Joe is an editorial leader and journalist with bylines at places like Village Voice, Huffington Post, Windy City Times, and Chicagoist on topics ranging from politics to public health and culture. As editorial director at Thrillist, Joe helped launch Thrillist Itineraries and relaunch the Next Flight Out newsletter, among other projects for the Thrillist global team. Joe also runs queering the burbs, a newsletter and zine that features personal essays and interviews exploring queerness in the western Chicago suburbs.

The following has been edited for clarity and length. Listen to/watch the full interview on the Interviewist YouTube channel.

Sarah: How are you involved with interviewing these days?

Joe Erbentraut: I love interviewing. I always have, even when it terrified me when I was starting out my career. But I love talking about it, talking about talking—I think I'm a yapper, just in my blood. Growing up, my dad worked in the agriculture industry, and he always would be visiting farmers. I'd be stuck in the truck cab, sitting there for hours as he was yapping away with these farmers. So interviewing has always been a part of my life and my career. 

At my most recent job at Thrillist, I would work with my team when they were preparing for interviews with bigger names. You know, Martha Stewart, Pete Buttigieg. I personally interviewed Phaedra Parks of Traitors fame.  

I've also been working on queering the burbs and doing a lot of interviews with local activists and artists in the queer community where I live. 

Do you still feel slightly terrified during interviews, like when you were starting your career?

It's still scary every time a little bit. But I think it's like anything else—If it wasn't at least a little bit scary, it would be boring, right?

But certainly, I've gotten a lot less nervous than I used to be. I remember I was interviewing at the beginning of my career, back in like, 2008, 2009, I was interviewing a lot of musicians who'd be coming through town for shows…I interviewed this artist named Rachael Yamagata. She was one of my first national touring musician artists I interviewed. 

I was on the phone, and I was nervous… [and] my roommate's cat kept jumping on my lap…At one point, I just had to say, “I'm so sorry. A cat is literally attacking right now.” And then we had a little side conversation about cats.

Sometimes leaning into the inherent awkwardness and just being real—not pretending that it's not strange…That was something I learned right away. We're all human, and they're probably a little nervous too.

How would you describe your interviewing style? 

I always do a lot of research, probably too much. I try to read as much as I can, especially if it's someone who's been interviewed a lot, to see what's already out there and what are the questions that they're constantly being asked.

I also look all over their social media, if they have a blog, if they have a Twitter, their Instagram. You know, sometimes journalists are creeps! We're digging through those Google results. We're trying just to find those juicy nuggets that maybe they haven't been asked about. 

I try to go in very prepared with a list of questions that I think will flow naturally. I start with easier ones, just to ease into it as you're getting to know the person and trying to get the vibe. If there's a question that I feel at all might be something they don't want to answer, or something slightly contentious, I'll usually leave that toward the end. 

I'm someone who does like going in with pretty detailed notes and a pretty detailed list of questions. That said, I try not to get too wed to that list where I'm just on to the next question every time. 

Queering the burbs feels like a pretty personal project. Does the personal nature of the project impact your approach to conducting interviews for it?

When you're asking folks to speak about something as personal as their journey through queerness, or their journey through self-discovery and past possibly traumatic experiences, or even present trauma—you're asking a lot of someone to put themselves out there. 

So I always feel that I need to bring that energy. It's not fair to say, “You have to go the mile, and I'm just going to sit on the sideline and not share anything personal about me.” 

So in the conversations I have for the the zine and for the newsletter, I'm often drawing parallels between what they're saying and if there's something I relate to, making it more of a shared conversation. 

Do you have any other techniques for interviewing around vulnerable topics that you use with queering the burbs?

It's about finding the right time and finding the right setting and circumstance. 

One interview I did a couple of years ago, I remember we both were crying through a lot of it… Some calamity was unfolding, and we were talking about what she had been up to, and what I'd been up to, and it was a very vulnerable conversation. I made sure it was a day when that was the main thing I was doing. We did it in her home because I knew that's where she'd feel most comfortable. We shared lunch.

It's crazy to think you would just hop on the phone with someone and instantly ask them about their deepest, darkest experiences in life. That's a tough nut to crack, though, and I think it does take some experience to get to get good at that.

What other advice do you have for younger writers and journalists around interviewing?

You'll make the first pancake, and you'll sweat through your T-shirt, and afterward, you'll hop off and go, “What was that? Why did I do that?” But you learn as you do it. 

It'll either be a great conversation, you'll get those great pull quotes, you'll get that great headline, you'll get the scoop, or maybe, maybe not so much. But you know, it can't happen every time. Even the great interviewers, you know, they don't always hit it out of the park. 

Who are your interviewing icons, muses, or role models?

One of my favorite interviewers in the game right now is Nardwuar. Nardwuar is a Canadian punk rock icon. He's been doing these musician and pop culture interviews for decades now. I'm not sure exactly how he does it, but he comes in so creepily prepared, like FBI-levels of information, where he really disarms his guests. 

Someone else who really inspires me with their interview style is the drag queen Delta Work. She was on RuPaul's Drag Race several years ago, but she now has a luxury public access talk show and podcast. She brings on the most interesting people, and her interviews are so fun to watch.

🎤 

Want more? Check out our full, uncut interview below.