Bob Woodward Keynote Speaker

  • Legendary Pulitzer Prize-Winning Investigative Journalist and Author, 22 Bestsellers
  • Associate Editor, The Washington Post
  • Recipient of the Heywood Broun award, Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Reporting, and the William Allen White Medal

Bob Woodward's Biography

Bob Woodward gained international attention when he and Carl Bernstein uncovered the Watergate scandal in 1973. Since then, he’s worked to shine a light on the innerworkings of secret government. Woodward’s factual, nonpartisan revelations to readers and speech audiences provide a view of Washington they’ll never get elsewhere. Woodward has written about the last ten U.S. presidents and chronicled how the power of the presidency has evolved. He is the author of 22 bestselling books 16 went to #1 more than any contemporary nonfiction writer. His 21st book, Peril (coauthored with acclaimed reporter Robert Costa), was a deep dive into a critical time in American history the transition between the Presidencies of Donald Trump and Joe Biden. His latest work, The Trump Tapes, is an audiobook containing the complete recordings of his 20 interviews with Donald Trump over four years. He’s taken this neverbefore step to give the public a chance to hear for themselves the words of the president and key advisers. In his speeches, Woodward looks at the expanding powers of the presidency and the important lessons that can be learned from the presidents he’s covered. He can also assess the role of the media and how well it is (or isn’t) doing its job. Audiences will be awestruck by insights from this living journalistic legend. Currently, associate editor for The Washington Post where he’s worked since 1971, Bob Woodward has won nearly every American journalism award including two Pulitzers.

Former CIA director and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wished he’d recruited Woodward into the CIA, “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.” Therein lays the genius talent of Bob Woodward.

No one else in political investigative journalism has the clout, respect, and reputation of Woodward. He has a way of getting insiders to open up in ways that reveal an intimate yet sweeping portrayal of Washington and the political infighting, how we fight wars, the price of politics, how presidents lead, the homeland security efforts, and so much more. His work is meticulous and draws on internal memos, classified documents, meeting notes and hundreds of hours of recorded interviews with most of the key players, including the president. This is why Fear: Trump in the White House sold more than 1.1 million copies in its first week in September 2018 breaking the 94year firstweek sales record of its publisher Simon & Schuster and nearly 2 million copies in hardback, ebook and audio in the first four months.
In October 2022, Woodward did something he’d never done before; he released the complete recordings of his 20 interviews with Donald Trump in audiobook form titled, The Trump Tapes. The audiobook is unique in that the listener gets the opportunity to hear his lengthy and raw interviews as well as exclusive commentary during some of the interviews to provide vital context or clarification. The Trump Tapes is considered by Simon and Schuster “…as historically important as the Frost/Nixon interviews.”

As a speaker, Woodward pulls the curtain back on Washington and its leaders to captivate audiences with stories that are sometimes
surprising, at times shocking, and always fascinating. He blends stories that are both up to the minute and from the past (to provide historical context). Woodward speaks as he writes crisp and concise and helps people get behind the spin to understand what’s really going on in the halls of power in an age of 24hour news, social media, and snarky politics.

Professionally, Bob Woodward is currently associate editor for The Washington Post where he’s worked since 1971. He has won nearly every American journalism award, and the Post won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for his work with Carl Bernstein on the Watergate scandal. In addition, Woodward was the main reporter for the Post’s articles on the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks that won the National Affairs Pulitzer Prize in 2002.
Bob Schieffer of CBS News said “Woodward has established himself as the best reporter of our time. He may be the best reporter of all time.” Lloyd Green wrote in a review for The Guardian that Fear “depicts a White House awash in dysfunction, where the Lord of the Flies is the closest thing to an owner’s manual.” The Weekly Standard called Woodward “the best pure reporter of his generation, perhaps ever.” In 2003, Al Hunt of The Wall Street Journal called Woodward “the most celebrated journalist of our age.” In listing the alltime 100 best nonfiction books, Time magazine has called All the President’s Men, by Bernstein and Woodward, “Perhaps the most influential piece of journalism in history.”

Woodward has coauthored or authored 15 #1 national bestselling nonfiction books. They are: All the President’s Men (1974) and The Final Days (1976), both Watergate books, coauthored with Bernstein; The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court (1979) coauthored with Scott Armstrong; Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi (1984); Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 198187 (1987); The Commanders (1991); The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House (1994); Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate (1999); Bush at War (2002); Plan of Attack (2004); State of Denial: Bush at War Part III (2006); Obama’s Wars (2010); Fear: Trump in the White House (2018); Rage (2020); and Peril (2021) coauthored with Robert Costa. Woodward’s other national bestselling books are: The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate’s Deep Throat (2005), The Choice (1996), Maestro: Greenspan’s Fed and the American Boom (2000), The War Within: A Secret White House History 20062008 (2008), The Price of Politics (2012), and The Last of the President’s Men (2015). Newsweek magazine has excerpted six of Woodward’s books in headlinemaking cover stories; “60 Minutes” has done pieces on eight of his books; and three of his books have been made into feature films.

In November 2017, the online learning portal MasterClass released “Bob Woodward Teaches Investigative Journalism.” In it, Woodward reveals the lessons he’s learned during his career, teaching students what truth means, how to uncover it, and how to build a story with it.
Woodward was born March 26, 1943 in Illinois. He graduated from Yale University in 1965 and served five years as a communications officer in the U.S. Navy before beginning his journalism career at the Montgomery County Sentinel (Maryland), where he was a reporter for one year before joining the Post.
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Bob Woodward's Speaking Topics

  • A CONVERSATION WITH BOB WOODWARD

Now reporting on his tenth American president, Bob Woodward’s remarkable perspective is unmatched in journalism. The two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter takes audiences on a journey as only he can and shines in this moderated conversation format. From Nixon to the present, Woodward provides first hand insights from having penetrated the White House, the Supreme Court, the CIA, the Pentagon, and the Congress. He analyzes the successes and messes of the presidents he’s covered and offers important lessons – about governing, about presidential leadership during economic, military, and national crises, about the expanding powers of the presidency, and about the role of the media. Woodward’s content is tailored to the interests of the audience and is an in-depth, non-partisan, fact-driven analysis of America’s current state through the lens of history. In the time since he uncovered the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein in 1973, Woodward has worked to shine a light on the inner-workings of secret government. In all, he has written 22 nonfiction bestsellers – 16 of which went on to become #1; more than any modern-day author.

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Videos of Bob Woodward

TEDx | What I learned investigating Nixon, and why it matters now | Bob Woodward
TEDx | What I learned investigating Nixon, and why it matters now | Bob Woodward
The Kalb Report - Writing History: Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and Journalism's Finest Hour
The Kalb Report - Writing History: Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and Journalism's Finest Hour
Moody College of Communication | The Legacy of Watergate: Why it still matters
Moody College of Communication | The Legacy of Watergate: Why it still matters

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