First thing that comes to my mind is a site like https://thegreatdiscontent.com/. It’s fascinating, and honestly pretty simple in concept: they find interesting people—typically artists—and talk to them. Given some of your replies below, that might be your preferred format.

I really like the podcast idea, though. A lot of the podcasts I listen to are more stories than interviews, so I’d be very interested in a podcast that was more about talking with random people. I absolutely understand the limitations of direct dialogue, though. There’s a pressure there—and, for me, other distractions such as body language—that would make it difficult for me to conduct an in-person interview. Personally, I think I communicate far better over text; I just feel like I have more time/space to consider my response.

And yes, I’ve done interviews that were just a series of emails back and forth. If I were doing an interview now, I’d probably choose either that or Slack/Discord.