APPRECIATION #56: INTERVIEWS

I like interviews. They are a combination of conversation, questions, answers, listening, and often monotasking. These are all great things. I love the variety of interviews, and I love the purposeful seriousness that even comic interviews take.

Let’s pause to consider the variety of things that fall under the category of INTERVIEW. There are oral history books like Studs Terkels Working, there are radio interviews, television news interviews, newspaper interviews, podcast interviews, YouTube video interviews, late night comedy show interviews, job interviews, self interviews, etc. etc. Some are formal. Some are not. Take a second and think of all the entertainment and informational sources that fall under the category of interview. I’m stopping myself from writing about specific interviews I’ve loved on the Daily Show, or the Late Show, or the Late Late Show, or the Nightly Show, or the Tonight Show, or on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, or from The Tim Ferriss Podcast, or RadioLab, or This American Life, or StoryCorps, or in newspaper columns, or feature articles in magazines, or etc.

Interviews are formal conversations. They are often scheduled, and both parties are usually agreeing to the exchange. A good conversation can have all the same benefits and joys of an interview, but often they are impromptu and often people are distracted and waiting to do something else. I love a great conversation, I guess an interview is one way for both parties to agree to try to have one. And often there’s a purpose.

I think my feelings are a little hurt at the moment from my daily experience around teenagers asking me questions and then leaving the room, or turning to talk to someone else, or not listening to the answer. This is a separate issue than my oppressive regime of inflicting information upon them. I am thinking of people coming up to me, or interrupting me, and asking a question and then…well, not behaving as if they were conducting an interview or starting a conversation.

Blah. Blah. I appreciate interviews.