Has anyone noticed lately that when reaching out to potential guests, you're being asked to provide questions in advance more often than before?

I provide all my guests with a rough outline.. "potential" questions that I might ask, but let them all know that I want it to be as conversational as possible.. We may hit those questions, we may not.. Some people (typically those new to podcasting) are extremely grateful because they're nervous.. Others who are used to talking on camera and podcasting like to be surprised by what's coming. Generally the bigger names that I've interviewed don't even look at the outline I send them lol

I think there are certain factors that really affect whether a guest wants questions before hand or not. If they have a big name they definitely don't want to get burned by a question. Sometimes it just makes more sense to give questions before hand like for example "can you share the most important thing you've learned about topic x" if a guest doesn't have that question before hand they won't be able to put thought into it and just blurt out the first thing they think of.

I think giving an outline of the points you want to cover is a good idea so that your guest can be prepared but I would also add that other questions might arise during the conversation

I provide a limited amount of questions that I typically ask of all guests which allows certain cues to be consistent. I also let them know that it's a free flowing conversation so there may be things that I ask that arise during the conversation. It makes people feel comfortable and get prepared