Neal Karlinsky

Neal Karlinsky is an ABC News Correspondent covering the West & beyond.

In recent years, he's covered the nuclear disaster in Japan, trapped miners in Chile, a nearly unpronounceable volcano in Iceland, a devastating earthquake in China and a deadly tsunami on the Pacific Island of Samoa. While at the same time back home he's covered major news events and features from coast to coast.

Karlinsky holds the rare distinction of having twice interviewed Apple's Steve Jobs. He's been granted exclusive access inside Google and several upstart tech companies, and has also interviewed Bill Gates. On the other end of the spectrum, he's interviewed SpongeBob Squarepants for a behind the scenes look at the popular children's show. Other colorful assignments have included a painful visit to a bullfighting school, a day with skateboard legend Tony Hawk—even a climb up Yosemite's famed El Capitan with one of the world's best climbers.

Karlinsky's coverage of the West has been extensive--reporting from the frontlines of California wildfires to the edge of Mount St. Helens' crater—even to polar bear dens near the Arctic Circle. He's covered every kind of natural disaster imaginable from a variety of datelines, while profiling everyone from heartthrobs and Hollywood elite to child prodigies and sport's stars for Nightline. In 2010, he conducted the only network interview with former Tour de France winner Floyd Landis for a groundbreaking investigation of doping allegations against Lance Armstrong.

Overseas, Karlinsky has reported from throughout the Middle East and Asia, in addition to assignments in Central America and Europe. He reported extensively inside Iraq in 2003 & 2004.