Triumphs and Tribulations of a Talk-Show Host
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
Total Time: 1 hour, 12 minutes
After two years of hosting a radio talk-show, Dr. Leonard Peikoff presents his insights and reflections on the experience. Having set out on the mission of selling philosophy via radio, Peikoff explains the unique challenges in presenting ideas in that format, including the unexpected successes and failures of different approaches.
Q&A Guide
Below is a list of questions from the audience taken from this lecture, along with (approximate) time stamps.
| 34:31 | You stated early that you lose audience interest with a preaching approach and abstract topics. But huge audiences—millions of listeners—tune in to listen to abstract topics and a preaching approach from religious leaders and then send them money. Are there any lessons here? |
| 37:22 | Quite a few people here can listen to your radio program and I was wondering if there was any way you could give us a signal when you would like or not like calls. |
| 38:53 | How influential has the radio show been for your insights on the role of induction? |
| 39:28 | I was going to speculate as to the success of “A Picture is Not an Argument” and “Dirty Words.” What do you think is the success of shows where people see some kind of conspiracy being put over on them? |
| 41:53 | My favorite shows are the “philosophical tie-in” shows. How well do they do? |
| 43:56 | Do you focus on trying to intrigue people to take the next step and read Atlas Shrugged or one of the books and, if so, how do you inductively intrigue people to realize that there’s a wider body of ideas, that it’s not just isolated aspects, like selfishness… |
| 46:02 | What did you have to learn about using your voice on the radio? |
| 49:56 | Looking at this band of the population that you’ve now had interactions with over a couple of years, are there positive new views you have now about what’s happening in people’s minds? And do you have things that you’ve seen interacting with these folks that are a little more frightening? |
| 54:36 | I wanted to know if you got anything particularly special from your experience on Politically Incorrect or other TV shows that you’re able to carry over and use on your radio show? |
| 56:41 | I’d like to conjecture about the success of the mystery shows. |
| 57:51 | I was wondering if you could give me some reasons as to why a show such as Howard Stern’s is so popular. |
| 1:03:42 | You mentioned that radio is much more of a conceptual medium than television and you also mentioned the demographics of your show, which is a lot of the older generation, 50, 60, and above. Could this be a simple marketing strategy on the part of the station or a wider cultural trend? |
| 1:06:59 | What have you enjoyed the most and least in your life as a talk show host? |
| 1:09:20 | I wonder if you could say something about how successful the show is in terms of profitability and audience size? |