Conducting a Podcast with A Star Researcher In Our Field
I have only been on one podcast, but in my experience there was very little ice breaking. They just confirmed a few pieces of information they wanted to make sure they got right during the interview, made sure I was aware of the audience and goal length of time for the interview, and then we jumped right into recording.

Similarly, when I have interviewed people for my class (I do video interviews with people in the field), I don’t do any real socializing beforehand. We may say a few small pleasantries, but we jump right into the work of preparing and creating the video content.

If you do feel like you need a warm-up question, “what inspired this line of work/this paper?” is always nice.