What tarot cards have taught me about interviewing

Black handheld microphone resting on a spread of Rider-Waite-Smith tarot cards.

I recently wrote for Journalism.co.uk about what using randomly selected tarot cards has taught me about interviewing.

In Tarot Interviews and Tarot DMs, I use three randomly selected cards to shape three questions. Neither I nor the guest knows exactly where the conversation will go.

The piece looks at what introducing chance can do to an interview, how it can get beyond rehearsed answers, and why giving up a little editorial control can sometimes produce a more interesting conversation.

It sets out the technique I have pioneered as aleatory journalism: using chance, structured constraints and unexpected prompts as tools within the journalistic process.

Read: What using tarot cards as random prompts has taught me about interviews

Published by Journalism.co.uk, September 2026.

Updated:
Finbarre Snarey

Finbarre is an arts and culture journalist, tarot researcher, producer and creative technologist based in Beeston, Nottinghamshire. He loves meadows and hates coffee.

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