Saturday, April 07, 2007

Listening Comprehension

If you tuned in to the NARN Volume One today, you heard a "best of" broadcast featuring interviews with noted Catholic intellectual Father Richard John Neuhaus and Dennis Avery, co-author of "Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years." Despite the difficulties I have in hearing my own voice on the radio and the hyper self-criticism that I usually indulge in (way too many "it seems" and "you knows"), I listened to both interviews in their entirety. Why?

In addition to learning that it's much easier to be a host than a caller, one of the unexpected things that I've come to realize while being part of a radio show is that you pick up far more from listening to an interview than conducting one yourself. It's not that you don't listen while doing the interview--good listening is critical to asking relevant follow-ups--but your mind is occupied with so many other things (how much time 'til the break? do we have any calls? where do we go next?) that you just can't listen with the same level of attention.

While I thoroughly enjoyed interviewing Father Neuhaus and Dennis Avery at the time, I wasn't fully able to appreciate the depth and substance of their responses until listening to the replays today.

No comments:

Post a Comment