6 ms·
Pet peeves: - interviewers who ramble on when asking a question - interviewers who rely on declarative sentences (i.e. they don't even ask a question) - inte
by dventimi 3y ago
Pet peeves:
- 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.
- mruniverse 3y agoThe reason people like her is that she gets them interested in the guest. Not many interviewers can do that. She'll interview some blues artist you've never heard of and the next thing you know you're looking them up on Youtube.
- NewsyHacker 3y agoPerhaps a difference in what people are looking for. I don't listen to interviews for content discovery -- there is already a glut of content. Rather, I expect interviews to tell me substantially more about a figure I am already familiar with.
- brandall10 3y agoI've never listened to Terry Gross... but taking your and parent's comment together, it sounds like she's someone who has researched the guest well and actively directs the interview in a particular direction - ie. tries to craft a compelling narrative.
- dwater 3y agoUnfortunately, no. That’s my pet peeve about Terry Gross, she often gets things wrong and the guest has to correct her. It often sounds like she didn’t prep for the interview at all.
- ethbr1 3y agoI'd heard at one point that she specifically cram-preps for interviews the night before, so it's all still fresh and interesting in her head. (Versus overly-researched and boring) 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.
- goda90 3y agoGetting the guest to correct and expound could be an intentional technique to make it so she isn't just reading off a biography to them while they just affirm each statement.
- brandall10 3y agoSeems like enough folks here are saying she’s terrible… makes me think her brand of drunken kung-fu might be more accidental than deliberate.
- dventimi 3y agoCould be. "Anything is possible," as they say. Personally, I'd apply Occam's Razor and say it's more likely it's not intentional and these are bona-fide mistakes on her part.
- dventimi 3y agoPersonally, I would credit the guests themselves for generating interest within the audience.
- sxg 3y agoAre there any interviewers that don’t violate these pet peeves?
- dupertrooper 3y ago[dead]
- aarghh 3y agoMichael Krasny of KQED ... I don't listen much to KQED since moving out of the Bay Area, but his questioning used to be both informed and succinct.
- city41 3y agoTerry Gross is the worst interviewer I've ever heard. She seems to make a lot of the people she interviews uncomfortable, and not in a good way. Trent Reznor in particular seemed especially annoyed.
- vibrio 3y agolol. Not intend to be snarky. I’m middle-of-the-road on Terry Gross, but the idea using Trent Reznor’s (or Gene Simmons’ being another example) temperament as a yardstick on interpersonal protocol made my morning.
- Loughla 3y agoTerry is one of the best interviewers in the states. She tries to be informed and view things from her guest's perspectives. 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.
- city41 3y agoYes, I know my opinion will be unpopular. Terry's popularity confounds me.
- Loughla 3y agoThat's interesting. Who would you consider a good interviewer?
- NewsyHacker 3y agoFor musicians, Rick Beato and Nardwuar the Human Serviette. Nardwuar’s preparatory research is always very deep, and musicians have repeatedly praised him for asking interesting questions outside the repetitive and superficial interviews they normally have to give when promoting a new album or tour. Since Beato made a career on YouTube where he doesn’t have to keep things as accessible to a general public as in legacy media, his interviews can get deeper into technical matters of music-making.
- dventimi 3y agoTypo: "I'm [unimpressed]"
- getlawgdon 3y agoYou're suspcious of the fawning over her? Don't keep me in the dark! What's really going on with how millions of listeners, her colleagues, and NPR have felt about her and her work for decades?
- dventimi 3y agoI suspect that Terry Gross, like NPR, is a brand that people wear to advertise "I'm smart." That's what's really going on with what her audience feels about her. That in turn explains what's really going on with what NPR and her colleagues there feel about her.
- ethbr1 3y agoRespectfully, people who disagree with you might have valid reasons for doing so. It's incurious to remove their agency by ascribing ulterior motives to them.
- dventimi 3y agoI haven't removed their agency. I've only exercised my own. You're free to do the same however you like.
- ethbr1 3y ago- They like something you don't - They like it because others do - It's thus not worth considering more deeply why they like it Did I map that unfairly?
- dventimi 3y agoNo, it isn't unfair. It's just not accurate. A more accurate portrait would be: - 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.
- adamlgerber 3y agoYou might love Conversations with Tyler, the podcast hosted by Tyler Cowen. https://conversationswithtyler.com/ https://conversationswithtyler.com/ 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.
- justin66 3y ago> I'm unimpressive Your comments about Terry Gross seem completely off-base, but I nevertheless think you're being a little hard on yourself.
- dventimi 3y agoThat's obviously a typo and one that I already addressed elsewhere. If you'd like to offer a serious response with actual substance, by all means go right ahead.