About Ira Glass: Ira Jeffrey Glass is an American public radio personality and the host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life.
But you can make good radio, interesting radio, great radio even, without an urgent question, a burning issue at stake.
I'm a big Penn & Teller fan. But I myself was never very good; I was a teenage magician who performed at kids' parties. I can still perform a vanish, credibly, and I still, in special circumstances, will make a balloon animal.
I was a freelancer all through my 20s and was very slow to get good at what I did.
I don't tweet because I don't need another creative venue. I don't need another form for self-expression. I don't need another way to get my thoughts out to people. I have one. I'm good.
I think one of the reasons that I got so good at it, as somebody making radio stories, is that on the radio I can actually - I can understand what's happening in the interview and can make a connection in a way that makes sense.
'Smallville' is like a Domino's pizza. While you're eating, you're thinking, 'This is good, and it reminds me of pizza, but there's not enough flavor in each bite.' That's the feeling you have the entire time with 'Smallville' - that it's just about ...
I'm just not very funny.
When I say something untrue on the air, I mean for it to be transparently untrue. I assume people know when I'm just saying something for effect. Or to be funny.
I suppose I shouldn't go around admitting I speak untruths on the radio. When I say something untrue on the air, I mean for it to be transparently untrue. I assume people know when I'm just saying something for effect. Or to be funny.
When I started 'This American Life', one of the reactions I got was, 'When is the adult going to show up who will host the show?' At some point, people just got used to it.
Unless you work for '60 Minutes', your life is: You do stories about things, and nothing happens as a result.
I feel like in an interview situation, it's a kind of intimacy that I can understand and handle - versus in real life, when I'm much more of a bumbler and have a hard time.
I think the name of the show, 'This American Life' - we named it that just because it seemed like it made the thing feel big. But we don't think about whether it's an American story or not. We happen to be Americans. I think for the stories to work, ...
I feel like, in general in my work life, my main goal has been to just be in a situation where I'm not bored with my job. That's been the entire principle. Got my wish.
It's not a terribly original thing to say, but I love Raymond Carver. For one thing, he's fun to read out loud.
I love traveling. But I haven't had big, transformative experiences while on the road. When I go out on the road, it's to go out and get a story or do a promotional event.
I suppose I shouldn't go around admitting I speak untruths on the radio.
Just when did I get to the point when staying at a hotel wasn't fun?
Where radio is different than fiction is that even mediocre fiction needs purpose, a driving question.
You'd think that radio was around long enough that someone would have coined a word for staring into space.
In some theoretical way I know that a half-million people hear the show. But in a day-to-day way, there's not much evidence of it.
