The Art of Dialogue vs. Journalistic Interviewing – Two Styles for Your Next Show
In my new teaching system, “Talk Show Tips: 72 Secret ‘Master Host’ Techniques,” I’ve included to audio lessons along with the ebooks, worksheets, check lists and form letters anyone can use who conducts interviews. Whether you’re a blogger, journalist, podcaster, radio or TV host, if you interview people and capture those conversations, you have many options as far as interviewing style.
Two discinct styles include the classic journalistic type, where one person asks questions of the other and records it. The second is having a “dialogue” where neither person has any agreed upon “advantage” and both come as equals to the conversation to open themselves to more possibilities and deeper understanding through discussion.
WIKIpedia link to DIALOGUE
One of the audio lessons in the Talk Show Tips system is an interview with visionary conversationalist, Duncan Campbell. He has a show called Living Dialogues: Thought Leaders in Transforming Ourselves and Our Global Community.
Here are some excerpts from the interview. Consider this art of dialog as you are conducting your next interview and see where it takes your work.
Excerpt from Talk Show Tips, “The Art of Dialogue” with Duncan Campbell.
Duncan explains how we was inspired to: host a conversation with various visionaries that were tuned into this sense of evolution of human consciousness, and to particularly get people to move off of their attachment to looking for a leader or a hero or a guru or a charismatic CEO that would tell them what the score was, what reality was all about and how to live their lives, because the core insight here was that we all already know that. We all already have that divinity, that insight within ourselves. The Buddhist’s call it “the seed of awake, the Buddhi Chita”. It’s is our birthright as human beings. So the question is how to evoke that in each other.
And a part of the way to do that is to un-Velcro our self from this adolescent stage of hero worship, or heroine worship, of finding a woman or a man to be a model that you can aspire to, and then getting stuck, like a record, in that groove. And I felt that that was what was happening in the media
I wanted instead for any of the guests on my show to be with me in a way that would allow them to give their unique gift to people. “Well wait a minute. This isn’t about one single way of doing things, one single way of seeing things, one single guru or teacher.” It’s about all of us together, midwifing this new larger mature consciousness. I could not conduct an interview in a normal adolescent cultural interview mode, where I ask questions to the authorities figure and the authority figure dispenses with them, because that reinforces our tendency in our adolescent culture at this point in history to look for the truth and wisdom outside our self. Somebody else is the expert and they’re going to tell us what we’re missing. It’s a kind of culture of lack that we see in our economic system and in our education system and so on, rather than one that draws people into their own empowerment. So in a nutshell, the instruction, as it were, was “You need to speak Duncan to each one of your guests as a peer, as an equal, and engage them in passionate conversations, so that the audience will be entrained, intrigued, involved as participants in a respectful and appreciative and exploration, exploring kind of dialogue, rather than just simply an exchange of information.
Most of the conventional media tends to be involved in what one of my guests, Deborah Tannen, called an argument culture. It’s a polarized “either/or” culture. You see it with the McLaughlin Reports, you see it with Fox News, you see it in many places where people say, “You say one thing”, and then they go to the other guest, “You say something else”, argue back and forth and somehow the truth is going to emerge, but in fact what happens is that there’s a lot of heat, very little light, and a kind of hardening of the positions on either side. That’s one way of doing it.
Another way of doing it is to flatter the guest. You see this in celebrity interviews where people are interviewed that have famous names, and the host, like Larry King or Barbara Walters, has specifically said that, “I want to be invisible. No one’s interested in what I, Larry King, has to say”, or “What I, Barbara Walters has to say”, they’re only interested in Prince Charles or whoever it is that they have on, and they’ve said that specifically. That’s really the old adolescent mode of doing the media, of being a mediator.
I think what we’re being called to as a culture is a much more co-creating a larger logos, a wisdom of the universe that’s within each of us, waiting to be progressively awakened more and more. And the word dia, one of its interpretations is flow, so the key is to awaken the dia, the flow of the logos, the innate evolutionary wisdom of the universe in ourselves, hence the word dialogue rather than interview, which is like looking at something from the outside, kind of peeking into some secret knowledge, as opposed to awakening the wisdom within. And, finally we say living dialogues, it happens in the now.
Living Dialogues: Thought-Leaders in Transforming Ourselves and Our Global Community with Duncan Campbell, Visionary Conversationalist, Living Dialogues.com
Living Dialogues®: Thought-Leaders in Transforming Ourselves and Our Global Community with Duncan Campbell, Visionary Conversationalist, Living Dialogues.com
This weekly program features pioneers in new paradigm thinking in a broad variety of fields. Duncan’s focus is to develop a new consciousness, a much better educated citizenry, and the financial and new clean energy independence that will be required for each of us to play a positive collaborative leadership role in our emerging global world. Each show provides a different facet of the vision emerging from the work of many to transform our individual lives — and our planet…It is a fire-keeping space where together, we can ignite each other’s unique creative spark to bring forth both our individual transformation and the evolution of our global community.
If you love exploring the realm of consciousness and transformational thought, this show goes beyond typical interview formats to a deeply analytical, sophisticated dialog of issues ranging from the bio-dynamics of longevity to past-life regression to the origins of belief structures that define our culture. These dialogs function as a kind of “Cliff Notes” for the consciousness revolution.
Duncan Campbell possesses the unique gift of tying world views, insights and philosophies together to deliver transformative revelations to the active and culturally creative listener, thereby evolving consciousness. With such guests as Andrew Weil, Deepak Chopra, Joan Borysenko, Judy Collins and many more, Duncan engages in mutually participatory and co-creative dialogue evoking a flow of meaning and understanding beyond what any of these individuals can present themselves. Subscribe to this podcast now and join us, as together with you, the active deep listener, we engage in ‘Living Dialogues.’
What are the benefits of subscribing to Living Dialogues? “One of the most important things we can do for our health is to cultivate a community of rich social connections. Living Dialogues with Duncan Campbell is one of the best ways I know to cultivate community without leaving your home. Risk taking; getting out of ruts and routines and habits; Experiencing new things, are also valuable. That’s what Living Dialogues is all about. Get healthier. Join in Living Dialogues with Duncan Campbell.” — Larry Dossey, M.D., Leading physician and visionary
