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John O'Brien

Senior Producer, All Things Considered

About

John O’Brien is KUOW's All Things Considered Senior Producer. He spends his days setting up interviews with newsmakers on subjects from politics and public health to arts and culture. John learned to make radio starting in 2006 as an intern on KUOW’s The Conversation with Ross Reynolds.

Location: Seattle

Languages: English

Pronouns: he/him

Podcasts

Stories

  • caption: Seattle Civic Poet Dujie Tahat in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood

    Got a poem in your pocket? Seattle’s Civic Poet does, sort of

    Just about every day now has a special observance associated with it. Among other things, April 30th is National Honesty Day, apparently a counterbalance to April Fools' Day. It's also Poem in Your Pocket Day, a capstone to National Poetry Month put forward by the Academy of American Poets. “Poetry is meant to travel,” they say. “However you share it, the goal is simple: put a poem into someone else's day.” To help realize that lovely sentiment, KUOW’s Kim Malcolm reached out to Seattle Civic Poet Dujie Tahat.
  • caption: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Baltimore Field Officer director Matt Elliston listens during a briefing, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, in Silver Spring, Maryland.

    ICE sends Indian national who sought self-deportation to Alaska instead

    After spending months detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Rakesh Rakesh decided to voluntarily self-deport to India, where he was born and raised. But instead of putting him on an Alaska Airlines flight to New York, where he would transfer to a flight to India, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sent Rakesh to Sitka, Alaska. KUOW's Kim Malcolm talked with Seattle Times immigration reporter Nina Shapiro about Rakesh's dilemma and how an Alaska Airlines pilot lent him a hand.
  • caption: EarthCorps crew tackles riparian restoration along Hylebos Nature Area, a critical migratory corridor for numerous salmonids, serving as a major habitat for many organisms. The crew put on waders and traversed to the islands in this park, which have been taken over by invasive blackberry. This will in turn help establish a dense, diverse community of trees and shrubs to help establish ecological health in the area.

    Earth Day is just another day for Seattle's EarthCorps — but still worth marking

    When Earth Day started in 1970, vehicles running on leaded gas averaged 12 miles a gallon on U.S. highways. The year before, an oil slick on Cleveland's polluted Cuyahoga River famously caught fire. That first Earth Day involved teach-ins and demonstrations, which soon led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, and legislation like the Clean Air Act. Now, Earth Day involves over a billion people worldwide, including volunteers and staffers with the Seattle-based EarthCorps. The nonprofit’s development manager Kesia Cisse told KUOW’s Kim Malcolm about her organization's work.
  • caption: A Microsoft sign and logo are pictured at the company's headquarters, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Redmond, Wash.

    Microsoft signals pause in funding for carbon dioxide removal market

    Since 2020, Microsoft has spearheaded efforts to develop a carbon dioxide removal market. The Redmond-based software giant pledged to make the company carbon negative by 2030 and remove all its emissions since its founding by 2050. Now, the company seems to be taking a step back from leading that charge. New York Times climate team reporter David Gelles spoke to KUOW’s Kim Malcolm about his reporting on what Microsoft is doing, and why.
  • caption: The Washington and Alaska legislatures and Canadian government are navigating through how to respond to calls to reduce pollution from ocean-going ships.

    Policies meant to limit air pollution allow toxic dumping in Salish Sea

    Washington state is facing a conundrum on the open water. A tool to reduce air pollution from ships can result in water pollution. And a proposal to untangle that paradox ran aground this winter in the Washington Legislature for the second year in a row. Semi-retired KUOW reporter Tom Banse wrote about the issue recently for the Salish Current. He talked to KUOW’s Paige Browning about his reporting.
  • caption: Third-generation Arlington farmer Andrew Albert is portrayed in this file photo.

    Washington farmers feel the pain of Iran war

    The ongoing war against Iran is affecting consumers at the gas pump. But for farmers, it’s not just the price of fuel, but fertilizer, too. And that could affect what we all pay at the grocery store.
  • caption: Washington State Archives photo of Budd Inlet capture on March 7, 1976.

    Reflecting on the legacy of the last orca capture in Washington state, 50 years later

    Many of the orcas captured and sent to marine theme parks in the 1960s and 1970s came from the Pacific Northwest. An incident 50 years ago this month changed that. A staffer in then-Washington Gov. Dan Evans’ office witnessed a crew hired by SeaWorld chasing a pod of orcas into a shallow bay. A court case ensued, and within two weeks, SeaWorld agreed to end captures in Washington state.