John O'Brien
Producer, Speakers Forum
About
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.
Podcasts
Stories
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Speakers Forum
A wild literary ride from rural Vancouver Island to Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility
‘All anybody wanted to talk about was the pandemic, which I resisted for about a week, and then I realized we all need to talk about the pandemic. It's not even like it was the elephant in the room. It's like it was the room. It was unavoidable.’
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Speakers Forum
‘What will I carry forward?’ A journey through wilderness, dementia, and memory
‘It took her some time to find her voice, but when she did she said three careful words, it’s so beautiful.’
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Speakers Forum
One man’s story of the scourge of child sexual abuse
‘In the equation of institutional sexual abuse, the constant is the abuser. There's always going to be a certain percentage of child sex abusers in the population.’
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KUOW Newsroom
Around Seattle this spring: jazz, art, and other historic coalitions
‘Where do we perform, and more than that, teach young people about what it's like to perform live jazz?’
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KUOW Newsroom
'I was raised to be an animal, and that's what happened.' Arthur Longworth's long, troubling path toward redemption
‘There's an enormous amount of realization these days, an appreciation for the unbelievable rates of incarceration among young people, either while they're in foster care or immediately afterwards.’
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KUOW Newsroom
In Seattle, crime went up, but overall levels of fear went down
‘Research historically has shown that when people are closer to their neighbors, and when there's higher social cohesion, that they're less fearful of crime.’
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Speakers Forum
Poet reflects on the intersection of Black art and a new generation of racial trauma
‘If black children belong to us, and we need not be mothers or fathers or even black for black children to belong to us, a part of us is always vigilant, and always exhausted.’
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Speakers Forum
Mayor Bruce Harrell looks back on his first 100 days and details his plans moving forward
‘When I talk about public safety, when I talk about I need more officers, I always lead with, but not in a racialized or militarized fashion.’
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Speakers Forum
In honor of women: poetry and music of struggle and joy
One poet asks, ‘Will you not open this door for me? My hand is exhausted from knocking at your door.’
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Speakers Forum
DEI ’R’ US: Setbacks and progress on the road to belonging at work
‘It’s not going to happen in my lifetime. We are working to a future that we will not live to see. That’s what this work is about, and the healing is knowing that we’re doing it together.’