Ira Glass

He's the only one in the world that can tell a story about a man walking down the street to get a sandwich and still have you in full ears. He is Ira Glass, the host of NPR's This American Life.


The New York Times described Glass as “a journalist but also a storyteller who filters his interviews and impressions through a distinctive literary imagination, an eccentric intelligence, and a sympathetic heart.”

The television adaptation of This American Life premiered on Showtime in March 2007 to great critical acclaim and was nominated for three Emmy awards. Ira Glass talked about TV and radio in one of his shows and said "the radio show is here to stay", and if radio and TV is fighting a war right now then "radio has lost". (Download clip of the show here. ) He talked about how him and his wife watched the Fox TeenTV show The O.C., and would sing along the theme song California (by Phantom Planet).

So Ira maybe right, radio is fighting a lost war, maybe just TV will be when podcast officially takes it over.

Gothamist recently interviewed Ira Glass about the show, the book The New Kings of Nonfiction, and a number of things.

NEWS: On Monday, October 8, Ira Glass is hosting a benefit for 826Chi at Town Hall. The event is called “The New Kings of Nonfiction,” and showcases such New Yorker-affiliated lights as Malcolm Gladwell and Susan Orlean, not to mention Chuck Klosterman. Ira may be the finest “so wait” clarifier in the history of spoken utterance (listen for it on This American Life), and to see him do it live is surely the equivalent of watching Roger Federer hit a backhand or something.

Ira Glass on David Letterman