Conducting a Podcast with A Star Researcher In Our Field I am doing a podcast on a voluntary basis with researchers in our field! I have been asked to try to reach the X star researcher in our field who is highly respected in the field. I feel excited, however, I am afraid that podcast could not go well which could leave a bad impression, the podcast would be through Skype, so I don't know how to start breaking the ice before the interview. I prefer to be in person, but in that case, Skype is the only option.

The question: How can I break the ice before the podcasting interview with a star researcher? I am afraid to do counterproductive actions that could affect my career due to the fact that we already in a very small research field.
I have only been on one podcast, but in my experience there was very little ice breaking. They just confirmed a few pieces of information they wanted to make sure they got right during the interview, made sure I was aware of the audience and goal length of time for the interview, and then we jumped right into recording.

Similarly, when I have interviewed people for my class (I do video interviews with people in the field), I don’t do any real socializing beforehand. We may say a few small pleasantries, but we jump right into the work of preparing and creating the video content.

If you do feel like you need a warm-up question, “what inspired this line of work/this paper?” is always nice.