I’m Guy Raz, Author and Podcaster, and This Is How I Work

If you’ve listened to National Public Radio all the years, chances are you heard Guy Raz’s voice. He was previously the host of All Considered , but nearly a decade ago he took the podcast leap, hosting shows such as TED Radio Hour , How I Built It , the children’s series Wow in the World, and Wisdom on top ” on Luminary.

Most recently, he released a book called How I Built It: Surprising Paths To Success From The World’s Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs , in which he summarizes the many lessons he has learned over the years of hosting the title podcast, exploring a wide range of ideas. who helped build some of the most successful businesses in the world. I spoke with Raz about how he built his career and how he manages to juggle so many projects.

Tell us a little about your past and how did you get to the place where you are today?

I started out as a student journalist in college and ended up at NPR by accident in the 90s. I really wanted to be a newspaper reporter, but at that time I could not find work in the newspapers because it was very difficult to find them. These are the most competitive jobs in the United States. As a result, in the 90s I did an internship at NPR.

I intended to become a newspaper reporter, but I became a radio reporter. I really started my career there: I started doing everything from production assistant to assistant Daniel Schorr, who was a wise old man at NPR as a news analyst at the time. Eventually I started writing freelance articles for newspapers in the DC area like Washington City Paper and then The Washington Post, and at the same time became an NPR reporter.

[I then] went abroad for about six and a half years, covering the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. I have lived in Berlin, London and Jerusalem. It was a completely different world than the one in which I live now, spending most of my time in conflict zones.

When I was abroad, I left NPR and went to CNN, where I was a TV journalist. I went back, joined NPR as a reporter, and then eventually became the host of All Count .

And then in 2012 I left the news world and focused on this new space – podcasting. I collaborated with TED to create a show called The TED Radio Hour, which was very different from what I was doing because it is about ideas, science and human behavior. It really changed my life and brought me into the world of podcasting. So I quit broadcasting the news in 2012, and that’s how I got into the world I live in now.

Tell us about a recent work day. How do you work and how has your daily routine changed since the pandemic?

I wake up around 5:30 in the morning and drink water. And then we have a team meeting at 6:15. I am in the Pacific time zone and most of my team is in the Eastern time zone, so it is now 9:15 am for them. We have a 15 minute Zoom chat and when it ends I try to train every day from about 6:45 am to 7:45 am. Then I shower and shave, and often at 8:45 am I have to be in front of me. laptop in my studio for a live interview I do for How I Built This . We do this twice a week – every Tuesday and Friday at 9am we have about 45 minutes of live interview with the other founder.

On the days when I’m not doing it, I’m usually still in the studio, by 8:45 am I can interview someone for How I Built This – those interviews can last two, three hours. I may have a Wow in the World recording session that starts around this time and lasts about an hour. I might have to write an introduction for the How I Built This series, I might have an interview for another podcast I’m doing called Wisdom Above .

So, each day starts in a different way, once I have completed the routine of meeting and training on my team – the day changes every day. But in essence, this is a series of interviews and conversations that I have from my studio (which is now in the garage behind my house), where I am doing all the interviews right now because of COVID.

In a way, my daily routine has become much more predictable, because at normal times I am on the road three or four times a week. I fly airplanes for live performances, interviews, or other work that I do. Now, given that I am not traveling for obvious reasons, we are not doing any live performances. We do everything virtually and remotely. I spend most of the day in my studio with a lunch break – when I have those breaks. But usually my day is packed; every half hour is full. It’s either an interview I’m going to do, a recording session for one of my shows, a recording block when I need to write, or a pre-interview call with every guest I invite to How I Built. This is .

And then my partners call my kids’ production company Tinkercast, the company that makes Wow around the world . Sometimes I get calls from other people who have worked with us on projects, be it a book or our television projects.

I also try to find a place to call people looking for mentorship. I can’t do as much as I would like, because I just don’t have the time. But I’m trying to make room for that, and obviously giving priority to the people at NPR – trainees and others. I am not an NPR employee, but I am very involved with NPR because I have worked with NPR for over 20 years and because it is such a part of my life.

I am cooking dinner; I cook everything in the house. My wife does the dishes. I try to cook for our two boys on weekends so they can eat during the week. And then I often go back to the studio to do things like reply to emails. I have multiple email accounts and I am waiting to get it done before the end of the day. This alone is a full-time job.

I will say that during COVID I was much more efficient because I had to be, and even though it was difficult and difficult, I was actually more productive because I was at home and I was not. ” I was on the road.

How do you track your workflow? Do you have any tools or systems to keep you on track?

These are mainly people who are responsible for me. I have several deadlines and several partners that I work with. I have a wonderful assistant who is always on time and reminds me very well when I need to meet these deadlines. And my Outlook calendar is my bible. Why Outlook and not Google Calendar? Because the NPR team uses Outlook and they need constant access to my calendar. This is why I am using Outlook. It’s not … great , but that’s what I use. I look at this calendar every day. It changes all the time; in the middle of this conversation, the calendar entry changed. This is really what also makes me responsible: just follow this calendar and make sure that I mark everything on this list.

You have conducted thousands of interviews over the years: how do you plan them? What routine do you have as you research the subject, come up with questions, and are about to ask them?

I have a wonderful team. A small team makes How I Built This , but [they are] very amazing, great and effective producers. One member of our team has to create a so-called research package. Basically, they will search every article – everything that is written about the person with whom I am about to interview. They will compile it into a package – usually a 20 page document (minimum). This is what is called a rendition, and [it] is full of very detailed biographical information, including a timeline. I will read all of this material before the interview. Sometimes it takes three hours, sometimes seven or eight hours or more. And even more if the person has a book. I try to read as much of their material as possible to prepare and learn their story, hopefully [better] than they do by the time we get to the interview. I usually read this in the evenings and on weekends.

How do you come up with questions?

You know, I’ve been doing this for so long that I no longer come with pre-prepared questions. This is partly due to the fact that I have been at the free throw line and have been shooting baskets for 23 years, and in the first 10 years I missed a lot of those shots. And now I do a lot more of them because I just trained. I can go to an interview with [anyone, if] I am well prepared. I have some notes on things that I really want to point out, but I no longer have questions prepared.

Is there something you love that you always want from a person?

I try to get into their heads and inside their experiences. There are several ways to do this – there is no one right way to do it, and it doesn’t work the same for every person. Therefore, I will often ask the same questions over and over again.

How is your workplace arranged?

I have a studio in Oakland, California. This is a physical room that sits inside another room that sits inside a converted garage. This is called a conversation booth. It is a very quiet place. Anyone who tells you they are in a soundproof booth is not accurate because as far as I know there are only one or two truly soundproof booths in the world and they are like sensory deprivation cameras. It is impossible to make something completely soundproof. Even in an ideal recording studio, there may be pipes or little sound, but you can pick them up very closely. The whisper booth does this and essentially prevents extraneous sounds from entering.

This is where I work. It’s equipped – you can see a photo of it if you search Google Videos for my name.

There are orange acoustic panels all around, so it’s a nice bright color. The orange insert is made from recycled jeans and they look great. We bought it in a cool company. And here I have a laptop. It’s about 6’8 “, so it’s a small space. I’m there most of the day, but I get in and out because it’s getting hot. It has circulating air, but no air conditioning to keep the noise down.

Do you have similar tools or gadgets that you simply cannot live without?

Most of them are kitchen gadgets. My favorite tools in the kitchen are kitchen scissors. I use them all the time, like the Japanese Benriner mandolin, which is great for slicing vegetables, but watch out for your fingers!

When it comes to my work in my studio, I really rely on some really important tools that have made my life easier. Some of them are very simple. I connect my computer to an internet router instead of using Wi-Fi, which gives me a much more reliable connection, especially when I’m doing video and live streaming. This is a small adapter that I plug into my Mac, and it allows me to plug in a network cable. It’s kind of like 10 bucks, but I can also connect an external mic to it, which is really cool.

I use my iPhone as a camera to shoot videos. I have a really cool clip that snuggles against the edge of my desk and can hold it – it’s like a hand that I can put my iPhone in, and then I can adjust it and use it to create a video. Also, since I shoot a lot of video, I have a ring light in the studio, but I use reflectors that I attach to acoustic panels, and reflectors kind of [do] the same thing as a window. They give the impression of natural light in the studio rather than illuminating me.

Do you have any favorite life hacks or shortcuts that will make your life easier?

I would say that my life hack is that I do not use any electronic devices one day a week. We chose Saturday because it really looks like a day off, and Sunday is the day people start asking questions about what should happen on Monday. So on Friday night my wife and I pick up our devices, we pick up our kids’s devices and lock them up. And we spend Saturday like family in the 1990s, 80s or 70s, in front of the screens. And sometimes we get bored, and we play board games and go hiking. And we sit, talk, our children complain that they are bored, and this is great, because children no longer have the opportunity to be bored. So this is what we have been doing for about a year, and it has greatly and dramatically improved my life.

Do you have any side projects that you are working on? What hobbies do you use to recharge?

I have a lot of side projects that I am working on. I mean, I have the main thing – ” How I built it” and ” Wow in the world” , and everything else has something to do with these things. But I have a lot of balls in the air – I juggle with different proposals and ideas, and people pump me up.

I love to cook and I try to cook every week and weekend. I love experimenting with different ingredients and grow a lot of vegetables in planters. We make salad, tomatoes and cucumbers. We have a pear tree, so this summer I made a lot of things out of pears at home. Using the ice cream machine, I will take fresh mint from our garden and soak it in milk overnight and then make a mint ice cream. I love experimenting with cooking and food. This is really a big part of my life outside of work.

To blow off some steam, I spend as much time as possible with my kids and wife, and we are really working to have at least one outdoor hike or outdoor activity every week.

Between How I Built These and Wow in the World, something that you learned in one project that you were able to apply in others?

So much. In all my shows, I try to think of them very simply. People have a limited amount of time during the day for non-work activities. Let’s say it’s two, three, maybe four hours – call it personal time, maybe they’re training. At normal times, they may be on their way to work, or they may be cooking. And I believe that if they are going to give me one hour of their time – which is extremely valuable time – I have to make the content I offer them worth their time. It doesn’t matter, ” Wow in the world”, “ How I built it” or ” Wisdom from above.”

I always think to myself, if I listened to this in my free time, I would leave and say that you understand, I got a lot from this; it was a good use of my time or walked away saying that it really is not a very good use of my time. And while I can tell [the former]. I know I am on the right track.

What lesson have you learned from the pandemic you intend to carry with you when we eventually return to the world?

Spending time with my family is the most important thing in my life. That I am first and foremost a dad. These are the first, second, third and last most important parts of my life. So much of what I do doesn’t have to be done when traveling places. I can really do so much of what I do where I am with my family.

This interview has been edited for clarity.