for you as a creator and a person. Luckily, I spent enough time in my college’s journalism course, before they axed it in favor of more STEM programs, and working in the field on papers and magazines, to teach you the basics of interviewing.

The first step to any great interview is thinking about your interview subject and planning. Even if you believe you know the person well, whether they’re a personal relationship or a public figure, do any research you can on them, and become an expert on that person for that day. In this post, I’ll use the hypothetical example of my dream interview, Edward Snowden. If Snowden agreed to an interview with me, despite his name and history being public knowledge and world-famous, I should do dedicated research online on exactly what he did, what he’s done since then, why he did it, where he worked, what the risks of his actions were, and so on.

Now that you’ve done your research, it’s time for the second most important aspect of any interview: the questions! I am not against improvised and off-the-cuff questions. If your subject makes an offhand comment, a joke, or refers to a relatively obscure subject, asking and pressing them on those topics, for example, is a good idea, even if you didn’t write down this hypothetical question in your notes beforehand. However, I recommend all good interviewers write down as many questions as they feel they want to ask the subject beforehand. Having a baseline list of topics and questions you want to ask, regardless of how the conversation flows naturally, has several benefits. It allows you to have a “script” to fall back on, giving you the confidence to speak clearly and actively, leaving very little room for thinking about how to respond or what to ask, cutting the dreaded “um” and “like” out of your vocabulary. It also gives you an excuse to push the conversation forward, if a subject lingers too long on a single area, saying “my next question…” can help push the conversation in a radically different direction without killing the energy of the conversation.

My final piece of advice is about conduct within an interview, what to do when the camera is rolling, the microphones are on, or the subject is sitting across from you. One of the biggest mistakes I see interviewers making is letting their egos outshine the personality of the subject, defeating the purpose of the interview. Your subject is not only your guest but the most interesting part of the content you’re producing today. Let your subject talk and try not to lead them to answers you want them to say – audiences and subjects alike hate this in an interview. However, if your subject’s answers begin to lag on too long, hurting the pacing of the video, make little to no sense, or are dangerously offensive to your production’s well-being, politely interrupting the subject and nudging them towards your next question is not a bad idea.

Lastly, be a gracious and courteous host. Even if your guest is here to debate with you or you’re interviewing them for something you find repugnant, like interviewing an ex-con about their crimes or a politician about scandals, a good journalist will still treat them with dignity, welcome them to the show/production, and thank them for their time. Interviews are unpaid, time-consuming, and potentially emotional, volatile, or difficult – no matter who the subject is, you should thank them for giving you their time and their thoughts. Additionally, pay attention to your subject’s feelings. If you appear visibly bored during their answers, they will be more reluctant to give answers, hurting your content. If they appear disinterested in a topic, forcing it may be a bad idea, as their answers could be dismissive, short, or uninformative. Lastly, if your subject is uncomfortable or upset in response to questions and conversations, you must tread carefully. I won’t blanketly say not to make subjects uncomfortable at all, as this is required for certain interviews, such as scandal accusations or talking with survivors, but you must think about how to proceed. A subject could become an incoherent crying mess, ruining the content, and putting a big jerk label above you to your audience, they could become offended and stop being compliant, or worse, become outright aggressive to you. In short, use your brain and only make people as uncomfortable as you think is acceptable.

With these tips and tricks, each of you will hopefully surpass me and my little blog as superstars on podcasts with politicians or interviews with Marvel stars. If you learned anything today or enjoyed what you read, please share this with your friends so we can all be a little bit smarter and nerdier together!