Lex Fridman on interviewing Vladimir Putin

perhaps as a historianyou may be able to appreciate this kindof thing that's probably how you see theworld butthere's several ways to see a humanbeing like Vladimir Putin is an exampleone is a political figure that'scurrentlydoing actions in the world geopoliticsinternally the politics of Russia butthere's also that human being in ahistorical contextand collecting information about thatperson in the historical context is alsovery valuable so you could seeinterviews with Hitlerin uh 39 40 41 as being very bad anddetrimentalto all that is good in the world but atthe same time it's important tounderstand that human mind how it uh howpower affects that mind how powercorrupts it how they see the worldabsolutely absolutely I would be all infavor and maybe he will if VladimirPutin would sit down with you absolutelyI I don't think you're boosting someonelike that when you ask them toughquestions in fact I think that's what weneed to do those sorts of figures tendto insulate themselves some toughquestions so just to restate I I am forthe Lex Friedman interview of uh thosesorts of figures I am not for the puffpiece on Fox and Friends uh where theyjust come on and they're asked oh isn'tit tell us what you think of this tellus what you think of that yeah so butthere's a balance there becausea lot of people that interview somebodylike Vladimir Putin all they do ishard-hitting questions they oftendemonstrate a lack of knowledge of theperspective of the Russian people andthe president there's not an empathy tounderstand that this is a popularlyelected uh you can criticize that notionbut this is still the area thatrepresents the beliefs of a large numberof people and they have their own lifestory they see the world they believethey're doing good for the world and Idon'tum that ideaseems to not permeate the questions andthe thoughts that people say becausethey're afraid of being attacked by thepeople back home fellow journalists fornot being hard enough well maybe I thinkthat's probably true I think in myexperience with interviewers is that alot of them are really lazy you're notwhich is whycan I just say okay this is not yousaying it can I just rantif you're sitting across from Xi Jinpingfrom Vladimir Putin you you you shouldbe fired if you have not read like atleast several books on the guy the thesurprising lack of research that peopledo leading up to it right so you need tobe a historian or a biographer you needto be the kind of person that writesbiographies or histories before you sitin front of the person not uh uh not alow effort journalist and so surprisingto me that I think they're probablyreally busy and it's probably not partof the culture of the people that dointerviews to do deep deep likeinvestigative you need to be the kind ofperson that lives that idea like see itas a documentary that you work on forthree years kind of thing anyway that uhof course some journalists do do thatand they do that masterfully and that'sthe best of Journalism but I think a lotof the times when the questions are asyou said uh out of touch with thesociety that person that person isleading it's because the interviewerhasn't taken the time and I understandyou can't be an expert on every subjectbut you can do what you do right youread my book to prepare for this youlook things up you had a sense of theperson you're talking to and you put thetime in to do that this is what I alwaystell my students right the secret tosuccess in anything is outworking otherpeople be more prepared right what youshow it's like an iceberg it's the tipof the iceberg right is what what peoplesee it's all the work that goes on belowthe surface and if you work hard enoughwhich I aspire to do at the end of theday just like an animal farm you'll belike the horse boxer and slaughteredunjustly by those that are much morepowerful than you because you'll behappy when you're slaughtered you havelived for the right ideal and historywill remember you fondly