Katie Couric recommends you adapt your interviews to your interviewee and the subject at hand. You don’t want to use the same flat tone for every single person you’re interviewing, but rather take a tone that would make the interviewee more comfortable, or if you’re trying to be critical, be a little more authoratative with your statements. Being prepared is also important for an itnerview, as if you know general information behind an interviewee, you can go a lot further with what to ask.

I relistened to a portion of Built on Sand by 99% Invisible. Roman Mars seems to have read the interviewee’s book, The World in a Grain, and he’s good at poking and prodding at different aspects of sand, why it’s important, and its significance on a global scale. The questions are generally pretty leading, but they allow for the interviewee to further explain their subject of expertise and dive deeper into whatever Mars points out. Some other aspects that are improving the interview are that Roman Mars seems to know what to poke and prod at to get more information out of the interviewee so they explain something that may be interesting a bit more, like with the sand mafia.