Warren Olney

Warren Olney

Host, To the Point, Which Way, L.A.?

Warren Olney is the host and executive producer of To the Point and To the Point’s Climate Change Update. They are podcasts based on 50 years of experience as a journalist in print, commercial TV and public broadcasting. He formerly hosted both the local focused Which Way, LA? and the nationally syndicated To the Point on 89.9 KCRW Santa Monica.

Olney and his programs have been honored with nearly 40 national, regional and local awards for broadcast excellence. In 2012, Olney received the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California for his broad achievements in television news, as well as his storied career over 20 years on public radio, both locally and nationally. He has been awarded the Golden Mike Award for "Best Public Affairs Program," and WWLA was honored with the Los Angeles Press Club's Southern California Journalism Award for Best Talk/Public Affairs Show. Olney was named Best Radio Journalist of the Year at the 2001 Los Angeles Press Club's Southern California Journalism Awards.

WWLA was also named as Best Talk/Public Affairs Show during the same awards ceremony. He is the only person to have been twice named "Broadcast Journalist of the Year" — for his work in both radio and television — by the Society of Professional Journalists, Los Angeles. He is the recipient of Emmy Awards for reporting and anchoring, and Golden Mikes for investigative reporting.

Concurrent with his hosting duties on Which Way, LA?, from June 1999 to September 2000, he served as co-anchor of KCET-TV's Life & Times Tonight, a nightly public affairs show. Olney was a television news reporter and anchor from 1966 to 1991, working in Washington, DC, Sacramento, and Los Angeles. Throughout his career, he covered local, state, and national politics, including presidential primaries, nominating conventions and inaugurals, and superpower summit meetings in Washington and Geneva. His special projects and investigations have focused on crime, science, the environment, among other subjects. Overseas assignments took him to Europe, Asia, and Central America.

He also served as a print reporter for the Sacramento Bee (California) and the Newport News Daily Press (Virginia). Olney's interviews, book reviews, articles, and columns have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Village Voice, Los Angeles magazine, and California Journal, among other publications. He frequently speaks on politics, the media, the evolving character of Southern California, and other subjects, and is often called on to moderate public panels on numerous topics. At the University of Southern California, Olney developed and taught "Broadcast Journalism," a laboratory course for graduate and undergraduate students, from 1976-1982.

As an actor, Olney has appeared in numerous feature films, including Crimson Tide, The Fisher King, and Higher Learning, as well as other feature and television productions. Olney received his BA in English, magna cum laude, from Amherst College (Massachusetts) and became a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He has four children and five grandchildren. He is married to Marsha Temple, a former attorney at law, now Executive Director of the Integrated Recovery Network, a nonprofit helping the homeless mentally ill to find housing, treatment and jobs.

Contact: tothepoint@kcrw.org

Warren Olney on KCRW

Climate change is an existential crisis. If Americans cut just one hamburger from their diet every week, it would be like taking 10 million cars off the road every year. After cutting energy use, less meat and more plant-based food add up to the easiest--and healthiest--way to reduce your carbon footprint. From the land and water needed to raise feed and the methane produced at the end of digestion, “Cattle are actually mini fossil-fuel, greenhouse gas producers.” So says Sujatha Bergen, head of health campaigns at the NRDC. As her title suggests, eliminating beef from your diet--in addition to pork and lamb-- is also better for you. She explains the trade-offs for helping to reduce climate change and says, “Starting with your fork is much less daunting for many people.”

Saving the planet one hamburger at a time

Climate change is an existential crisis. If Americans cut just one hamburger from their diet every week, it would be like taking 10 million cars off the road every year. After cutting energy use, less meat and more plant-based food add up to the easiest--and healthiest--way to reduce your carbon footprint. From the land and water needed to raise feed and the methane produced at the end of digestion, “Cattle are actually mini fossil-fuel, greenhouse gas producers.” So says Sujatha Bergen, head of health campaigns at the NRDC. As her title suggests, eliminating beef from your diet--in addition to pork and lamb-- is also better for you. She explains the trade-offs for helping to reduce climate change and says, “Starting with your fork is much less daunting for many people.”

from To the Point

In 1950, America had the richest middle class in the world, but now U.S. workers face wage stagnation and historic wealth inequality.

The decline of organized labor and America’s middle class

In 1950, America had the richest middle class in the world, but now U.S. workers face wage stagnation and historic wealth inequality.

from To the Point

Jet aircraft, carrier task forces and tanks consume vast amounts of fossil fuel--while emitting vast amounts of greenhouse gases. The Pentagon’s carbon footprint is bigger than those of many entire nations. Now, it’s caught in the middle. It’s a massive contributor to climate change, which is threatening its mission worldwide. Seaports and airstrips are being flooded or burned out, and restoring operations costs many millions of dollars. Meantime, environmental damage is leading to instability and the prospect of international violence. Water shortages have increased tensions in the Middle East and caused new hostilities between India and Pakistan, two nuclear powers. Russia and China are taking advantage of changing conditions. Will politicians who scorn environmentalists and mistrust climate scientists listen to the warnings of military leaders?

National Security and Climate Change

Jet aircraft, carrier task forces and tanks consume vast amounts of fossil fuel--while emitting vast amounts of greenhouse gases. The Pentagon’s carbon footprint is bigger than those of many entire nations. Now, it’s caught in the middle. It’s a massive contributor to climate change, which is threatening its mission worldwide. Seaports and airstrips are being flooded or burned out, and restoring operations costs many millions of dollars. Meantime, environmental damage is leading to instability and the prospect of international violence. Water shortages have increased tensions in the Middle East and caused new hostilities between India and Pakistan, two nuclear powers. Russia and China are taking advantage of changing conditions. Will politicians who scorn environmentalists and mistrust climate scientists listen to the warnings of military leaders?

from To the Point

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