A Conversation with Bob Woodward

A Conversation with Bob Woodward – The State of the US Presidency. Moderated by Fintan O'Toole.

Bob Woodward's Fear: Trump in the White House, debuted as a #1 international bestseller in September 2018. It is the most detailed and penetrating portrait of a sitting United States president in the first year of an administration. It sold more than 1.1 million copies in its first week – breaking the 94-year first-week sales record of its publisher Simon & Schuster – and over 2 million copies in hardback, ebook and audio to date.

Bob Woodward will provide an inside look into the Trump presidency at the The Olympia Theatre. His appearance is not to be missed. Bob is a legend in journalism. Nick Bryant of the BBC said, – “I wonder how many journalists have arrived in Washington over the years dreaming of becoming the next Bob Woodward…Though his books are often sensational, he is the opposite of sensationalist. He's diligent, rigorous, fastidious about the facts, and studiously ethical. There's something almost monastic about his method… He's Washington's chronicler-in-chief.”

Jill Abramson, the former editor of The New York Times, said in her review of Fear, written for The Washington Post, – “In an age of ‘alternative facts' and corrosive tweets about ‘fake news,' Woodward is truth's gold standard…explosive… As a profile of Trump, the book is devastating… jaw-dropping.”

Woodward has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 and shared in two Pulitzer Prizes – the first with Bernstein for their Watergate coverage and the second as the lead reporter for the Post's coverage of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

As he travels the world, Bob Woodward says people’s questions fall into four categories:

1. The presidency: How is President Trump doing and surviving? How does Trump compare with the other eight United States presidents – Nixon to Obama – that Woodward has reported on for The Washington Post and in his bestselling books?
2. The investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller: Is it like Watergate or will it fade away like Reagan's Iran-Contra scandal?
3. Conflict: What is the likelihood of a new war? What are the goals with North Korea, in the Middle East, with the Islamic state, and on terrorism? Will there likely be a major escalation in one of the current conflicts?
4. The economy: Is the American/global economy sound or are we headed for trouble? How is Trump's America First agenda playing out with allies and enemies around the globe?

In 2014, Robert Gates, former director of the CIA and Secretary of Defence, said of Woodward, – “He has an extraordinary ability to get otherwise responsible adults to spill [their] guts to him… his ability to get people to talk about stuff they shouldn't be talking about is just extraordinary and may be unique.” That is Woodward's true gift and audiences who hear him speak leave transfixed by what they've learned.