Being interviewed on radio

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Before becoming a radio interviewer myself, on my own community radio shows (from December 2013 to March 2015) I found myself interviewed several times by the media - sometimes well, and sometimes quite badly. This helped me develop some basic rules and guidelines for my own interviews. As an ex-member of a religious cult, I often get asked to discuss my personal experiences - the questions rarely get beyond how did I get in? and How did I get out? One interviewer tried to trick me by unexpectedly bringing in a cult expert who was critical of my brainwashing theories (and all claims that anyone in cults is brainwashed) but I had read and critiqued her work in some detail before and tore his expert to pieces on the air. Another time, I had written an article on Freemasonry which an interviewer asked me to discuss on air. When I arrived, a leading Freemason was there too, but the interviewer hadn't shown him my article. He clearly expected me to embarrass the mason on the air but we were both surprisingly united in taking down the interviewer. I have also been interviewed on my civil war re-enactment activity, my love of science fiction and most recently, on my own modest creative writing successes. Arthur Chappell