There are plenty of more talented podcasters than him, but the appeal of his interviews is that he asks simple, non-leading questions, often stupid ones (e.g. “what is a compiler”), but encourages the guest to talk and give really full answers. And he catches details they say, and follows up with questions that go deeper into the specifics, rather than just returning to a script of pre-planned questions.
> follows up with questions that go deeper into the specifics, rather than just returning to a script of pre-planned questions.
Maybe I just saw the wrong interviews, but I got the exact opposite impression from those I've seen. He was literally reading off a script of questions and not following through on interesting things the interviewee says or asking them to develop ideas or explain themselves. Can you point to any particularly good episodes that I can use to give him another chance?
I liked his early programming-related ones the most: Chris Latner, Jeremy Howard, Bjarne Stroustrup, Jim Keller, Brian Kernighan. I actually haven’t listened the bulk of his interviews (nothing related to crypto, philosophy, history, physics). Maybe those are done better by other podcasts.
