Interviewing for Emotion
If you listen to podcasts, you may have a sense for an interview that feels intimate, close and powerful versus an interview that feels factual or straightforward.
Both styles of interviews have a place in the scope of interview styles.
If we are talking about drawing listeners in, creating closeness, and creating space to change people’s hearts and minds, we resonate and respond at an emotional level so interviews that share emotion are more influential.
This doesn’t mean the aim is to manipulate people through emotions. Rather, emotions humanize both the speaker in the ears of the listener and the listener themselves as they soften into the story being shared.
Why This is Important to You
In a way, as artists, entrepreneurs and social change organizations we’ve all become interviewers.
These skills are useful even if you are not creating your own podcast, interviewing for a blog or creating social media.
Creating emotional connections is about being open to hear others, their ideas, experiences and ways of understanding the world.
As our work continues to expand through Zoom and other online platforms this skillset will continue to increase in relevance.
Here are some ways to create space to be open and listen to others.
Two Tips for Interviewing for Emotion
Later this month I will be giving a workshop for five artists in Berlin who will be conducting interviews with people they meet in the neighborhood of Schöneberg, Berlin. This is part of a public participation art project.
I love interviewing. It is my favorite part of what I do. But I didn’t start out loving interviewing. In fact, I started out interviewing badly.
Tip #1. Be Open
My biggest mistake was having expectations.
When I started in my documentary film career I came out of years of school and years of work.
In school there was usually one answer the teacher expected you to share.
In work also, we were driving to a singular result.
In interviews, we want to opposite.
The best interviews result in us learning something new and unexpected.
They are a conversation, not a script.
And the best interviews result in the interviewee feeling comfortable and sharing what is true to them, be that a series of events that happened, a lesson they learned, a realization they experienced or some small personal anecdote.
PRACTICE: Be curious, follow a thread and go deeper.
Usually the gold is not at the surface of the interview, especially if you are interviewing someone who is not trained to be interviewed.
To get to the gold you have to stay with a subject, be curious and ask more questions.
Some useful ways to go deeper.
Follow the chronology: What did you do next?
Get to the feeling: How did that make you feel?
Tip #2: Create Open Ended Questions
Before each interview I try to have three main areas I want to cover.
For this season of my podcast, This Beautiful Shot is Not an Accident I’ve been interviewing artists about their first solo show.
The container of the interview is their artistic work and specifically their first solo show.
For each interview I then have three areas I want to cover.
What are you doing now?
What was your first solo show and how did you get there?
What are you doing next?
Within each of the areas I ask questions to go deeper depending on their response. I may research their work but I generally do not come with a set of questions beyond the three areas that I have pre-planned to cover.
As I’m going more in depth I do look for contrast. What worked? What didn’t work? How did that happen? Was it expected? What was unexpected?
For the example of speaking to the public, the container might be, we are talking about housing or friendships or neighborhoods or play. The container is the larger topic.
The areas of inquiry might include:
How do you define the topic?
What is your experience? (no judgement of good/bad)
What is your fantasy about how it could be different?
PRACTICE: A good set of questions -
have a container
are open ended
evoke contrast
are thought provoking for the interviewee
Final Notes
Getting to emotional content in an interview doesn’t have to involve a confrontational interview style.
Instead, giving your interviewee space to reflect by sharing a set of open ended questions, going deeper to understand more and listening with the intent to hear what they have to say with curiosity, these ingredients will help you develop rapport and emotional resonance.