Caroline Jones pioneered the 'revelatory' interview on TDT

To revert back to the old boring ABC news style of submissive interviewing or to join in with TDT's 'young Turks' and adopt an adversary type of interviewing?

To my great surprise, she did neither.

Rather she developed a unique third way of interviewing that encouraged her subjects to bare their souls.

Her aim was to understand, rather than to judge; to bring out what we have in common rather than fostering division and to celebrate diversity in unity.

In the traditional ABC news interviewing the politician could get away with murder because the interviewer was just there for the politician to present his/her views unchallenged.

In TDT's combative style of interviewing, in order to get to the truth, the interviewer often tried to beat spin artist politicians by demolishing their pretences.

But Caroline Jones' interviewing, did not try to beat the spin artist politician, rather, she aimed to win him over.

She could be like a snake charmer, who, with her charm and grace, would mesmerise the snake to dance to her tune.

The politician, thus won over, felt safe to let his guard down and voluntarily reveal hitherto concealed information.

For Caroline Jones to move from News to TDT, then to 4 Corners and then to the Australian Story and The Search For Meaning radio programs was a logical progression in her deepening search for meaning.

Her 'revelatory' way of interviewing was a means to reveal meaning in her interviewees' lives.

Reading the product description of the book of her radio series reminds me of her TDT days where she first learnt to enable her subjects to bare their souls.

The Search For Meaning is one of the most innovative and successful radio programs ever broadcast in Australia. Its guiding light is the famous broadcaster, Caroline Jones, whose searching yet compassionate questioning elicits responses of great honesty from her guests, both famous and 'ordinary', on how they make sense of their lives.