Terry Gross and the Art of Opening Up (2015)
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
- interviewers who ramble on when asking a question
- interviewers who rely on declarative sentences (i.e. they don't even ask a question)
- interviewers who rely on imperative sentences (e.g. "Talk about the time that such and such happened.")
- interviewers who say "Um..." often.
Terry Gross commits all of these interviewing mistakes, in my view. She's good at booking guests, but beyond that I'm unimpressive and am suspicious of the fawning over her.
That's just my "two cents" on the topic.
The article alludes to something similar, in the context of her interview pace.
>> [after work, she and her husband] go out for dinner [...], and then Gross will continue working at home, preparing for the next day’s interview in the living room. She clarifies her thoughts first thing in the morning in the shower. [...] It’s important to be away from her notes when she does this. She emerges from the shower with her ‘‘major destination points.’’ Then she goes to her office and refers back to her notes — sheafs of facts; dog-eared, marked-up books — for the details. Then she does the interview. And then she is inundated by the other daily tasks of running a radio show. The next day, she does it all again.
She pushes people on uncomfortable answers, but does it respectfully.
Trent Reznor is not the best person to use for interpersonal communicating. He's famously kind of a prick.
It's funny that many of the punk rock types don't like a guy who is as DIY as Nardwuar.
It didn't stop me from enjoying her interviews, and even the famously off the rails Gene Simmons interview had me on her side. I'm glad it's not extreme reactions all the time on her show. It's usually good storytelling.
I personally gained a huge amount of respect for radio host interviews when I went on the Kevin and Bean show to talk about Nine Inch Nails. It was a surprise invitation, I figured "why not" but worried a bit that I'd stammer through spouting some dumb fanboy nonsense. But those dudes were like wizards in a way I still struggle to describe. They set me up, very naturally, and somehow extracted good responses out of me. When I hung up, I didn't feel like a socially awkward idiot, but rather felt like I played a part in a performance.
Anyway, I still like Terry Gross, sorry to hear you think she's the worst interviewer you've ever heard.
- They like something you don't
- They like it because others do
- It's thus not worth considering more deeply why they like it
- People make educated guesses about the internal states-of-mind and emotional states of other people all the time. We do it with friends, lovers, marketplace counter-parties, poker adversaries, etc., and there's nothing inherently wrong about that.
- I have made an educated guess about the internal state-of-mind and emotional states of "Fresh Air" listeners, not about any particular individual but about the ensemble. I could be wrong, of course. That's the nature of guesses, even educated ones.
- Having already considered it with enough depth to satisfy myself, it's not worth it to me to consider it more deeply at this time. Of course, I'm willing to revisit this policy in light of new evidence.
Most interviewers seem to have a rigid playbook, and effectively treat their guests' responses as scripted theater. Ask the pre-written question, allow the guest to perform for the listener, then move on.
E.g. the patently boring "Tell me about your new movie" > (canned story) > (laugh together) > (next topic)
IMHO, one of Terry's best skills as an interviewer is listening and being actively curious.
To be fair and not negative exclusively, I think she's very good at knowing how long to let people talk (some of this might be editing), very good at creating a "human connection" with the subjects, and reasonably good at keeping things interesting.
I am pretty sure provoking small but significant revelations like that are what radio interviews are really good for. A talent for bringing those about, or simply allowing them to come about, is also why Howard Stern is regarded highly as an interviewer, I believe, although the two interviewers use very different techniques. Coincidentally, Gross's interview with Stern was pretty interesting. [1]
I used to enjoy Terry Gross and many other interviewers, but Tyler Cowen just blows past everyone by getting so much deeper so much faster than anyone else.
You can tell that the interviewers are often relieved to finally get asked real questions. Some people are put off by his style but I find it exhilarating.
Your comments about Terry Gross seem completely off-base, but I nevertheless think you're being a little hard on yourself.
> Barbara Walters was once our national interviewer, in a flashier style defined by a desire for spectacle.
Baba Wawa (can't ever not think of her as that, after Gilda Radner) was all "Look at me, look at me! Oh yeah, you're here, too."
However, Rick Beato beats Terry out, in the category of certain musicians at least. He's not afraid to just let them talk.
I find interviewers like that almost unwatchable. Sorry, I’m here to see the guest, not the interviewer. It’s unbelievably arrogant for an interviewer to behave like that.
The best interviewers say almost nothing at all, yet manage to get their guests to really open up and talk about many interesting things. It’s like some kind of superpower, the ability to say just a few, carefully chosen words and have the guest talking for hours.
To me a great interviewer is someone who can get to the heart of the issue at hand and elicit an interesting and enlightening answer to an important question as efficiently as possible, especially when it is a question person really doesn't want to answer. Sometimes it does take hours to get there and that is fine, but if you can get answers you are looking for in 15 minutes then there is not no need to waste anybodies time and just let your guest ramble about whatever is one their mind.
Almost all the other people we're talking about here are "entertainment." You can say "that's not an interview" but I don't think you get much traction with that argument. Perhaps "interrogation" is the term you want.