The Convosphere

How the interview transformed public conversation and changed the world.

A few years ago, I asked some people about conversations that had changed their lives.

Some of those people are well known, others less so. Some spoke to me spontaneously, as soon as the idea arose. Others scheduled a proper interview, thought about it beforehand, and talked for longer.

They’re all available to watch.

This short highlight video (1 min23 secs) conveys the sense of wonder that can arise when we just contemplate the power of a good conversation:

Before you read on, take a moment to ask yourself:

What conversations have changed YOUR life?

Hi, I’m John-Paul

BIG BOAST: Those interviews in the video were carried out by me.

So what?, you might say. Big deal!

Literally millions of people do interviews every day, for consumption in conventional media (TV, radio, newspapers) and on social media or podcasts.

And yet, just 150 years ago, interviews hardly existed. The first ones were shocking. Outrageous.

“How dare you take my words and share them with other people!”

You know this already, though you may not have consciously thought about it: there are no interviews with historical figures. Nobody interviewed Shakespeare. Nobody interviewed Genghis Khan. Nobody interviewed Jesus.

The nearest we have with any of those people are stories, often written long after the person died, that may possibly include quotes.

For obvious reasons, the quotes aren’t as forensically reliable as reputable news organisations require today.

They certainly don’t include the ums, ers and misstatements that might have been heard on an audio recording.

Think about that. For most of human history, talking to someone and rushing off to share publicly what they told you would have been regarded as deeply antisocial – a bit like rushing up to someone today and taking their photo without asking.

That’s quite a change, in a relatively short period of human history, don’t you think?

Is there a word for this?

How did the change happen? And what does it mean for us all?

How can we even begin to understand it, when there are now so many interviews taking place? Nobody could possibly listen to all of them. So it’s tempting to contemplate them one by one, and ignore the rest.

But it seems to me that there’s something quite interesting happening here, and we need to step back to see the big picture. That’s what scientists try to do with things like the climate: to shift the gaze from individual weather events in specific places to something bigger.

In 1875, a London-born Viennese geologist called Eduard Suess was looking for a new word, to describe an idea.

Suess made significant contributions to the idea of horizontal movements of the earth’s crust, slowly reshaping continents. He was looking for a word to describe the earth’s surface as a zone where life interacts with the physical environment in a integrated way. It was a novel perspective, and required new terminology.

He came up with a single word, biosphere to describe what might otherwise have required a long, inelegant phrase such as “the zone where life dwells on the Earth’s surface”. The new word highlighted the importance of life itself as a geological force shaping the face of the earth, on a par with physical forces such as land, water and air.

With that word, biosphere, all kinds of things became possible. Suddenly, we are able to grasp all at once the worldwide sum of all ecosystems and all living beings and their relationship with their environment as a closed system.

The word biosphere helps us to understand that human action in one area can have far-reaching effects elsewhere. And because we have the word we are able to build around it policies and programmes, such as UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere programme, frameworks for study, as well as funding to pursue those programmes and studies.

The word gave us a perfect caption when Nasa shared a photograph of the Earth from space:

I wonder if we need a similar word to describe the worldwide sum of interviews, conversations, people and their understanding of each other, as a closed system.

A system in which a conversation that you know nothing about can affect the course of your life – almost instantly.

I don’t know about you, but as I look around at the world, down here on the surface, I see many public conversations but SO little mutual understanding.

I came up with a word. I think it will do, for now.

***

What next?

I don’t know exactly where I’m going with this, to be honest. I hope it may lead to a new book, but I want the process of researching and writing it to be just as important as the finished product.

There will be bits of writing, podcasting and (probably) live events. Whatever the specifics, I know it will be easier if I have company.

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About me

I’ve published seven books, translated into 16 languages, including How To Change The World and A Modest Book About How To Make An Adequate Speech.

Over 15 years as a writer and associate editor at some of the most respected newspapers and magazines, including The Financial Times and The Sunday Times, I interviewed a wide range of fascinating individuals, from heads of state and celebrities to “ordinary” people with extraordinary stories.

Here are two such pieces, with Nobel-prize winning writer Harold Pinter and, long before he became UK prime minister, Boris Johnson:

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