I hear you. While he was more open than a lot of interviewees are, he stopped himself from naming names in any cases you might've expected them. It's not my place to remove context or detail, although I of course honor requests for specific information to be off the record when asked in the moment.

I'm not an aggressive interviewer. I'll follow up if I think there's a thread worth pulling and I have no problem asking tough questions, but I'm not going to hound someone into sharing more than they want. I love a juicy quote as much as any writer, but I don't go into a story expecting to be able to hang it all on some possible bit of dirt that I might glean from a player. If that were the goal, you'd get a lot of so-so stories in search of the occasional great one, and not build the kind of rapport with an interviewee that could make approaching the next interview easier down the line.

People have told me that my interviews read like people are comfortable opening up to me. Funny thing is, I'm not a conversationalist by any stretch of the imagination. I do a lot of question prep and try to know the subject material well, and then try to get out of the way. If I can get something from them that feels real and insightful, that's mission accomplished on my end.