Talk to Me

How to Ask Better Questions, Get Better Answers, and Interview Anyone Like a Pro

By: Dean Nelson

Narrated by: Michael David Axtell

From respected journalist, professor, and founder of the Writer's Symposium by the Sea, a book that demystifies the art and science of interviewing, in the vein of On Writing Well or How to Read Literature Like a Professor.

“Dean Nelson is one of the best interviewers around.”—Anne Lamott

Interviewing is the single most important way journalists (and doctors, lawyers, social workers, teachers, human resources staff, and, really, all of us) get information. Yet to many, the perfect interview feels more like luck than skill—a rare confluence of rapport, topic, and timing. But the thing is, great interviews aren’t the result of serendipity and intuition, but rather the result of careful planning and good journalistic habits. And Dean Nelson is here to show you how to nail the perfect interview every time.

Drawing on forty-years of award-winning journalism and his experience as the founder and host of the Writer’s Symposium by the Sea, Nelson walks readers through each step of the journey from deciding whom to interview and structuring questions, to the nitty gritty of how to use a recording device and effective note-taking strategies, to the ethical dilemmas of interviewing people you love (and loathe). He also includes case studies of famous interviews to show readers how these principles play out in real time.

Chalk full of comprehensive, time-tested, gold-standard advice, Talk to Me is an indispensable guide to the subtle art of the interview guaranteed to afford readers with the skills and confidence they need the next time they say, “talk to me.”

Great book and awesome narration!

It exceeded my expectations and it’s definitely beyond how to do a good interview. It’s more like how to have meaningful conversations and how to connect with people. The narrator did an excellent job as well. He is so good that when I get my next Audible credits, I might get one of the books he narrates just so I can hear him perform again.

Listen to Me

This is informative as well as entertaining. It’s a good one! It’s is good for rookies as well as pros.

This book makes me wonder if I could have been a journalist

I envy Dean Nelson's students in San Diego. If his class is anything like this book, they must leave feeling empowered.

There are too many lessons to summarize here, but a few that will stay with me are:

The power of up front research and preparation to create a context for a human connection between the interviewer and the source,

The goal of getting to something really new in the interview vs covering what others have covered in the past.

The arc is an interview reserving the arc of a story.

Sensationalism vs legitimate tough questions.

Great practical tips for conducting interviews

Lots of gems and tidbits you wouldn’t think about without multiple years of experience. Performance was good. “Hey for heat’s sake or heat for light’s sake” was illuminating for me.

A must read

Although this book is primarily about the craft of interviewing people as a professional, the stories and techniques (the rules, the art and science of it all) are also applicable to everyday conversations. Worth a read (or listen!).