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I think the BBC's Desert Island Discs is one of the most effective formats ever created. The idea of asking people to choose their absolute favourite pieces of music, and to talk about why these pieces are, or were, important in their lives lends well to getting sincere and honest conversation.
It's important to suspend judgement based on, for example, the slightly pompous sounding intro music, the predominance of public-school accents, etc., particularly on older episodes (I believe Lauren Laverne is the latest presenter, so she'll do a good job of widening the appeal).
I have just listened to an episode where the guest was Frank Kermode, a famous literature professor, though not someone I was familiar with (I'm a bit uncultured that way). He was, I think, around 80 years old at the time of recording.
I learned that ship captains are generally a bit crazy, that much of the WW II war effort was absurd (he spent two years trying to build an impossible fjord in Iceland), that the flitting about during his career was likely related to his early realisation that he'd almost certainly have to leave his home of the Isle of Man. He questioned the lecture system in academia, criticised the increasing distance between what's taught in literature and the actual works (e.g. a move towards 'Theory' of things far removed from the work in question), and that he's 'the obverse of gifted' when it comes to musical ability.
He explains that autobiographies are not about the past, rather they are about the time at which the sentences are being written. His dad built possibly the first radio on the Isle of Man, it had to be listened to by putting your ear up to a large horn. That last sentence really puts the rate of technological advances into perspective.
He also selected some quite nice music, almost all 19th century classical, opera, etc.
I hope the BBC makes their archive of Desert Island Discs available to everyone. It's enlightening in many small ways to be exposed to randomly different lives and culture. If you have any issues listenting, let me know and I will set up a proxy I believe the BBC restrict some content on geo-ip, which (as a license payer) I object to.