Looking to fire up your podcast by warming up your guests and making them bring their best mental capacities on set? Podcast quick-fire questions are the way to go.

Although podcasts can be enjoyed while simultaneously performing other activities, mentally engaging tasks are exempted from the mix. Rapid-fire podcast questions bring a lot of energy into your show and are an efficient way to make the interview entertaining and refreshing for your guest at the same time. 

Introducing rapid-fire questions keeps your guest engaged and on their toes. Look through some of the questions we’ve collected to give you an idea of how they are constructed.

Help yourself to our prior articles if you’d like to hone your interviewing skills. Read up on Interviewing The Right Way.

Categories and Examples

Quick-fire questions are open-ended but not so much that your guest consumes a significant amount of time before they can pass the message across. They demand short-to-moderate lengthed responses and they serve better at the beginning of the podcast.

Question sessions of this nature give your audience the privilege of finding out a lot about the guest on the show in a short time.

Here are some sample questions:

• How do you generally spend your free time?
• What’s your hidden talent?
• What’s your most productive time of the day?
• If you could be any animal what would it be and why?
• Who is your inspiration and why?
• If a movie was made of your life what genre would it be and who would play you?
• What is the strangest thing you have ever done?
• What’s one thing you’re excited about that’s coming up this year?
• What’s something new happening in your life right now?
• Have you ever tried to do something you’re bad at? What was it?
• If you could win an Olympic medal for any sport, real or fake, what would it be?
• what’s your favorite book?
• How many books have you read so far this year?
• Do you see yourself as a risk-averse or an adventurer?
• What’s the fastest speed you’ve ever driven in a car?
• What’s the one piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
• What’s one thing you think you want to have?
• What new technology do you think will transform the future?
• Do you believe in love at first sight?
• If you could spend a day in someone else’s shoes, who will it be and why?
• If you could live anywhere in the world, where would that be?
• What’s the first career you dreamed of as a kid?
• What do you want to achieve with your life?

Quick-Fire Responses Tips

In some cases, quick-fire questions are arranged in a predetermined order and the guest is given a short time span for each response. Persons that don’t have experience with this ruse may find it difficult to catch up. Organizing a pre-interview prepares your guest and guarantees a smooth-running show during the real interview.

Don’t hesitate to stop your guest if they start rambling. Stretched-out answers defeat the purpose of a quick-fire question session. Help your guest to a halt whenever they carry on too long with their response.

Conclusion

We live in a fast world. Our dream automobiles are sports cars, fast food restaurants are booming and instant coffee sells more than ever. A quick observation of the streets at rush hour displays briskly walking people with suitcases as people hurry to get to their respective day jobs.

Capture busy listeners by interviewing their favorite guests with the rapid-fire questions on this article.

As a bonus tip, read The Ultimate Guide to Narrative Podcasting to learn how to conduct and post-produce your shows like a seasoned pro.