Turning the Tables w/ Danielle Robay | Booked, Blonde & Busy with Olivia Ponton

“I have learned that you can learn anything you need to know about yourself by listening to somebody else's story.” That line from Danielle Robay, host of Reese Witherspoon’s Bookmarked podcast, captures the central insight of her conversation with Olivia Ponton on Booked, Blonde & Busy. The episode flips the script: instead of Robay interviewing an author, she is the guest, and the discussion ranges from the mechanics of a good interview to the role of reading in dark times, the tension between institutional book clubs and BookTok, and the practical habits of someone who reads a hundred books a year.

The Interviewer’s Craft: Preparation, Presence, and the Dickens Connection

Robay describes her interview style as rooted in contradiction, inspired by the opening line of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities—“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” She explains that she studied hundreds of hours of Barbara Walters, Robin Roberts, and Bob Costas, taking notes on their questions and body language, then kept what fit and discarded the rest. The key lesson, she says, came from Costas: “A great interviewer should be the most researched, the most prepared in the room, and then never show it once you’re there.” The goal is to have a deep base of knowledge so you can be spontaneous and follow the guest’s energy rather than reciting a list of facts.