Welcome to Season Four of The Critic and Her Publics: The Art of the Interview. This season, host Merve Emre talks with professional interviewers of all kinds about how they get the answer they’re looking for, what makes a good question, how do you listen for what’s unsaid, and how hard do you have to push someone before they say something new?
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From the episode: “In the fall of 2022, I attended a talk by novelist Shelia Heti, where she described her conversations with early AI chatbots. They bore names like Eliza, Alice, and George, and they expressed bold, undisciplined opinions about art, selfhood, and the divine. For Shelia, who had spent years editing interviews at The Believer and writing novels such as Motherhood and Pure Colour, where narrators pose probing questions to non-human entities like the I Ching or a leaf on a tree, engaging with these programs felt natural. A few months after OpenAI released ChatGPT-5, Shelia and I spoke about the role of the interview at a moment when human thought and feeling are challenged by artificial intelligence, and whether machines might aid us in unlocking the mysteries of consciousness.”
For a full transcript, head over to the New York Review of Books.
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The Critic and Her Publics Hosted by Merve Emre • Edited by Michele Moses • Music by Dani Lencioni • Art by Leanne Shapton • Sponsored by Alfred A. Knopf
The Critic and Her Publics is hosted by Merve Emre, with editing by Michele Moses, music by Dani Lencioni, artwork by Leanne Shapton, and supported by Alfred A. Knopf
The Critic and Her Publics is a co-production between the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University, New York Review of Books, and Lit Hub.
