Thorn interviews the interviewers
When asked about his own education as a professional interviewer, Jesse Thorn’s default position is self-deprecation.
“The closest thing I have to journalistic experience is a co-byline in the S.F. State University Golden Gater that I got when I was in high school,” Thorn says.
Nevertheless, the San Francisco-born host has become a podcasting mogul, founding the Maximum Fun network, which includes Thorn’s NPRdistributed interview podcast, “Bullseye.” Thorn’s latest project, “The Turnaround,” feeds into both his ambition and his insecurities; the summer-long podcast features interviews with 16 of the greatest living interviewers — from NPR host Terry Gross to filmmaker Werner Herzog to author Susan Orlean to TV host Larry King.
Thorn, 36, says the project, co-produced by Maximum Fun and the Columbia Jour-
The Turnaround:
New episodes come out most Tuesdays and Fridays until Aug. 18. For more information about Jesse Thorn’s “The Turnaround,” “Bullseye” and other Maximum Fun podcasts, go to www.maximumfun.org.
nalism Review, was conceived in part to help listeners who are seeking an interviewing seminar. And that includes Jesse Thorn.
“I’ve never even had a boss on my show or a mentor or someone who was above me to tell me when I was doing something wrong. I just sort of blundered my way through,” Thorn says. “So certainly part of the goal of this was to have the chance to ask people who I admired how they do a thing that is similar to what I do, and try to learn from it.”
Thorn’s podcasts, like his interviews with reporters, are bluster-free affairs. But if someone else was making an elite interviewer list, there’s a good chance Thorn would be on it.
Thorn attended Ruth Asawa School of the Arts with an interest in drama. His first radio program, “The Sound of Young America,” conceived when Thorn was a student at UC Santa Cruz, was not an immediate hit. But he was persistent, releasing the program as a podcast when the medium was relatively new. New York public radio station WNYC picked up the show, and it soon received national distribution.
Thorn moved to Los Angeles, and “Young America” became “Bullseye,” an interview show with an impressively eclectic roster of guests ( John Waters, Julia LouisDreyfus and film editor Walter Murch have all stopped by this year.)
Maximum Fun now has dozens of podcasts, fueled by a model of heavy-on-the-hustle loyal listener support that bears comparisons to 1970s-80s DIY punk, the 1990s Bay Area rap scene and other local artistic disrupters. Thorn also appears on the comedy podcast “Jordon, Jesse, Go!” with his college friend Jordan Morris. His wife, Theresa Thorn, is Maximum Fun director of operations and host of the “One Bad Mother” parenting podcast. (They have three young children, ages 6, 3 and 4 months old.)
While he continues to live in L.A., Thorn still represents the Bay Area hard, dropping references to his favorite taqueria in San Francisco, El Gran Taco Loco; telling a funny and poignant story about the South of Market Burlington Coat Factory; and giving shout-outs to the interviewing skills of San Francisco Giants sideline reporter Amy Gutierrez. He even mentioned that he planned to travel to AT&T Park for a Giants game with his family last weekend, wearing the “I’m a Humm Baby Booster — KNBR 680” T-shirt he just bought on eBay.
“I’m literally wearing a Tshirt that says S.F. on it right now,” Thorn says. “I have tickets to the Giants’ game on Sunday, but the reality is that to work in the entertainment industry you have to make a choice. … Mostly you’ve got to be in New York or L.A., just so you can meet someone to work with at your kids’ preschool. Geography still matters.”
The interview list for “The Turnaround” was built with nominations from Maximum Fun’s social media following. Thorn said he received a polite “no” from Howard Stern. But there were a surprising number of enthusiastic “yes” replies, including Ira Glass, Katie Couric and some wild cards, including Jerry Springer and hip-hop podcaster Combat Jack.
“I’m sure that Katie Couric could have otherwise spent that hour in her money bath,” Thorn quips. “She did it because she cares, not because it’s going to make her famous. She’s already famous.”
In previews Thorn released on “Bullseye” and the first episode, with Glass, released Thursday, June 22, there are a few tense moments. NPR host Audie Cornish bristles when Thorn suggests that public broadcasting hosts intentionally read as ciphers to listeners. (“What are you really asking here? Ask it again,” she chides, after Thorn stumbles through the initial question.) But it turns out to be sort of an interviewer Muhammad Ali rope-a-dope, and Thorn’s seemingly bad question elicits the best answer of the segment.
“It’s not about me,” Cornish responds. “That’s like 90 percent of what’s guiding my work. It is not about me. It’s about whoever is in front of me. What they’re trying to say, what that means, what’s at stake for all the rest of us in hearing them talk.”
Thorn says he was consistently pleased with the generosity of his guests, and hopes the collective body of interviews helps interviewers who are just starting to figure it out.
“It’s an odd job, and there’s no textbook,” Thorn says. “There’s only this sort of shared bond from the people who have done it. I think people just wanted to talk to somebody about it.”
“It is not about me. It’s about whoever is in front of me. What they’re trying to say, what that means.” Audie Cornish of NPR