Patt Morrison is a writer and columnist for the Los Angeles Times, where her work has spanned national politics and stories from the Los Angeles riots and earthquakes and the Space Shuttle to the Super Bowl – which she covered from inside a women’s bathroom – and the death of the Princess of Wales. As a member of two Los Angeles Times’ reporting teams, she has a share of two Pulitzer Prizes.
For her work hosting programs on public television and radio, she has received six Emmy awards and a dozen Golden Mikes. Patt is also a regular commentator on the Emmy-winning “L.A. Times Today” show on Spectrum 1.
Patt was featured on the cover of “Talkers” Magazine as one of its “Heavy 100” top radio hosts in the nation – a first for any local radio host. She created and hosted “Comedy Congress,” a political satire on her radio show, which twice earned Golden Mike awards as best public affairs show.
Her nonfiction books, “Rio L.A., Tales from the Los Angeles River” and “Don’t Stop the Presses! Truth, Justice, and the American Newspaper,” were both bestsellers.
A few among her myriad interview subjects: Salman Rushdie, Jimmy Carter, both James Watson and Francis Crick, Al Gore, Frank Gehry, four past and present Supreme Court justices (Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sandra Day O’Connor), Norman Mailer, Carl Sagan, Gore Vidal, Kenneth Branagh, Jodie Foster, Jack Lemmon, Steve Martin, Edward Albee, Timothy Leary, Jane Goodall, Stephen Hawking, Eldridge Cleaver, Ray Bradbury, Leonard Cohen, Oprah Winfrey and five of the seven original Mercury astronauts.
She was an early regular panelist on the radio comedy show “Wait, Wait – Don’t Tell Me!” She has been a crossword puzzle clue, the central figure in a diptych called “The Triumph of Civility,” by Los Angeles painter John Martin. Pink’s, the renowned Hollywood hot dog stand, named its vegetarian dog, the “Patt Morrison Baja Dog,” after her.
Latest From This Author
Los Angeles’ first documented smog attack — yes, we had smog attacks — was in 1943. We’ve been fighting the sources of pollution and the quirks of geography that trap it ever since.
Oct. 1, 2023
The word ‘California’ was first put to printed page in the 1500s — long before the U.S. state existed, of course. Since then, it’s become the place for dreamers, doers, brainiacs and billionaires.
Sept. 6, 2023
Cal Worthington (and his ‘dog’ Spot), ‘Madman’ Muntz and other colorful local pitchmen used to claim space in the public consciousness. Our culture may no longer be built for that brand of commercial antics.
Aug. 30, 2023
A long history of human-on-sea-creature cruelty — whaling and whales in captivity — on the Palos Verdes Peninsula preceded this summer of orca, otter and dolphin attacks.
Aug. 22, 2023
‘Colonies’ started coming to California not long after statehood. They were associations of affinity, of shared interests — neighbors or fellow churchgoers or the intellectually or artistically or industrially homogeneous.
Aug. 10, 2023
Take L.A. oilman C.C. Julian, who oversold oil stock and left people destitute and dead. Or Simon Homburg, who flipped sheer mountain lots to unwitting out-of-towners.
Aug. 3, 2023
Tulare Lake, Owens Lake, Mono Lake and other bodies of water remind us of California’s past — and that, ultimately, nature is in charge around here.
July 25, 2023
The beauty of train trips used to be a key selling point. But with the Pacific Surfliner suffering the effects of climate change, safety and reliability may trump the pretty view.
July 7, 2023
We still have lots of airfields, but gone from the landscape are the runways — near Griffith Park, near Wilshire and Western, in the Palisades — that could have challenged LAX for air superiority.
June 13, 2023
Did you know the LAPD bombed an anti-corruption investigator in the 1930s? Well, they did. And it was one of many outrages that led to civic reforms in Los Angeles.
May 30, 2023