Ask HN: How do I interview people in various industries to learn about them?

With hopes and aspirations of becoming an entrepreneur I'd like to talk to people about their industries and their day-to-day in said industry. The problem is I'm not quite sure how to actually get access to such people and how to entice them to speak with me for 30-60 minutes. I imagine lots of exploratory conversations like this are actually soft-sells for some sort of product (inclusive of selling yourself) and that most people are wise to most tricks ("I'm a student and interested in becoming xyz"). I'm also aware of the option of attending "networking" events (meetups, hackathons, etc.) but right now I'm not in a metro area so I don't have access to any such networking events. I guess I could just ping people on LinkedIn and ask for a phone call but I'm wondering if there's a less obvious route.