Podcast Interview Questions: 60 to Ask Any Guest

Priya hosts a weekly show about small manufacturing businesses. Her guest this month is a founder who's been on five other podcasts since his book came out. Halfway through the recording, Priya realizes she's heard every answer before: the garage start, the near-bankruptcy, the advice to "just start." Her questions were the same ones the other five hosts asked, so she got the same episode.

(Priya is an illustration, not a real host. The problem is real.)

Good podcast interview questions aren't clever. They're specific, they ask about one moment at a time, and they give the guest a reason to say something they haven't said on another show. This guide gives you 60 podcast interview questions sorted by episode stage, with a note on what each one gets you: a clip, a chapter or a line for your show notes. You'll also get a five-question form to send guests before the recording, rewrites for six overused questions and a 45-minute run sheet.

Recording on your phone? Try ParrotNotes free and get a searchable transcript of every episode, so the best answer is one search away.

What makes a good podcast interview question

A good question asks for a moment, not a summary. "What was your biggest challenge?" invites a rehearsed paragraph. "What was the week you nearly closed the shop like?" invites a story with a Tuesday in it.

Four rules cover most of it:

• Open, not yes or no. Start with what, how, walk me through or tell me about.
• One question at a time. Two questions in one breath get you the easier half.
• Specific to this guest. Name their book chapter, their product, their old job.
• Useful to your listener. If a listener couldn't act on or feel the answer, cut the question.

The rest of interview craft, like using silence and the follow-up, is in our reporter's guide on how to conduct an interview. This page is the question bank.

Before the recording: 5 pre-interview questions to send your guest

Send these a week ahead in a short form or email. The answers tell you which of the 60 questions below to use and which to skip.

1. "What's one story you haven't told on a podcast yet?"
2. "Which question are you tired of answering?"
3. "What should our listeners be able to do after this episode?"
4. "Is there anything you'd rather we didn't discuss?"
5. "How do you say your name, your company's name and any product names?"

Question two is the most useful one on the list. If the guest is tired of the origin story, skip most of that section and spend the time on stories and turning points instead.

Add a line about recording consent too. Tell the guest the episode is recorded and how it will be published, and get their yes on tape at the start. Recording laws differ by state and country; the Reporters Committee keeps a state-by-state recording guide, and our guide to recording an interview on your phone covers how to ask.

60 podcast interview questions by episode stage

Each stage below has a job in the episode. The note after each question says what it tends to produce: a clip (a short, shareable moment), a chapter (a section with a clear topic) or a show-notes line (a takeaway or resource to list). Replace the brackets with this guest's details.

Warm-up questions (1 to 8)

Warm-up questions relax the guest and give listeners a reason to like them. Keep the answers short; you'll often trim most of this stage in the edit.

1. What did you do this morning before we started? (clip, if it's funny)
2. Where are you recording from, and what's in the room with you? (scene-setting)
3. What are you working on this week that has nothing to do with [topic]? (clip)
4. What's something about [their field] that you still find exciting? (sets the tone)
5. How would you explain your job to a 10-year-old? (clip)
6. What's a word people in your field use that outsiders get wrong? (show-notes line)
7. What did you almost become instead? (clip)
8. What were you doing a year ago today? (sets up the episode)

Origin story questions (9 to 16)

Every guest has an origin story, and most have told it already. Ask about the details around it, not the headline.

9. Where were you the day you decided to [start the company, write the book, change careers]? (chapter opener)
10. Who was the first person you told, and what did they say? (clip)
11. What did you get wrong in your first year? (chapter)
12. What did you have to stop doing to make room for this? (show-notes line)
13. Which early job taught you the most about what you do now? (chapter)
14. What did your first customer, reader or client say that surprised you? (clip)
15. When did it first feel real? (clip)
16. What would the version of you from five years ago not believe about today? (clip)

Expertise questions (17 to 26)

This is the core of the episode, and it's where your listeners get their value. Push for steps, numbers and examples.

17. Walk me through how you [do the thing they're known for], step by step. (chapter)
18. What do beginners get wrong about [topic]? (show-notes line)
19. What's the first thing you'd tell someone starting out this week? (clip)
20. What do you do that most people in your field don't? (chapter)
21. Which tool or habit would you keep if you could keep only one? (show-notes line)
22. What does a bad day at work look like for you? (chapter)
23. How do you decide what not to do? (clip)
24. What number do you check first every week, and why? (show-notes line)
25. What's a piece of common advice in your field that you disagree with? (clip)
26. What changed your mind about [topic]? (chapter)

Stories and turning points (27 to 36)

Stories are what listeners remember and share. Ask for one scene at a time, then follow up with "what happened next?"

27. Tell me about a time [their work] went badly wrong. (chapter)
28. What was the hardest phone call you've made for this work? (clip)
29. When did you nearly quit? (chapter)
30. Who helped you when they didn't have to? (clip)
31. What's a decision that looked wrong at the time and turned out right? (chapter)
32. What's one that looked right and turned out wrong? (chapter)
33. What did you learn from your worst [launch, project, season]? (show-notes line)
34. Which moment would you go back and redo? (clip)
35. What's a conversation that changed how you work? (chapter)
36. What's the story you tell your friends but never tell on stage? (clip)

Challenge questions (37 to 44)

Challenge questions keep the episode honest. Ask them politely, after the guest trusts you, and give them room to answer properly.

37. Critics say [a fair criticism]. What do they get right? (chapter)
38. What's the strongest argument against your approach? (clip)
39. Where do you think you're still wrong? (clip)
40. What would make you change your mind about [their main idea]? (chapter)
41. Who in your field do you disagree with most, and on what? (clip)
42. What's a trade-off in your work that you don't talk about much? (chapter)
43. What would you do differently with twice the budget, or half? (show-notes line)
44. What's a question you hoped I wouldn't ask? (clip)

Questions for your listeners (45 to 52)

These questions turn the guest's experience into something your listener can use tomorrow. They make the best show-notes lines.

45. What's one thing a listener could try this week? (show-notes line)
46. What should someone read, watch or listen to next? (show-notes line)
47. What does a good first month in [their field] look like? (chapter)
48. What mistake would you save a listener from? (clip)
49. How would someone with no budget start? (show-notes line)
50. What question should listeners ask before they hire someone like you? (show-notes line)
51. What's the smallest habit that made the biggest difference for you? (clip)
52. If a listener remembers one thing from this episode, what should it be? (episode summary)

Closing and signature questions (53 to 60)

Pick one or two of these as your show's signature questions and ask every guest. Over a season, the answers become a series of their own.

53. What are you curious about right now? (clip)
54. What's something you believe that most people don't? (clip)
55. Who should I have on this show next, and why? (next episode)
56. What would you like to be known for in 10 years? (clip)
57. What's the best advice you've ignored? (clip)
58. What did I not ask that I should have? (bonus chapter)
59. What's next for you in the coming year? (show-notes line)
60. Where can listeners find you and your work? (show-notes links)

Swap podcast interview questions by guest type

The 60 questions work for any guest, but the wording should fit the person. Here's how three of the questions change for four common guest types.

For business guests, swap the brackets for their product and customers. For creative guests, ask about one specific piece of work rather than "your process."

Six overused podcast interview questions and what to ask instead

Guests on a book or launch tour hear the same questions on every show. Rewriting them is the fastest way to get an answer nobody else has.

Here's how that plays out. Imagine Marcus, who runs a 30-minute show for independent bakers. For a year he opened every episode with "tell us about yourself," and his editor cut the first six minutes almost every time. He switched to "what were you doing a year ago today?" (question 8). The first guest he tried it on talked about a flooded kitchen, and that story became the episode's trailer clip.

Want every answer searchable after you stop recording? Download ParrotNotes free and get a transcript and an AI summary of each recording.

A 45-minute run sheet

You won't ask 60 questions in one episode. For a 45-minute interview, plan 12 to 15 questions, and expect follow-ups to fill the rest. The stages map to chapters, which you can reuse in your show notes.

If you want the whole episode outlined, with timings worked out from your speaking pace, the free podcast script template builds one in your browser.

After you stop recording: turn answers into chapters and clips

The questions are half the job. The other half is finding the good answers later, in a recording that might run an hour.

Take Dana, who hosts a show about local politics (another illustration). She records her guest on her phone with ParrotNotes, and when the interview ends she has a transcript and an AI summary. She searches the transcript for "nearly quit," jumps to question 29 and finds the two-minute answer that becomes the episode's clip. The timestamps of her stage changes become the chapters in her podcast show notes.

Before she quotes the guest anywhere, she checks the line against the audio, the way our guide to quoting an interview describes. When she publishes, she cleans up the transcript with the steps in our podcast transcription guide and posts it on the episode page.

Video is part of this too. Edison Research's Infinite Dial 2026 found that 80% of Americans aged 12 and over have listened to or watched a podcast, and 57% have done both, as Tubefilter reported. A clip that starts with a strong question works in either format.

Ask better, then keep every answer

The best podcast interview questions are the ones only your show would ask. To recap:

• Send the five pre-interview questions a week ahead, and skip whatever the guest is tired of.
• Pick 12 to 15 questions from the 60, following the episode stages.
• Swap the wording for the guest type, and retire the six overused questions.
• Get consent on tape, then use the run sheet to keep time.
• Search the transcript afterwards for the clip, the chapters and the show-notes lines.

Priya's next guest was the same kind of founder, on the same kind of book tour. This time she opened with "Who was the first person you told?" and he stopped, laughed and told a story none of the other shows had.

Try ParrotNotes free and put your podcast interview questions to work on your next recording. The free plan includes 100 minutes of recording a month (up to 30 minutes per recording) and an AI summary on every recording; Pro records up to 3 hours at a time, enough for a full episode.