FEMALE SPEAKER: Thank you
all so much for coming.
It's my pleasure to introduce
our very special guest, Ira
Glass.
[APPLAUSE]
FEMALE SPEAKER: So
as I'm sure you know,
Ira is the award winning
host and executive producer
of the documentary radio
program, "This American
Life," produced by
Chicago Public Media
and distributed by Public
Radio International.
The program began
in 1995 and is now
heard on over 500
public radio stations
each week by more than
three million people
and is downloaded as a podcast
more than 900,000 times weekly.
So Ira, thanks for joining us.
IRA GLASS: Glad to be here.
FEMALE SPEAKER: I
want to start off
with some basic
questions about the show.
IRA GLASS: OK.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Where you
get the ideas for the show?
What comes first, the
theme or the stories?
IRA GLASS: I mean, I
get asked this a lot.
I mean generally,
what will happen
is someone will pitch a story
which we just love as a staff.
Every two weeks,
we have a meeting
where we generate
new story ideas,
and then people are always
looking for stories.
And so somebody
will pitch a story
that we just all feel
very excited about
and that doesn't go
with any of the themes
that we have going
on at the time,
and so we'll just
basically say, look,
let's do that story as the
anchor for some new show,
and then we'll concoct a theme
that could possibly contain it.
And sometimes we'll come
up with two or three
different themes that
could possibly contain it,
and then we'll look
on a list of here's
some stories that are
left over from other shows
and we never used, and see if
we could glue anything to it,
and then we'll
start on a search.
And then that search can
take us between three
or four months often,
and sometimes even more,
and finding ideas for
stories is generally-- for us
and I think for
anybody-- inefficient.
I think one of the
things when you
start to do creative
work that nobody really
talks to you about is, where
are ideas going to come from?
And you have this
idea of they're
going to be sprinkled on
your head like fairy dust.
And maybe this is it true in
engineering and other kinds
of work, too, but
where I just come from
is you have to just surround
yourself with a lot of stuff
and a lot of ideas because
ideas lead to other ideas.
And so at some point, we'll just
go on a massive search which
will include Googling,
but also just doing
all kinds of research.
We'll brainstorm
different kinds of things
that could possibly
fit in the theme.
Often, we're in
a situation where
we'll have a very
serious story that
will be the anchor with a lot
of weight and a lot of stakes,
and so we'll just consciously
be looking for something
funny or light or more personal
or small, just something
so the whole episode
won't be so heavy.
And for us to find three
or four stories that'll
end up on the air,
often, we'll look
at 15 or 25 different
story ideas.
And we'll go into production
often on seven or eight
stories, and then we
just have to start
making them and
commissioning writers
and flying people
around the country
and interviewing
people, and then we
kill a tremendous
amount of material.
It just was built into
our production model
from the beginning that
we would be killing
between a third and a half
of everything we start.
And it's sort of like
for the kind of stories
we're doing where we need
them to be relatable,
we need a strong
character-- at least one,
if not more than one-- we
need there to be a plot,
the plot has to
be surprising, it
has to do lead to some new
thought about the world,
that thought has
to be surprising.
It's a lot of
criteria to have going
and you really can't
tell what's going
to work until you start
to make the thing.
And so it's like
you want lightning
to strike as an industrial
product every week,
and to do that, you just
have to wander around
in the rain a lot.
FEMALE SPEAKER: So learning
how much you record
and how little of it
actually gets onto the show
is pretty surprising to me.
What else surprises people?
IRA GLASS: Because in your
view, we just open up the mic
and people are
incredibly charming.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Yes.
IRA GLASS: If only.
FEMALE SPEAKER: I
think somebody comes up
to you at a dinner
party and says,
Ira, I have this
great story, and then
you say, let's
record it right now,
and then suddenly it's
on the radio that week.
IRA GLASS: That
would be a dream.
My job would be very easy.
FEMALE SPEAKER: So what else
usually surprises people
about the production
of the show?
IRA GLASS: I mean,
it's a lot of us now.
When we started the show, it
was just three people and me,
and now it's a dozen
of us making it.
I don't know what would
be surprising to people.
When you see a
movie, you can just
feel all the money
and all the people
behind it, whereas a radio
show, if it's working,
it just feels like one person
talking to another person,
and so the machinery
of it is invisible.
If it's done well, you
don't get the feeling
that we've spent four
months editing and reediting
and reediting and going
back and doing things again.
So I think in general, the
machinery of it is surprising.
FEMALE SPEAKER: What
about the interviews?
Do you do them face to face?
IRA GLASS: Some, but it
doesn't have to face to face.
It's funny with radio,
I'll do interviews
where I'll be in a
studio in one city
and somebody will be in
a studio in another city.
And we use the incredibly
primitive technology of I'll
be in the studio and talking
to them over the phone,
and we'll send an
engineer who will just
sit there with a microphone.
So I'm recording
my voice where I am
and they record their voice
on a recorder where they are,
and then we just
synchronize the two
tapes so it sounds like
we're in the same room.
Very complicated.
And it turns out
for many things,
that's just as good as
being there in person.
It doesn't matter
if you're there
for a lot of things, even
very personal things.
Because it's almost
like we're used
to talking to people on
the phone very personally,
and it's almost like the
conversation is happening
in the space of radio,
if that makes sense.
And I know that
some interviewers,
like Terry Gross,
who does "Fresh Air,"
she prefers not to be in
the studio with the people.
She doesn't want to see them.
She doesn't want them to see
her going through her notes.
FEMALE SPEAKER: So I'd love
to hear you talk about some
of your favorite episodes.
I know "Testosterone,"
I think is one of them,
and "Hartford High."
What do you think makes
those so successful?
IRA GLASS: I mean, those
are such different episodes.
I mean, the episodes
that are good
have a really nice mix of
being relatable and surprising
and take you into a world
that you kind of know
exists but don't really
know the details of.
"Harper High School," it
was a two episode thing.
We'd never done that before.
And basically, it came out
of our senior producer,
Julie Snyder, being really
interested in trying
to figure out a way to cover
gun violence in Chicago.
Last year, 506 people,
I think it was,
were shot in one
year in Chicago,
and the number was going
up whereas the number was
going down or staying the
same in other big cities,
and it was very unclear why the
number was so high in Chicago.
560 is a huge number.
New York is three times
larger than Chicago,
and the number of shootings in
New York was smaller than that.
And in the coverage
of it, it was
really hard to even understand
the most basic things
like, why are people
shooting each other?
You would read in the
clippings, so somebody got shot
at the corner of 70th and Stony
Island, and you wouldn't know.
Was it a drug thing?
Was it a gang thing?
Was it a domestic thing?
You couldn't even know.
And so we were looking for
a way to get a grip on it,
and if you're us, the
first thing we need
is plot and story
and characters,
and so we have to find a
place to locate the story.
And the first thing we tried was
on Memorial Day of that year,
50 people were shot
in one weekend,
in the Memorial Day weekend.
We felt like, OK,
that'll be our frame.
We'll just do
Memorial Day weekend
and we'll do those 50 shootings.
And that turned out to be
unproducable in the time frame
we wanted because once
the people were caught up
in the court system, we couldn't
get people to talk to us,
and we couldn't report out the
stories with the kind of speed
that you'd want to
to get it on the air.
And then we went looking
for another frame
and we found this high
school, Harper High School,
where 29 kids had
been shot in one year.
I can't remember
if it's nine-- they
were current or recent students.
So recent students are sort
of like a kid who dropped out
as a sophomore, but now he would
have been in his junior year
and still friends with
everybody in the school.
We were counting those because
the school counted them.
So it was 29 current
and recent students
and eight or nine of
them died in one year.
And if you just think
about the trauma
a school goes through
if there's one shooting,
and so this is 29 of them.
And this wasn't
the most shootings
in Chicago or anything.
And I think what makes
an episode like that work
is that, honestly, most of
us have no idea what it's
like to live in a community
where that many people are
getting shot.
We sent in three
reporters for five months
to just camp out in
that school and get
to know the staff
and the students.
And what was interesting
was both being
able to document what
that level of violence
does to the kids with
the kind of detail
that you don't get to
report out that much.
And so there was one kid
who was like the Forrest
Gump of the shootings
at the school.
He had been at six or
seven different shootings,
kids who he knows, close to.
He would just be standing
there, they would die right
in front of them,
and his own brother
had been shot three
times and survived,
but was in a wheelchair at
the end of the last shooting.
And where that kid is
after that turns out
to be something
worth talking about.
And then the staff of the
school was really great,
kind of the crypto message
of the show, I guess,
was here is like an
inner city high school,
and people bring all
these associations
to that, and the
super competent staff.
And when there was a shooting,
they had all these procedures
that they had developed,
learning from the Army
these after action reports
where they would just
jump into action to figure
out, if this kid got shot,
who else did this kid know?
What gang were they in?
What gang is warring
with that gang?
And they would just get all the
other kids who could possibly
get shot out of the
school and to their homes
to get people to safety.
And just so much about that
show was really surprising,
so that made that work.
I could talk about this
show for a long time.
Gangs in that school turned
out to be really different.
It made me feel like
such an old person.
The gangs, when I was a
reporter in Chicago reporting
on gangs 15, 20 years ago,
gangs were a criminal enterprise
like you'd see on "The
Wire," and they'd sell drugs,
and they were out to make money.
And I just felt like,
these kids today,
they don't even
want to make money.
They're not even selling drugs.
And the parents are
sort of like what I was.
They thought a street
gang was one thing,
and all these things are--
if you heard the show,
it's like your
high school clique.
And it's just like
a bunch of kids,
but everybody can get a gun.
And so it's just like
basically, the neighborhood
is so dangerous, every kid
in the school was in a gang.
The nerds were in the gangs, the
drama kids were in the gangs,
the band kids were in the gang.
Every kid, you had
to be in a gang.
Every kid was in a gang.
And so you'd read
about this 15-year-old
that summer got shot.
And you'd read in the paper,
she was a member of a gang.
Every kid is in the gang.
She was a band kid.
So a lot of that was
surprising, and I
feel like that's
what makes it good.
There were characters
who, when you
would hear their situation--
the secret power of the radio
or the special power of
doing something on the radio
is the fact that
you don't see them.
It's easy to create
the kind of intimacy
where you feel like you can
get to know people very,
very quickly.
We did a TV show for two years
and we've done two movies,
and I feel like you can
create that kind of intimacy
on film or on video,
but you'd really
have to shoot it like a film.
You'd have to light
it beautifully
you'd have to like really
frame it beautifully,
and just to bring the
kind of production values
that you'd have to bring
to it to make those stories
work with the sort of immediacy
and emotional intimacy
that you get on
radio, you'd have
to really throw a tremendous
amount of money and production
value at it.
It really would have
to be shot like a film,
whereas with us, we're going
out with tape recorders.
And just the fact that
you don't see the people
and you hear their voice, that
has such an immediacy to it
that I feel like that's the
special power that radio can
bring to something like that.
And you just feel like you
get to know the people so fast
and you're so close
up in their world
that it's easy to
imagine, here's
what it would be
like to be them.
I mean, this is a really
long answer to your question,
but I feel like
the thing that we
can contribute as reporters
in the world that is harder
to achieve than other
kinds of journalism
is to do the most basic
thing that a story can do,
which is make it possible
to imagine, oh, here's
what it would be like to be you.
And I feel like something
like that, where you're
talking about gang kids
and things like that, where
I think people who
are not in a gang
or didn't grow up in
that kind of neighborhood
bring all kinds of
associations to it,
to be able to illustrate,
no, no, no, here's
what it's really like.
If you lived in
this neighborhood,
you would be in the gang.
Here's how you would feel
and here's how you would be.
That's what we're trying.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Thank you.
IRA GLASS: Oh my
god that was silly.
Too long.
I'll be more terse as we go on.
FEMALE SPEAKER: So when
I heard that episode,
it was very affecting,
and you leave that episode
and you say, what
can I do to help?
And I think there was some
sort of donations for Harper.
Was there on the website?
IRA GLASS: The school
set up a donation page
and they made a quarter
million dollars.
And if anybody wants to
go, they can use the money.
They're a public school.
But what can you do to help?
There's nothing
you can do to help.
Nothing you can do.
I honestly believe it wasn't the
kind of thing where-- I mean,
maybe it's cynical to
say that, but are you
going to change the social
structure of the south side
of Chicago so that kids don't
want to join gangs, or make
the neighborhood a
safe neighborhood?
I mean, you know
how you could help,
is if you could revive
the economy of that part
of the city of Chicago so that
the entire neighborhood became
safer because the
economic level would rise.
I think that would be the thing.
But the fact is in our country,
where pockets of violence
happen, it's very poor
pockets in cities,
and unless you fix that.
FEMALE SPEAKER:
But with episodes,
like "Very Tough Love," you
made the story, I think,
because you wanted to
tell that story, but--
IRA GLASS: "Very Tough
Love," it's about this judge.
There was a judge
down in Georgia who--
FEMALE SPEAKER: Yeah, Judge
Amanda Williams was in Georgia,
and there was an episode about
her drug corps and some very
strict rulings.
And then after
the episode aired,
there were some real world
consequences for her.
So when you told that story,
were you thinking in the back
to your mind,
what's Georgia going
to do once this
airs, or were you
just telling it to tell
an interesting story?
IRA GLASS: I mean, it
was first and foremost
an interesting story.
That story, man.
I was down in Georgia.
We had this idea for a show
called "Georgia Rambler," based
on an old newspaper
column, and the idea
is that this guy would roll
into different small towns
in Georgia, this
columnist, Charles Salter.
He would just show
up in a town and he
would find a story that
day about that town,
and it was just portraits
of small town life.
And as a staff, we just
thought, that would be fun.
Let's do that.
So we each chose a county.
We'd just pick
names out of a hat.
And so I ended up with
the county that turned out
to be the county that
this judge was in,
and you're given one day to
find a story under these rules
that we artificially
created for ourselves just
to amuse ourselves.
And I had been in the county--
literally the first interview
I did was somebody who was like,
you know who you should talk
to is this guy, Joe
[INAUDIBLE], and he's
in this war with this judge.
And I heard about
the judge right away,
and people kept telling me
stories about the judge.
And I totally had this feeling
of, if these stories are true,
somebody should really
investigate this judge.
And I totally had
the feeling of,
some reporter should
come down here.
And honestly, when people
would tell me these stores,
I couldn't tell if
the stories were true.
I really had a feeling
of, this can't be true.
And then pinning it
down and getting people
to go on the record took
four or five months.
Every time I would fly back
down there, my wife and my staff
were just like, why are
you doing this story?
And then it turned
out people were
willing to come forward
and go on the record.
And I did have a feeling
in the back of my mind,
somebody should do something
about this if this is true.
And I don't feel like
I can claim credit.
At the same time that people
were saying things to me,
they were saying things to--
there's a watchdog state
committee that looks for judges
who might be doing things that
are bad, and they had been
tipped off about this judge
and they were
looking into it too.
But I think the visibility of
the radio show and the fact
that people from
all over the country
heard it gave it a
visibility in Georgia.
And honestly, hearing it
on the radio, a woman who
had been on the
State Supreme Court
got involved in the case
as one of the people moving
the case forward.
It raised the profile of it
in a way that is very rare.
Honestly, most journalism
doesn't achieve anything.
And I think I got
into journalism,
like most young
people, thinking,
I'm going to make
the world a better
place by exposing wrongdoing.
But honestly, most
wrongdoing that you expose,
nothing happens.
You can do all the stories you
want on Guantanamo and things
that somebody should get in
there and fix-- climate change.
Everybody who is going to
believe that climate change is
real pretty much believes it,
and yet we're not actually
addressing the
problem in a way that
is at the scale of
the problem itself.
And I just feel like, what
is left to say as a reporter?
It's happening, there's more
and more evidence all the time.
We can say it again,
but you already know it.
And so generally, when
you're a reporter,
almost nothing gets
any results ever.
That's one of the very
few times I've ever
worked on anything that
I could say afterwards,
I helped in any way the
process of something changing.
FEMALE SPEAKER: What about
people's individual lives?
Do they follow up with you and
say, after I was on the show,
this happened?
IRA GLASS: After I was on
the show, a lot of my friends
got in contact with
me over Twitter.
FEMALE SPEAKER:
Real world change.
IRA GLASS: Real world change.
I mean, sometimes.
Often, we're just documenting
people's personal stories,
and I don't know how much--
I mean, I don't know.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Maybe they
would get back in touch with you
and say, hey Ira, I was really
having a problem with that.
Now it worked out.
Or just wanted to let you know.
IRA GLASS: No, not that often.
No, no, no.
Like, no, I told that story
about my mom and she heard it
and now she's mad at me.
There's a little bit of that.
FEMALE SPEAKER: What about
episodes that just flopped
or made you uncomfortable
or maybe listening back
to some old ones, you feel
like you didn't cover them
in the way you would now?
IRA GLASS: I mean, there
definitely are things-- yeah,
there's a lot.
I mean, we're on a lot.
We made a lot of episodes.
And there are
things, definitely,
that I really wish we
could have done better.
I wish I could
think of an example
very quickly for you of one.
There's one that we did
last week that on staff, we
wondered if we handled literally
the structure of the show
properly.
And it was this one which
was built around an idea
that I love.
One of our producers,
Sarah Koenig, her mom
has seven rules on things
you should never talk about.
Unless you're going
through a health crisis,
you should never talk
about your health,
like oh, I have this
problem in my shoulder.
You should never talk
about your dreams.
You should never talk about
how you slept last night,
and number one on her list the
route you took to get there.
Nobody's interested.
And so she has seven
stories, and we thought,
this a really funny
premise for the show.
And Sarah said, well, what
if we could prove you wrong?
I work with a team of people.
We're very committed to
finding interesting stories
on any subject.
What if we can prove that there
could be stories on these seven
subjects that could
be interesting?
And her mother is like, I
don't believe you can do it.
And then it was
very much like, OK,
the first scene
of "My Fair Lady."
I can take this woman
with a cockney accent
and make her into a lady.
That's our mission.
And so we set out as a staff
to find seven stories that
would totally be amazing
stories of those seven subjects.
And Sarah Koenig is just such an
amazing interviewer and writer
on the radio.
And somehow, when
the show was done,
all of a sudden the
feeling of, oh wait,
did we format the show wrong?
And this is such a
nerdy thing, but we
keep coming back to the
mom throughout the hour
to check in of like, well,
what did you think of that one?
What did you think of that one?
And then we realized
at the end-- which
seemed like since
there's a drama of what
is she going to
think of each story
and is she going to give the
thumbs up or thumbs down?
But somehow, weirdly,
I think for listeners,
that lowered the stakes.
Did you guys hear this one?
Was it a thumbs up or
thumbs down episode?
Thumbs up?
How many of you are
thumbs down on it, though?
Some thumbs down.
Because the drama
doesn't play perfectly.
And some of the staffers-- I
was very much on the side of,
we must have the
mom in the studio
because the drama is, is the
mom going to give us thumbs up
or thumbs down?
And we'll just do it like we'll
tell the stories to the mom.
And then there was a
whole contingent on staff
who were just like, no, no, no.
It's going to be
more entertaining
not to have the mom there.
And I wonder if we
did the wrong thing.
I wonder if it would have
been better just to come back
to the mom at the
end and just let
her say, nope, I'm still right.
FEMALE SPEAKER: What did
she say about the episode?
IRA GLASS: She enjoyed
it, and she's still
talking to Sarah,
which was our goal.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Well done.
So one thing that
I was wondering.
I read an interview you did
with "New York Magazine,"
and you gave some
snarky responses,
and then some of your fans left
angry comments on the article
because you didn't match
their expectations of Ira.
IRA GLASS: Wait, what
were my snarky responses?
What did I say?
FEMALE SPEAKER: I'll
send you the link.
IRA GLASS: I don't
even remember this.
OK.
FEMALE SPEAKER: And
you didn't match
who they think Ira Glass is,
host of "This American Life."
IRA GLASS: Wow.
I am so glad I didn't
read these comments.
OK.
Well, let's hear them.
FEMALE SPEAKER: So
the question is--
IRA GLASS: Wait.
Do you-- really-- yeah?
FEMALE SPEAKER: Do
you think that you
match people's expectations
of who you are?
Are you the same person
as your narrator self?
IRA GLASS: Oh.
I'm not the same person
as my narrator self.
My narrator self is a much more
edited down version of myself.
Like any normal person,
when I go in public,
there's a lot less
cursing than in real life.
FEMALE SPEAKER: That
was part of the snark.
IRA GLASS: What?
That I was cursing?
FEMALE SPEAKER: Yeah.
IRA GLASS: What
the fuck did I say?
[APPLAUSE]
I've been going around doing
this show with these dancers,
with these modern dancers.
[APPLAUSE]
You guys saw the dance show?
So it sounds like it should be
awful, but it's fine, right?
It's good.
So as I tell radio stories and
these two incredibly talented
women dance, and
really, it sounds
like it would be terrible,
but it's actually
pretty moving and funny.
And there's a whole
section of the show where
I tell a bunch of
stories, all of which
include the word "cocksucker,"
and I feel so aware
of people in the audience.
It's like, OK, you came out
to the public radio event.
Here I am, it's
just like cocksucker
this and cocksucker that.
[LAUGHTER]
Anyway, so what's the-- so my
expectation is that people's
expectations-- I
think on the radio,
I'm listening to people
in a more focused way,
I've been told, than
I do in my real life.
FEMALE SPEAKER: You're
doing great right now.
IRA GLASS: Thank you.
Well, this is a focused
sort of situation.
I had a friend who once said
that the difference between me
on the radio and me in real
life is that on the radio,
I'm just not distracted by the
500 other things I'm supposed
to be doing at the same
time, whereas in real life,
I think I live in my
own little head a lot.
FEMALE SPEAKER: That
makes a lot of sense.
IRA GLASS: Thank
you for saying that.
Other people in my
life, though, would
contest that thought that
it makes a lot of sense,
and perhaps wish that it
could be a little different.
FEMALE SPEAKER: So you've sort
of become this cultural icon.
How does it feel
when you see yourself
portrayed in pop culture?
IRA GLASS: Well weirdly,
I'm not enough of an icon
that people portray me
without me being involved.
FEMALE SPEAKER: There
was the one on "The OC."
I feel like you weren't
involved with that one.
IRA GLASS: "The OC," that
was a really special one.
Yeah, but--
FEMALE SPEAKER: Will
you tell that story?
I love that story.
IRA GLASS: Yes.
OK, so I was a super fan
of "The OC," and my wife
and I would watch it every week.
FEMALE SPEAKER: You
would sing "California."
IRA GLASS: Yes, we would.
We were so into it that
at the beginning of each--
I've told this
story on the radio.
At the beginning of each
episode, my wife and I
would sit on the couch and we
would sing along with the song,
(SINGING) do, do,
do, do, do, do--
FEMALE SPEAKER: I know it.
IRA GLASS:
[SINGING_"CALIFORNIA"] And I
think I had talked about
how much I like the show.
I don't think it was
like a random-- that
would have been so random.
FEMALE SPEAKER: But
it fits the character.
IRA GLASS: It fits
the character.
So anyway, at some point-- I
actually have a clip of this.
I didn't realize you were
going to bring this up,
but I brought a thing with
clips that sometimes-- I'll
just tell the story.
Anyway, so I was
watching "The OC,"
and there comes a point where
Seth and Summer are in a scene,
and I think there's
another girl in his room,
that Blondie girl
was in his room.
And his girlfriend
Summer picks up
and she's like, I
hear a woman's voice.
And he comes up with the
implausible-- he's like, oh,
I've got the radio on.
"This American Life"
is on the radio.
And then she says a
line which is like, oh,
that show with--
hold on for a second.
I am going to find it.
She says--
FEMALE SPEAKER:
Some egghead thing.
IRA GLASS: She says, oh, that
show of know it all hipsters?
Isn't that pretentious show?
It was like a valentine from
Summer, who I love, of course.
Here we go.
Here's Seth's question to her.
Can we bring up the
sound to the computer?
[AUDIO PLAYBACK]
-That sounded like a girl.
-[STAMMERS] Yeah.
Well, sure.
Because I'm listening to the
radio and "This American Life"
is on, and so there's
a girl talking.
[END AUDIO PLAYBACK]
IRA GLASS: First of all,
that makes no sense at all.
And then her reply, like--
[AUDIO PLAYBACK]
-Is that that show by
those hipster know-it-alls
that talk about how fascinating
ordinary people are?
[SCOFFS] God.
[END AUDIO PLAYBACK]
IRA GLASS: Is that that show
where hipster know-it-alls talk
about how fascinating
ordinary people are?
[SCOFFS]
FEMALE SPEAKER: So
you were just sitting
on the couch and your
wife and you saw it?
IRA GLASS: I totally had
a moment of, wait, wait.
What just happened?
What is happening?
What is happening?
A character on the
WB just talked to us.
That was crazy.
That was really-- it was crazy.
I was just like, is
this on everyone's TV?
I really had a feeling of,
am I on some drug flashback
right now?
It really was
really, really weird.
That's one of the
weirdest things
that's happened for sure.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Well, you
chose not to be on "Orange
is the New Black."
IRA GLASS: Yes.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Why not?
IRA GLASS: I didn't want to
be myself on another TV show.
I don't know, I felt
like it was becoming
a shtick of going on
TV shows and playing
myself a little bit.
I mean, this seems like
a bratty thing to say--
FEMALE SPEAKER: No, I think it
got the same message across.
It didn't need to be you.
As soon as I watched
it, I paused it.
I googled, was this
supposed to be Ira Glass?
And then it said yes,
and I was like, OK,
I can continue watching.
IRA GLASS: Yeah.
FEMALE SPEAKER: The message
got across for your fans.
IRA GLASS: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That seemed fine.
I wished them the best,
and do wish them the best.
And it's good for the
business that the show
was sort of there in
a weird crypto way.
But I didn't want to do it.
At that point-- I
didn't want to do it.
FEMALE SPEAKER: So
shifting gears a bit,
just to talk about
technology, what's
your favorite app or your
favorite piece of technology?
IRA GLASS: I use a MacBook
Air that I think is amazing.
Am I allowed to mention
an Apple product here?
I'm constantly amazed at
the devices in my life.
My friend Chris Ware is
this cartoonist and writer,
and he says he feels like his
iPhone is like the tricorder he
wished he had had as a
child watching "Star Trek."
It does all the things.
It can tell you anything.
But my technology use
is pretty-- basically,
I'm editing on Pro Tools, I'm
writing, I'm sending emails,
I'm listening to music while
I run, and I'm using maps.
FEMALE SPEAKER: So you
don't have Snap Chat?
IRA GLASS: No.
And also, I'm not on Twitter.
I feel like I don't
need a creative outlet.
I'm all set.
I don't need a Tumblr.
I'm good.
I'm covered.
FEMALE SPEAKER:
Is there anything
that you're waiting for, some
piece of technology where it's
like, why doesn't
that exist yet?
IRA GLASS: I have to say,
there was a piece of technology
that I pitched people for
years and then Google invented.
And I feel like our
entire radio show runs
on this piece of
technology, and it's docs,
it's that you can
share a document.
And I used to meet software
engineers and I would say,
could you invent something so
that for the thing that we're
doing on our show-- we're
playing each other's stories,
and then we go over
the scripts together.
What you want is something so
that somebody in another city
could be looking at the document
and you guys are both typing it
at the same time, and people
at four or five different desks
can all be typing
on, making changes.
I was like, well,
that must be easy.
And I kept waiting
for somebody to do it,
and then you guys did
it, and our whole show
runs on Google Docs.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Well, if
you think of anything else,
this is the right
room to ask for it.
IRA GLASS: Really?
FEMALE SPEAKER: Yeah.
IRA GLASS: Can I just say,
in the Calendar program
on the iPhone, it has
two what I consider bugs.
It's on your phone and it
makes you type in your name
and tell it who
you are every day.
And so you'll be riding
a bike, realizing
you have to check your
calendar, and then you
have to stop and
enter in your name.
That's not-- why?
Why do you--
FEMALE SPEAKER: It sounds
like a pitch for Glass.
IRA GLASS: Really?
For the glasses thing?
FEMALE SPEAKER: Yeah,
because it's like, oh,
it would just pop right up.
IRA GLASS: Sure.
FEMALE SPEAKER: OK.
Well, we'll talk to someone on
calendar, see what we can do.
IRA GLASS: And then
it asks me every day,
do I want it on my home screen,
and it's on my home screen.
And there's no way
to tell it, you're
already living on
my home screen.
Stop asking me.
You live there now.
Look around.
You're on the home screen.
I can't give you
better placement.
You have the number one
placement on the phone.
You're at the top of the phone.
I'm going think if I have
any other engineering
problems I want to solve.
No.
I feel like things have been
amazing with technology.
There's a lot of things
wrong with this country
and the world, but our computers
and phones, we're doing great.
Also, cable TV, fine.
Doing fine.
Plenty of good TV to watch.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Does any
piece of technology scare you?
IRA GLASS: I mean, no.
Does any piece of
technology scare you?
FEMALE SPEAKER: There's
all these articles
about privacy and
people watching
you and ubiquitous cameras.
I didn't know if
that was something
that you worried about.
IRA GLASS: No.
I mean, I suppose I
should, but I don't.
No.
Honestly, I'm so full of
fear about other things,
I can't organize my--
FEMALE SPEAKER: There's
not enough room.
IRA GLASS: No, it's true.
I feel like I'm
constantly on deadline,
I'm constantly having to finish
things which aren't finished.
Right now as I sit
here, I actually
should be going through tape
about this car dealership
so I could have a
draft of my story
by Monday, which is the
deadline I have for myself,
and here I am sitting here.
FEMALE SPEAKER:
Thanks for being here.
IRA GLASS: Yeah.
So with all of that fear
going through my system,
what time do I
have to be thinking
about how I'm being surveilled
by cameras all the time who
will watch me making my
stupid fucking story?
What do I care?
Go ahead, watch.
FEMALE SPEAKER: So since your
radio show started in 1995,
how has technology
changed how you work?
IRA GLASS: The basics
since '95 haven't changed.
When I started in radio, I
was editing reel to reel tape
and stuff, and so I switched
over from analog to digital,
but that happened
around '95, actually.
The main way that technology
has changed the radio show
is that we can get it out to
more people more efficiently.
Seth, when did we start
doing the podcast?
SETH LIND: 2006.
IRA GLASS: 2006.
OK, so 2006, our
audience on the radio--
that's Seth Lind, who runs
the business side of the radio
show.
[APPLAUSE]
Seth, you'll be up
here-- what's that?
SETH LIND: I said
our stock is up 3%.
IRA GLASS: So 2006,
when we started
the podcast, our
audience on the radio
was about 1.8 million people
listening on 500 public radio
stations, which is middle
range for a public radio show,
for a national show.
"Morning Edition,"
kicks our ass,
Garrison Keillor kicks
our ass, but we still
have an edge over
"Radio Lab," thank god.
Those guys.
Since then, basically,
what's happened
is the radio audience has
stayed at about the same level.
They actually measure radio
audiences more accurately now,
so we know that the
number has been not 1.8,
but it's been probably a
little higher than that.
And the radio audience
has stayed there
while we've gained basically
a million people every week
downloading who we
didn't have before.
And that was a real
question for radio
when podcasting and internet
distribution would come in,
how it would cannibalize radio.
And I think in some parts of
radio, it's been very bad,
but for shows like ours, it's
been really, really good.
That's been the main way.
And I think part of the reason
why we work on the internet
is because accidentally,
the aesthetics of the show
match the aesthetics
of the internet.
That is, I feel like most
communication on the internet
is very much a very one to
one, I'm talking to you.
And even if it's a
blog or something
else like comments or
anything, it's very much,
I'm writing to you.
You're right there on the
other side of this thing
and I'm talking
to you one on one,
and radio is exactly
that when it's done well.
And so I feel like it has the
feeling that it belongs there.
We did nothing to market
it or make it successful.
It just happened.
FEMALE SPEAKER: So
with the podcast,
you can listen to one episode,
you can listen to one act.
You can pick and choose.
Do you think that changes how
people consume your stories?
IRA GLASS: I don't know.
Honestly, Seth would
know better than this
because he looks at the numbers.
Do people listen to one
story, or are people
listening to whole episodes?
SETH LIND: Whole episodes.
IRA GLASS: They do.
They're listening
to whole episodes.
Weirdly, figuring out how to
do journalism on the internet,
like NPR and other
outfits have tried
to figure out ways to do it.
And for a while,
they thought people
would be curating
their own content,
and that you'd put out a
lot of small, little pieces
of journalism, and
then people would
like pick and choose
from among them.
But it turns out people don't
want to go to the trouble
generally, for audio, anyway.
And one of the things that it
seems like people will listen
to is actually long
form narrative.
And so yeah, I guess they're
listening to the whole hour.
FEMALE SPEAKER: That's
interesting to hear.
But with the live
stream, they're
probably just tuning
in at some point.
IRA GLASS: The live
stream is pretty new,
though, so we don't know.
FEMALE SPEAKER: That'll
be interesting to see.
IRA GLASS: We have a 24
hour live stream now,
a 24 hour radio station that
only plays us, which is a dream
that I never wanted.
FEMALE SPEAKER: So are there any
stories, maybe about technology
or otherwise, that just
floating in your head
that you've been trying to
find a way to tell on the radio
but they don't fit
into a theme right now?
IRA GLASS: Not about technology.
Honestly, being here, I guess
I could have prepared more
by thinking more about
technology and things
like that.
The only technology
story, truthfully,
that I've been interested
in that we looked
into that I still feel like
I don't totally understand
is, why isn't there kind of a
moon shot sort of engineering
solution to climate change?
Why isn't that a
business for somebody
to do to take carbon dioxide
out of the atmosphere
and like fix the actual planet?
It seems like that's a
good business for somebody
who knows about
things like that.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Have
you looked into it?
Are people doing it?
IRA GLASS: We've looked into it.
We reported it out a little
bit, and there are efforts
and it's not an easy
technical problem
to not consume more
energy in the process.
You know what I mean?
You don't want to
make the problem worse
by solving the problem.
So it turns out to be
a not trivial problem,
but it also seems like it
isn't a big war going on
to solve that problem.
It seems like it's a
couple of people trying
it, and not at a huge scale
either, is what we found out
in our reporting.
FEMALE SPEAKER:
Why don't you think
people are more
worried about it?
IRA GLASS: I don't know
enough about it to know.
I don't know.
I don't totally understand that.
I feel like I'd have
to report it out more.
FEMALE SPEAKER: So
if you had to choose
one class for every student
to take, what would it be?
IRA GLASS: Wow.
A class that they
don't already take?
FEMALE SPEAKER: Yeah,
or maybe tweaking
the way something is done in
classrooms or in education.
IRA GLASS: I mean,
there is a thing
in writing that I feel like
I had to learn on my own
that I'm surprised
isn't taught in school,
and that is people don't
teach story structure properly
in school.
I think that when we're
all taught how to write,
we're taught topic sentences.
We're taught the way that you
would write an essay with topic
sentences at the
beginning of paragraphs,
and then you fill
out the paragraphs,
and that basically was
learning to write in school.
But in fact, there's
a structure of telling
a story that's more effective
than that, that I feel like I
had to learn by reading and
trial and error and whatever,
which is much more
anecdote based.
So for example, the stories on
our show, the structure of them
is really built
around plot and ideas,
and it's a very old structure.
It's a very traditional
kind of story structure
where you want to just think
through the sequence of actions
where one thing leads to
the next, leads to the next,
leads to the next.
And so really, you
want to break down
whatever is going to
happen into this happened,
and then this happened, and
then this happened, and then
happened.
And the advantage of
having forward motion
is that it inherently
creates suspense
because you wonder what's
going to happen next.
And so you hold people's
attention because simply moving
forward action, it's
like you create suspense
and you can do it with the
most banal story possible,
or the most everyday story.
And so as long as one thing
is leading to the next,
is leading to the next,
you create suspense.
And then periodically, you
want to jump out of the action
and have some thought
about what the story means.
And it's really the
structure of a sermon.
A sermon is basically composed
of a series of anecdotes
and then thoughts about
what the anecdotes are.
Certain writers just
naturally write that way,
and radio definitely
works best that way,
and there's a certain
kind of journalism
that works that way, too.
If you read a really
great narrative writer
like Malcom Gladwell
or Michael Lewis,
they're constantly
giving you the action
and jumping out of the
action to make some thought
and then back into the action.
And that's the structure
of "Moneyball,"
and that's the structure of
a lot of really great books.
And when we're in
school, nobody tells
us, that's a way to write
that's so much easier, actually,
in a certain way, and is
so much more mesmerizing
than topic sentences,
because you're
utilizing this thing
that's so primal within us
because you can create suspense.
And I feel like
the thing that we
don't learn when we're
learning to write in school
is how to make it fascinating.
FEMALE SPEAKER: That's
really interesting
because in some of
our meetings earlier,
we were learning about how
it's half technology and half
the story because
you need people
to adopt and to
understand and appreciate
what you're building.
And there's such a big push
now for STEM and for all
of these science and math
based educational initiatives,
but it would be really
interesting to also push
stories because
without those stories,
how do you get people to
appreciate technology?
IRA GLASS: I guess.
I mean, stories are also an
end in and of themselves,
I would say, but yeah.
FEMALE SPEAKER: No, I'm saying
if you have to justify it.
But yes, I think it's an
interesting point that we're
taught to write in
this very basic way
and there's a lot
more art to it.
IRA GLASS: Yeah.
Though I also think you can
learn to be a good writer.
I was a bad writer.
I was bad, actively bad, and
I willed myself to get better
and really tried
to learn, what are
the building blocks of a story?
And I think often people who
aren't naturally good writers,
you're just
intimidated because you
feel like, again, you have
to be touched by an angel
to be a good
writer, but you just
have to have taste about
what's interesting, I think.
FEMALE SPEAKER: So what's
your advice for someone
who wants to become
a better storyteller?
IRA GLASS: Just start.
Start making it.
Don't wait.
Just start making stuff.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Cool.
So now we'd like to open it up
to questions from the audience,
so there's a
microphone right there.
AUDIENCE: Hi.
Thanks for coming.
I wand to follow
up on a question
that Logan posed earlier, and
I thought you addressed more
from the technology perspective.
But she had asked how
technology has changed
the making of the
show in the time
that you've been working
on it, and generally
since you've been
working in radio.
And not just from the
technological perspective,
but I guess from the idea
perspective, how has-- I'm
thinking about your comment
about all the 500 things
that are distracting
you and keeping you
from focusing on certain things.
Does technology or that ability
to have that distraction
take away the idle
moments that you
might have had to brainstorm
or think about something,
and do you have self imposed
free time from technology
to help cope with that,
if that's a problem?
IRA GLASS: That's a really
interesting question.
No, not for me.
My day is pretty much jam packed
with things that I organized
for myself and obligations
that I accidentally
created for myself, and things
that I thought, oh, that would
be a really fun little
project, and then of course it
ends up consuming
90 hours a week.
I don't have the problem
where I feel like, oh, I'm
so distracted by my devices
or anything like that.
I don't have that.
I don't have that at all.
And I also don't believe
that people's attention
spans are getting shorter.
I think it's such
fucking horseshit.
I just think it's the stupidest.
I feel like the
success of "Radiolab,"
and shows like ours, and the
fact that you can get people
who are 14 years old to listen
to an hour long podcast,
and there's tons of them.
People will pay
attention if something's
kind of interesting.
AUDIENCE: Would you characterize
yourself and the people
on your staff as people who are
constantly checking your phones
and looking at your devices?
IRA GLASS: No, I would not.
I mean, maybe-- Seth, would
you characterize the people
on our staff as
people-- no, we're not.
No.
We work in an office where
we have a computer in front
of us all day long,
so there's no reason
to check a phone for
anything, and we're old.
People are in their 30s and 40s.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
IRA GLASS: Sure.
AUDIENCE: Hi.
So one of my favorite shows
is the "Harper High School"
episode of "This American Life."
I actually used to be a teacher
on the south side of Chicago.
It was along the
lines of what you
were talking about with the--
IRA GLASS: Which
school were you?
AUDIENCE: The
elementary school I
taught at was Howe Elementary.
It's actually on the west side.
But I also taught in Altgeld
Gardens at Fenger High School.
IRA GLASS: You taught
at Fenger High School?
AUDIENCE: That was very brief--
IRA GLASS: Were you there
when that kid got killed?
AUDIENCE: So for people
who don't remember,
this was the kid who was beat
to death with a two by four
and it was captured on video.
This was in the Altgeld
Gardens neighborhood
in Chicago, which is a very
dangerous and isolated place
of violence and
poverty and depression,
and so I taught there several
months after that happened.
I was about there or
four months after that.
And so that personally was a
deeply affecting episode to me.
And even with the
discussion of what
we were talking about today,
about what can we possibly
do upon hearing that?
As a journalist,
if you're reading
about this in a
newspaper, the newspaper
is obligated to present
a balanced, neutral view
of what's going on.
It's not hopeful or it's
not depressing, it's just,
this is what's happening.
So with your
platform, do you feel
compelled to end the story
in a certain hopeful tone,
or as bleak as it really is,
or do you feel some obligation
to present it in a
way that you feel
is the best way to present
it to the audience?
And then as a second
part of the question,
with the advent of podcasting
and so on and so forth,
with the amount of probably
interviews that you guys
did for the story, do
you guys feel maybe
that there's opportunity to
just place those on there
and have people draw
their own conclusions?
We had an hour long story.
We could only fit so
much in, but here's all
this other stuff
that we collected.
Maybe if you go through
and listen to it,
you can draw your
own conclusions.
Have you guys given
thought to that?
IRA GLASS: To the second
thing, absolutely not, no.
Partly because just
hearing raw interviews
without the context of, who is
this kid that's explaining what
is going on, just
feels like it's not
doing the kids justice.
And I feel like in the
shows that we're doing,
we're trying to present it in
as compelling a way as possible
and let people have their
own thoughts about it.
I don't feel like
we're trying to preach,
here's what you should
think about this.
If anything,
"Harper High School"
is an example of most
people have no idea
what it's like in a
neighborhood like that.
Most people don't live in
neighborhoods like that.
And to even get
across, here's what
this feels like,
here's what this
is in a way that's
three dimensional,
that in itself, we felt
like that was going
to be the new thing
we were going to do,
and we didn't have to
prescribe anything.
And truthfully,
like I was saying
before, I don't
know-- if somebody's
got some suggestions,
you know what I mean?
We would say to
the principal, what
do you guys-- we have a
whole section of the story
on the money problems the school
has, and they were getting
some extra money for a while and
that money was all going away.
And it looked
like, in fact, they
were going to be having
to let go of the two
social workers in the school
because of budget cuts.
And now that school
got so much attention,
Michelle Obama's been
there and those kids
have gone to the White House.
There's a lot of attention
on that one school,
but of course, Fenger
is just as bad still.
And Fenger is being run by an
incredibly wonderful principal.
People are trying to
fix these schools.
It's not like--
so anyway, no, we
wouldn't put up the other
material on the web.
And then do we
feel an obligation?
I feel like yes, we
go into those shows
with a real missionary sense.
I mean, that's true of
a lot of things we do.
I mean, some of
the stories we do,
we just do for fun,
like the seven things
that Sarah's mom doesn't think
you should ever talk about.
We don't really want to rid
the world of people talking
about what route
they took to dinner.
We don't care.
It just seemed funny.
But something like Harper
or the story with a judge.
Honestly, probably a
third of everything we do,
why be a broadcaster if you
don't have the feeling of,
somebody should talk about
this, and let's talk about it.
But are you expressing
a dissatisfaction
with where it went, because
if you are, that's OK?
AUDIENCE: No, no.
I actually was one
of the kids that you
discuss who was sort
of grandfathered
into-- I was suspended
twice from my middle school
for being "in a gang."
It was really just
a group of friends,
but we engaged in
gang-like activity
where we got together
and beat people up.
That was considered
gang activity and stuff.
And so in the segment
on the Straight Legs
where they talk about kids,
as soon as they hit 15,
if you're not in a gang,
you either need to find one
or they'll find one for you.
So even if I had any
sort of critical thoughts
about the way that the
story was presented,
the fact that the
story was being told
was more than enough for
me, because that was so far
beyond what most cursory
glances at the issue were doing.
So that's why I
appreciate the show
because as they said
in "The OC" segment,
it's making ordinary
lives seem amazing.
And it might be told from the
hipster elitist perspective,
but at least somebody
is telling it.
So that alone, that is
considered progress,
then so be it.
You sort of just have
to take what's given.
So I appreciate the
work that you're doing,
and please keep it up.
IRA GLASS: Thanks.
[APPLAUSE]
AUDIENCE: Hi.
So do you go to
the gym every day?
That wasn't supposed
to be funny.
What do you listen
to, if anything?
IRA GLASS: It's funny because
I can't listen to podcasts.
I used to listen to
Terry Gross, but I
feel like actually, I have
to have music playing.
And so lately, I've been
listening to my nephew's band
Heart Sounds.
I just started listening to
Taylor Swift and Katy Perry,
and "What Does the Fox Say."
I want to add to
my public speech
a whole fact check
about what does
the fox say, because it
doesn't say that song-- it's
totally inaccurate, that song.
[LAUGHTER]
AUDIENCE: My question
is more similar
to the previous question, which
is that a lot of your episodes
seem to end on a
sobering or sad note.
I understand that
you said you want
to tell a surprising story
with strong characters,
but you also mentioned
earlier that journalists
can't do anything, and
that it's hopeless.
IRA GLASS: No, no,
wait, wait, wait.
You're overstating.
It's more like it's rare for
you to see direct consequences
in the world of having
put a story out there.
It's rare.
AUDIENCE: But for
the Harper School,
for instance, you said, what
can you do to change this?
IRA GLASS: Well that's
something-- right, you'd
have to change the economic
structure of poor neighborhoods
in Chicago to change
that fundamentally,
which is beyond
most people's power.
Perhaps if one ran a big,
multimillion dollar company,
whatever.
AUDIENCE: I wish I ran a
multimillion dollar company.
So what would you say is the
purpose of the show, then?
Is it to effect a change,
or is it for entertainment?
If you admit that most people
who are listening to this
will drink their coffee, say,
hm, OK, and can't do anything
about it, why do you do it?
IRA GLASS: I think the
show is an entertainment.
I think it's an entertainment.
I think that one
of the things that
was part of the idea of
the show from the beginning
is that you could do
journalism and you
could do public
broadcasting that
would have all the ideals
of the very best journalism,
but also be fundamentally an
entertainment, that you would
listen because you're
feelings would get caught up
and you'd get caught
up in the characters
and things like that.
I and the staff, we think of
the show as entertainment.
We think of it as we are
in it to amuse ourselves,
but because of
the kind of people
we are, that sort
of amusement also
involves-- we're interested
in things in the world
and we want to know what's going
on a neighborhood like West
Englewood.
But if we go into
West Englewood,
we're not trying to do it a sad
sacky kind of sad, corny way.
We want to be engaged in the
people and the characters.
I don't know.
The show is an
entertainment, and I
feel like to
pretend that there's
something else about
it, I feel like it's
enough to be an entertainment.
Most things that try to be an
entertainment don't succeed.
Simply to achieve that is hard.
AUDIENCE: OK, thank you.
AUDIENCE: Hi.
Thanks for being here.
My question is, do you think
that besides location, there's
anything distinctly American
about the stories you tell?
And also, do you
know if you have
listeners who are non-American?
IRA GLASS: We do know we have
listeners who are non-American
because we have podcast numbers.
Seth, how much of our
audience is overseas?
Do you have a
microphone back there?
SETH LIND: Yeah.
About 10% to 15%.
IRA GLASS: OK.
And do I think of the stories
as particularly American?
I think that the
things in the stories,
generally if the
stories are any good,
there's a universal quality to
them that could be anywhere.
But also, we happen
to be Americans.
Our tastes are
American, the things
that interest us are American.
So I feel like it's kind of
both things at the same time.
AUDIENCE: You recently
rebroadcasted an updated
version of an older episode
that I really loved,
the "Fiasco" episode.
IRA GLASS: Yes.
AUDIENCE: And one
of the segments
in the "Fiasco" episode
is a reporter talking
about her fiasco interview,
and I was really curious
if you ever had an
interview or an experience
producing the show that you
would describe as a fiasco,
and if so, what was it?
IRA GLASS: I
haven't had anything
as spectacular as that reporter
who, in the middle of a very
tense interview, squirted
coffee or iced tea
or something out of her
nose, bringing her interview
to a stop and simultaneously
winning over the interviewee.
So I don't have as dramatic
a story as that to tell.
A lot of things have gone really
badly for me in interviews.
When you do a lot of interviews,
you make every mistake.
But I don't have
an answer that's
to the level of your question.
AUDIENCE: Anything
particularly noteworthy
that's not at the level
of that kind of a fiasco?
It's OK if you don't.
IRA GLASS: Nothing
comes to mind.
It's a really good question,
but I don't have an answer.
AUDIENCE: OK.
Well, thanks.
IRA GLASS: Which is honestly
a real interviewing problem.
Often, the question is
better than any answer
that the interviewee
comes up with.
So my heart goes out to
you in your excellence
and in my failure to rise to
the excellence of your question.
Yes?
AUDIENCE: Hi.
I have two questions.
Do you have any dream episodes
or goals for the next 10 years
for the show?
And then also, I was listening
to the "Superhero" episode--
IRA GLASS: Let me
answer that one first.
I'm constantly having dream
episodes and ideas for things
we want to do, but
then we do them.
It's kind of a rolling project.
Let me think if there's anything
in particular right this day.
No, nothing today.
I feel like the stuff
that we want to do, we do,
but I don't have
anything right now.
What else?
AUDIENCE: And then after the
"Superhero" episode, would you
choose flight or
invisibility and why?
IRA GLASS: I absolutely
would choose invisibility.
I know myself very
well, and the kind
of crouching, lurking,
nobody can see me,
I will watch you
sort of situation,
I'm totally comfortable with.
AUDIENCE: Cool.
IRA GLASS: Flying
from place to place,
I can buy a ticket
on an airplane.
AUDIENCE: Airplanes
are so terrible.
IRA GLASS: Really?
No.
I don't feel that way at all.
AUDIENCE: Have you ever
had a really good story
on an airplane?
IRA GLASS: No, because
any really good story
would involve near
death whatever.
I'm happy to keep
it the way it is.
No, airplanes are amazing.
I can't believe you're
complaining about airplanes.
That's a technology which
is totally wonderful.
You get on an object that
moves you really fast,
and it's super
comfortable, and nobody
can reach you on
the phone so far.
It's awesome.
Every part of it is great.
AUDIENCE: You must
be in first class.
IRA GLASS: What?
AUDIENCE: You must
be in first class.
IRA GLASS: No.
I am so not in first class.
Are you kidding?
No.
I spilled coffee in the car
on the way over here and I
didn't-- that's the
level that I'm at.
No, no, no, no.
I can tell you one thing.
We are talking about
starting another podcast.
That's one dream for the
show, is that a bunch of us
feel like we should
start making more stuff,
and hopefully in
the next year, we'll
be coming out with
more podcasts.
And one idea that we're
really excited about
is the idea that we would
do a show that's exactly
the opposite of our show
and do it as a podcast,
and instead of it being
each week we choose
a different theme, we would do
the thing that journalism never
does, and every week,
we would go back
to exactly the same story and
give you the next chapter of it
and let it unfold over time.
And so we're hoping
to roll that out
in January if all
goes as planned.
We just started talking about
it in the last week or two,
so maybe it's not
going to happen,
but I feel like it would
be really exciting,
and hopefully the first
of other projects.
AUDIENCE: That leads
perfectly into my question.
The first "This
American Life" episode
I remember listening to on
the radio in high school
was about undocumented
immigrants
who got caught up in jail
for some minor offense
and then were never able to
get out because they didn't
have proper documentation.
I always wonder when I
listen to these stories, what
happens to these people
five, ten years down
the road, or even a couple
months, in some cases.
You just mentioned you
might start a podcast where
you follow up with the people
in your previous stories.
I'm sure that
manpower is a factor.
You only have so many
editors and producers.
Have you ever thought of maybe
tapping into your audience base
and having maybe
grassroots reporters follow
up on these stories to
give you more manpower to?
IRA GLASS: No, we haven't.
No, because generally,
I feel like it's rare
for there to be a story like
that where there's people
sitting in prison
at the end of it
and you wonder, when are
they going to get out?
What's going to happen?
Generally, the stories end.
In a very bratty way, I feel
like there's nothing else
to say, and that's
the end of the story.
You know what I mean?
AUDIENCE: Do your
other producers
and writers feel the same way?
They feel like, OK, we're done.
IRA GLASS: I
haven't polled them.
I don't know.
Maybe they do, maybe they don't.
I mean, I can tell you that
when we do reruns, we do go back
and we check with all the
characters in the stories.
And we do that because
we made the mistake once
of rerunning this story
about this couple,
and then it turned out
one of them had died,
and we were just like, oh no.
That was years and years
ago, so now we go back
and we check on everybody.
So when we rerun that episode,
if we ever do, we'll go back
and we'll know what
happened to them.
But you yourself, if you're
so curious-- their names are
in the stories.
You can check it yourself.
I don't know why I'm
putting this back on you.
At "The New York
Times," they don't
go back to everything in
the archive and tell you,
here's what happened.
I'm reacting very
defensively, which
means you're probably right.
[LAUGHTER]
Yes?
AUDIENCE: So what's
your one advice
for improving
storytelling skills?
IRA GLASS: Are you trying
to do storytelling?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
IRA GLASS: In what
kind of context?
AUDIENCE: Well, I
love storytelling,
and I think you are the
best I've heard so far,
so I wanted to get
one advice from you.
IRA GLASS: See,
but in real life,
I'm not a great storyteller.
I'm only really
good on the radio.
I need production
values for it to work.
AUDIENCE: So your advice
is production value?
IRA GLASS: Absolutely.
If you can just get a
little music playing
underneath as you talk.
I mean, are you talking
about storytelling
in your everyday life?
AUDIENCE: No, more in writing.
IRA GLASS: In writing.
I mean, honestly, obviously,
the most important part
is you want to amuse yourself.
The storytelling we do,
I feel like if you're
showing your stuff to friends
and they're honest with you
about what's working
and what isn't,
obviously, that's a huge help.
I don't think I have
super smart tips
that I can impart in a second.
The things that
I'm interested in
do have the kind of
structure that I'm
saying, where it's
very plot based.
I feel like that just gives
things an enormous power.
That was a terrible answer.
I'm so sorry.
FEMALE SPEAKER:
And on that note--
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
FEMALE SPEAKER: Good job.
IRA GLASS: Thanks.
FEMALE SPEAKER: That was fun.
That was great.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
