Ira Glass is the host and producer of the public radio program This American Life. The show had its premiere on Chicago 's public radio station WBEZ in late 1995 and is now heard on more than 500 public radio stations each week by over 1.7 million listeners. Most weeks, the podcast of the program is the most popular podcast in America.

Ira Glass began his career as an intern at National Public Radio's network headquarters in Washington, DC in 1978, when he was 19 years old. Over the years, he worked on nearly every NPR network news program and held virtually every production job in NPR's Washington headquarters. He has been a tape cutter, newscast writer, desk assistant, editor, and producer. He has filled in as host of Talk of the Nation and Weekend All Things Considered.

Under Glass's editorial direction, This American Life has won the highest honors for broadcasting and journalistic excellence, including the Peabody and DuPont-Columbia awards, as well as the Edward R. Murrow and the Overseas Press Club awards. The American Journalism Review declared that the show is "at the vanguard of a journalistic revolution." It has won critical acclaim and attracted continuous national media attention over the years. In 2001, Time magazine named Glass "Best Radio Host in America."

In 2007 Riverhead published The New Kings of Non-Fiction, a collection of narrative nonfiction essays chosen by Ira Glass. A feature film, Unaccompanied Minors, based on a story from the radio show was released by Warner Brothers in December 2006. The show has put out its own comic book, three greatest hits compilations, a paint-by-numbers set, a "radio decoder" toy, and a DVD, which was created with cartoonist Chris Ware.

In March 2007, the television adaptation of This American Life premiered on Showtime to great critical acclaim and was nominated for three Emmy awards While producing the series for the cable network, Glass and his staff continue to create original radio shows.

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“What’s amazing is how new [This American Life] sounds. It has this beat all to itself...These stories float right into your brain and lodge there.”

— The Nation

“We’re blessed from time to time, with a spontaneous generation of humor and insight....[Ira Glass] finds—uncovers—drama and humor in the most pedestrian of places.”

— David Mamet

“Mr. Glass is 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 New York Times