[curious_cat_163]

That makes me sad. I will miss his voice. I loved how he interrupted his guests and kept them honest and on point. I loved the casual offer for tea/coffee at the end. I would love how it had this encore bit at the end, sometimes!

This podcast chose its listeners and kept it real. Thanks to everyone who makes it possible. Hope they get a fitting replacement for Melvyn and keep it going!

[mongol]

Sometimes I have felt his interruptions to be kind of rude, and have almost sensed an air of irritation by the interrupted guest. But I am not a native English speaker so may have misinterpreted it.

[sandspar]

The best interviewers are OK with irritating their guests. An interview guest generally has some conversational line or script that they plan to use. A good host has to break them out of that script - otherwise every interview with that guest will sound the same.

For example, take Demis Hassabis' recent interview with Lex Friedman. Friedman wanted to talk about cellular automata; Hassabis wanted to talk about Gemini AI. Friedman asked questions about cellular automata, Hassabis signalled that he wanted to use his prepared script about AI, Friedman ignored Habbis' signals and continued to ask about cellular automata. The end result is that Lex Friedman listeners get to hear Demis Hassabis talk about cellular automata for 10 minutes - a unique side of Demis Hassabis' mind that you couldn't hear anywhere else. Friedman eventually relented and let Hassabis talk about AI.

(I'm not saying that Friedman is the best interviewer, but he's good. All good interviewers do this: Howard Stern, David Letterman, Charlie Rose, Dick Cavett, etc.)

Basically you have to squeeze your guest to get juice out of them.