I often also listen to New Books Network, but my hope that the discussion will focus on the most important and original part of a book sometimes takes a beating

I often also listen to New Books Network, but my hope that the discussion will focus on the most important and original part of a book sometimes takes a beating. The interviewer often starts with a "Tell us about yourself" inquiry and follows with, "Why did you decide to write this book?" The answer to that question is almost always too long and rarely gives any significant knowledge about the content of the work. Add another 5 or 10 minutes near the end of the interview for, "What are you working on now?" Then you have a couple of ads or promos from the podcast site, introductions, closes, so even if the interviewer has read the book and is a very skilled questioner and the writer is also a very skilled conversationalist, the salience ratio of an hour podcast rarely exceeds 50%. YMMV.