Bob Garfield

The Environmental Protection Agency recently rolled out the Obama administration’s ambitious proposal to cut carbon pollution from existing power plants 30% by 2030. This proposal could bring renewed worldwide attention to climate change. Trouble is, we still haven’t sorted out how to talk about the issue. Is it “Climate Change” or “Global Warming”? Bob speaks to Anthony Leiserowitz, Director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, and the principal investigator of the new study, “What’s In a Name? Global Warming Versus Climate Change.”

Amazon, the largest bookseller in the world, is locked in a struggle with Hachette, one of the biggest publishers. Amazon has prolonged shipping time, taken away the option to “pre-order” new releases, and eliminated the one-click option for purchasing Hachette books. And the feud has no end in sight. Bob talks to Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, about what it all means.

Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old who murdered 6 people in Isla Vista, California last week, left an enormous digital footprint - blog comments, YouTube videos and an online manifesto. Bob talks with Forbes staff writer Kashmir Hill about how all that information fed different narratives about what motivated Rodger.

Rich Peppiatt is a former tabloid reporter who resigned from the profession with a very public letter to his boss at the UK's Daily Star newspaper. He's since been a vocal critic of the British tabloid press, and has a new film called "One Rogue Reporter" that is part documentary, part satire, and part outrageous pranks against some of Britain's most notorious tabloid writers and editors. Bob speaks with Peppiatt about the film and how he turned tabloid journalists' own tricks against them.

Health news reporting is plagued by incredulity, false correlation, and general public confusion. Gary Schwitzer has devoted his life to reviewing how health news is reported, and, mo...

In an unprecedented move this week, the US Justice Department brought charges against 5 Chinese military officers for allegedly hacking American companies in an act of economic espionage. Bob speaks with Jeremy Goldkorn, who analyzes the Chinese media, about how the story is playing out in China.

The recently leaked New York Times innovation report reveals the paper's struggle to transition from print to digital on even the most basic level. Bob talks with Joshua Benton, director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard, about the applicability of the report's findings to the newspaper industry at large.

Last month, a white supremacist shot and killed 3 people at a Jewish community center and a Jewish assisted living center in Kansas. One of the victims was 69-year-old William Lewis Corporon, whose son Will is a former journalist. Bob speaks with Will about being in a unique position to handle the media onslaught that followed the tragedy.

Last week Vladimir Putin signed a law prohibiting swearing in public performances as well as movies and television. Bob talks with The New Yorker Editor-in-Chief David Remnick about the shadow language of obscenities that runs deep in Russian culture.

Boko Haram's kidnapping of more than 250 Nigerian schoolgirls has received global attention thanks to a viral hashtag, #BringBackOurGirls, but violence by Boko Haram is nothing new in Nigeria. Bob talks with Nigerian journalist Alexis Okeowo, who has been covering the story for years, about the international media's sudden interest.

When a funeral director named Bernie Tiede shot and killed a wealthy widow in Carthage, Texas, townspeople were sympathetic toward the widely loved Bernie and indifferent toward the murder victim. The twisted tale became the subject of a Richard Linklater film, which played a part in Bernie's recent release from prison. Bob talks with Texas Monthly's Skip Hollandsworth, whose 1998 story about Bernie Tiede inspired the movie.

Europe's highest court recently ruled that EU citizens have the right to be forgotten—by Google's search engines. Bob talks with Emily Bell, Director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, about the impact of this decision on freedom of information and internet privacy. 

In a sudden move this week, The New York Times announced the firing of its executive editor Jill Abramson. Bob speaks with The New Yorker's Ken Auletta about why Abramson was fired.

The notion of using broad laws to suppress the arts has a long and horrifying tradition in Russia. Bob talks with comedian Yakov Smirnoff about performing in the Soviet Union, where comics had to submit jokes to a Department of Humor for approval.

For OTM's special hour on Washington DC, Bob spoke with Armando Iannucci, the creator and executive producer of HBO's hit comedy "Veep." We liked that conversation so much, we decided to put up an extended cut here. Iannucci tells Bob about his fascination with American politics, how the show manages to capture the unglamorous details of the nation's capital, and why everyone inside the beltway claims to know a "Jonah," but no one claims to be one.

Bob ends his DC journey on the red carpet of the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, where journalists rub elbows with the very people they cover. Oh, and a bunch of celebrities show up too.

Song: Washington D.C. by The Magnetic Fields

In Washington, the lines are increasingly blurring between politicians, lobbyists and the media. Bob meets with a journalist turned lobbyist, the man known as the "doorman to the revolving door," and perhaps the most infamous lobbyist of all time to talk about the industry of DC.

Song: I Am the Slime by Frank Zappa

Frustration is growing in the White House press corps due to limited access to the "transparency" president. In a piece that originally aired last year, Bob goes to the White House to find out how the role of the press corps is changing under this media savvy administration.

Music: Slim Jenkins' Place by Booker T. and the MG's.

Used to be that traditional media outlets like The Washington Post set the news agenda in the nation's capital. But the new media landscape is shifting the power to influence to some unlikely players. Bob visits The Washington Post, Politico and Buzzfeed to see how each of them is trying to dominate the DC conversation.

Song: Officer Officer by Anika

To start his journey, Bob goes to the iconic Palm Restaurant, where DC A-listers go to see and be seen. There he meets with his guide Mark Leibovich, chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine and author of "This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral—Plus, Plenty of Valet Parking!—in America's Gilded Capital." Over one very expensive lobster, Mark prepares Bob for the ways of Washington.