John O'Brien
Producer, Speakers ForumYear started with KUOW: 2006
John O’Brien produces Speakers Forum at KUOW. He learned to love radio as a child waking up one summer morning to the harmonies of Simon and Garfunkel.
As a teenager, he would drive the back roads of Indiana and Michigan late at night listening to vintage radio theater. The question of whether or not he had the legal right to drive then remains a mystery. Only The Shadow knows.
Inspired by a chance meeting with Noah Adams, he learned to make radio as an intern on KUOW’s The Conversation with Ross Reynolds.
John has been recording talks for Speakers Forum since 2007. Early on he learned Seattle is a Mecca for any touring speaker because Seattleites read so much, support a wide variety of venues and ask smart questions. He says that makes his job easy and always interesting.
John is a graduate of St. Johns College in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
To see more of John's KUOW portfolio, visit our current site.
-
The work of diplomacy is subtle, but the actions of world leaders are sometimes the opposite. Famed American diplomat Madeleine Albright confronts the… -
Last year, a hashtag became an event in Seattle: #EducationSoWhite 2017 gave voice to and started a conversation about the lack of diversity among… -
There’s a thing at talks around Seattle. Often enough, you can feel it when the crowd gets restless if the event goes to a certain length. You can see the… -
If Diane Ravitch were running for office, her opponent might attack her for being "for Common Core before she was against it." Ravitch served as an… -
Last year thousands of people hit the streets of Seattle and the nation to march for all things scientific: respect for the scientific method,… -
You hear of situations where a book comes to a writer in a torrent. In this talk, writer André Aciman tells such a story about his well-loved novel, “Call… -
Over the last few years Speakers Forum has featured broadcasts of the Seattle theatre troupe Sandbox Radio. In that time we came to love the work of actor… -
Steve Coll is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His new book, a sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winner “Ghost Wars,” is “Directorate S: The C.I.A. and… -
As crazy as the world seems sometimes, author Steven Pinker argues our ancestors would most certainly envy us. From life expectancy and standards of… -
This past weekend, students in hundreds of cities and towns around the country joined in March For Our Lives "sibling marches." Before the March For Our…
