[pygar]

What do you think of the signal to noise ratio of the JRE podcast? It seems like he does minimal prep and just wings it with the idea that his natural curiosity will make up for it.

yes, they are 2.5hrs+ long, but IMO at least half of it is chit-chat and irrelevant to the guests knowledge often about fitness/hunting/deer/monkeys. I prefer much more focused podcasts, where the interview has prepared a series of well targeted questions.

[amznbyebyebye]

The magic is that it’s like you’re listening to two friends have an interesting conversation and you’re the third person listening in.. particularly in this pandemic when so many suffered severe social isolation, this form of podcast is almost therapeutic.

[zarzavat]

I feel like he intentionally does no research. It would be so easy for him to pull up the Wikipedia page for his guests and read it before interviewing them.

I think that he believes that by not researching before the interview, he will be better able to represent and empathize with his viewers, who also won’t have done any research before watching. I’m not sure if this is good interviewing technique, but it certainly gives the interviews their characteristic disorganized feel.