The Message of the Lesson

Two connected messages emerge. The first concerns the form itself: for all the discomfort it can cause the famous — the sense of intrusion, of being pried into or diminished — the interview remains a valuable and revealing medium. Handled well, as Padmanabhan handles it, it lets a remarkable mind speak for itself and become genuinely known to a wide audience; its intrusiveness is the price of its power to reveal. The lesson gently comes down on the side of the interview's worth. …