| 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.
•••
“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] findsuncoversdrama
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 |