Interview Podcasts: How to Run a Great AI-Simulated Guest Episode

Simulated interviews can be as substantive as real ones — if you treat the guest as a real research subject.

The landscape

When it comes to the craft of scripted interviews that don't sound scripted, the details matter. Here's what the evidence and practitioner experience point to:

• An AI interview fails when the guest answers generically. Fix: define the guest's persona, expertise boundaries and actual point of view in the brief before generating.
• Give the guest stakes and opinions — a simulated expert who agrees with everything produces dead air. Prompt for specific disagreement, caveats and 'it depends' moments.

What actually works

When it comes to the craft of scripted interviews that don't sound scripted, the details matter. Here's what the evidence and practitioner experience point to:

• Structure real interviews the way producers do: pre-interview research, question spine (5–7 prepared questions), and permission to digress — encode that spine into the script prompt.
• Cast distinct voices: host and guest need different vocal registers, pacing and (ideally) accents — same-voice interviews are instantly detectable.

Putting it into practice

When it comes to the craft of scripted interviews that don't sound scripted, the details matter. Here's what the evidence and practitioner experience point to:

• Disclosure matters doubly here: label simulated guests clearly. 'A composite interview with a simulated expert' is honest; implied real guests are not.
• Use the format for questions you can't practically book — historical figures' viewpoints, synthesised expert consensus, or counterfactual experts built from published research.

Key takeaways

• An AI interview fails when the guest answers generically. Fix: define the guest's persona, expertise boundaries and actual point of view in the brief before generating.
• Cast distinct voices: host and guest need different vocal registers, pacing and (ideally) accents — same-voice interviews are instantly detectable.
• Use the format for questions you can't practically book — historical figures' viewpoints, synthesised expert consensus, or counterfactual experts built from published research.

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