Richard Leiby is one of the most respected journalists in the United States. He was one of the first reporters to write about Scientology in the 1980s and he has covered the Iraq & Afghanistan wars. For several years he was the bureau chief in Pakistan for the Washington Post. He is now senior writer and editor Style Section of the Washington Post where he has worked for nearly 25 years.

I have been friends with him for exactly 20 years now, we met at the first HBO Aspen comedy festival in February 1995 and he also wrote about me and my Dad in April 1995 when I made Viva Vietnam! for Comedy Central and that special premiered in Washington D.C. He is one of the wise Buddhas in my life who I can go to to decipher the chaos of world events or if I need a source of higher world knowledge.

We have gotten together every year when I come to D.C. with the exception of those few years he was based in Pakistan. With all of the heart wrenching world events happening lately it was a perfect time to sit down with him and talk about events and the workings of modern journalism.

This conversation was recorded at the Washington Post on a brutally cold February afternoon but it contains the warm glow of two decades of friendship. He is his own library of Congress possessing oceans of valuable information and he is one of my oldest dearest friends whose opinion on important matters I greatly cherish and that is why it is my pleasure to present to you now the one and only Richard Leiby!

Intro song: Cutting Room (Hot Pants) – Oceanliners

Ask Me Tell Me Anything: Roger from Norway

End song: Bustin’Loose – Chuck Brown & The Soul Searches (1978)

Recorded in Washington, DC. February 2015.