How to Host a Podcast: What I Learned From My Own Interview Mistakes
Knowing how to host a podcast comes down to one skill. Controlling the conversation without taking it over. Here's what I learned from going back through my own interview.
I recently hosted a two hour conversation with an author who wrote a book about suffering. I went in with a full plan of questions. I barely looked at it.
Afterwards I went back through the transcript to see what worked and what didn't. Some of it I'm proud of. Some of it I'd do differently.
Hosting a podcast well sits between two traps. The first is the interview that sounds like a form being filled in. Question. Answer. Next question. Nobody wants to watch that.
The second trap is the opposite. The host gets so comfortable that it turns into two people chatting. The guest becomes half the show. Sometimes less.
The job is somewhere in the middle. It's a controlled conversation. It should feel loose. It shouldn't be loose.
How to host a podcast: what I learned from my own interview
1Talk less than you think you are
I counted the words in the transcript.
That means I did almost 40 percent of the talking. It felt like far less in the room.
The guest is the reason people pressed play. If I did it again I'd aim for a quarter of the words or less. Your job is to start the answer, not to give it.
2Ask one question at a time
My opening question ran for about a minute. I asked when it started, what made him dig in, whether he needed help, whether there was one moment. That's four questions wearing one coat.
When you stack questions the guest has to choose one. They usually pick the easiest. Ask the sharpest version and stop talking.
3Ask for a scene, not a summary
The part of that opening question that worked was the end.
"I know you burned out. I'm looking for the very specific moment."
A summary gives you a sentence. A scene gives you a story. Stories are what people stay for.
4Go first, but keep it short
At one point I told him about money. I hit a target, set a new one straight away and then asked myself who I was trying to prove it to.
That opened him up more than any question did. When the host is honest, the guest stops performing.
The trick is to share one story and hand it back. Not three.
5Plan the subjects, not the order
I had a full list of questions beside me. Almost everything on it came up. Just not in the order I planned.
He'd mention something before I got to it. That was my chance to bridge to it, right there, while it was alive.
If I'd stuck to the order, I'd have been jumping back and forward all conversation. He'd have repeated himself. So would I.
A plan is important. The order isn't. Let the conversation lead the direction, not the questions.
6Ask what the audience is thinking
You are the stand in for the person watching. So ask what they would ask. One of my better moments was simple.
"Everybody has their EarPods in, consuming how to make more money. Are we just adding noise to noise?"
That's not a clever question. It's what a viewer is already thinking.
7Push back, gently
He mentioned using AI. I asked whether needing AI to validate an idea goes against the intuition we'd just been talking about.
He agreed, then went further with a better answer. Agreement is boring to watch. A little tension makes people stay.
8Notice yourself out loud
I asked how the old him was different to the new him. Then I caught myself. Even that question was the trap. It was me trying to solve it again.
I said that out loud. It's one of the most honest moments in the recording. The audience sees themselves in it.
9Steer back to the subjects
This is the control part. A good tangent is fine. Ten tangents is a different show.
Every few minutes ask yourself one thing. Is this still about something the audience came for? If not, bring it back with a question that connects to the last good thing they said.
10End on something people can do
Near the end I asked this.
"What would you suggest somebody try first, without it turning into another self improvement project?"
He gave one small, practical thing. Practical endings are what people remember and share.
Questions to avoid, and what to ask instead
Some questions kill a conversation before it starts. They're vague, so the guest falls back on the answer they've given a hundred times.
| Avoid | Why it falls flat | Ask instead |
|---|---|---|
| Tell me about yourself | They recite their CV. Nobody remembers a CV. | What do clients come to you for that they can't get anywhere else? |
| What happened next? | They narrate. The story drifts and loses its point. | What did that decision cost you? |
| What do you do then? | You get a process. Steps, not feeling. | What do clients usually get wrong before they come to you? |
| My next question is... | It tells everyone you're reading from a list. The conversation stops and the interview starts. | You mentioned X a minute ago. What did you mean by that? |
| So how did you get started? | The rehearsed origin story. They've told it on every podcast. | What were you doing the week you decided to go out on your own? |
| What's your best advice? | Generic advice. It could come from anyone. | What's the advice everyone in your industry gives that you think is wrong? |
| Can you talk a bit about X? | No edge. You get a lecture. | Why do most businesses get X wrong? |
| Do you think...? | It invites a yes or a no. I did this a lot. | What happens when a client ignores that? |
| What are your top three tips? | A list. Lists make bad video. | If a business owner tried one thing this week, what should it be? |
| That's so interesting. | Filler. It fills the gap and stops them going deeper. | Say more about that last part. |
| Anything else you'd like to add? | The conversation ends on a shrug. | What would you tell a founder sitting where you were five years ago? |
The pattern is simple. Bad questions are broad and safe. Good ones ask about one moment, one cost or one feeling. They're harder to answer, and that's why the answer is worth hearing.
The honest question
Should you be the host at all?
Here's what nobody tells you about hosting. A host facilitates other people's expertise.
That's the job. You ask. They know. Every good episode makes the guest look brilliant.
So before you start a podcast, ask yourself what you actually want from it. If you want to interview interesting people, host. It's a great craft and everything above will help.
But most people who start a podcast have expertise of their own. They're a coach, a consultant, an author or a founder. They want the podcast to sell what they know.
If that's you, hosting works against you. You spend every episode drawing out someone else's knowledge. Your own barely gets a look in.
Maybe you should be the guest.
That's what Joe Hudson did. He sells himself as a coach. He couldn't do that by interviewing other experts. So he gets someone to interview him, and every conversation is about what he knows.
You can do the same. Be the guest on your own show. Bring the expertise. Let someone else host. One two hour conversation becomes at least four podcast episodes, a set of YouTube videos and weeks of Shorts, all about you.
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