you haven’t heard of NPR’s This American Life, it’s high time for you to discover this gem. The weekly episodic radio show, hosted by the indomitable Ira Glass, is a jewel in the crown of American broadcasting. The show follows a


different central theme each week, usually with five or six stories that talk about things as varied as, how cops see the world differ- ently, about a man who is obsessed with Niagara Falls, or how rare it is for people to actually change their minds about strong held beliefs around hot button issues such as climate change, gun control, religion or even LGBT rights. It’s fascinating listening and as compelling as it can get. The stories the show offers, range from the serious to the ridiculously absurd, from hilarious to painfully poignant and are all used to reflect a different viewpoint. Told not from the standpoint of right or wrong specifically, but brilliantly used as a tool to reflect the narratives of both sides of a theme or issue. Sophisticated and meticulous are words I would use to describe the ways in which each story is constructed. Guided carefully by solid, journalistic integrity, they tell people’s stories from all over the world in an attempt to explain what drives our actions, why we do what we do and the consequences they might have on what comes next. Stories told without judgement, respecting listeners enough to keep emotional reactionism at bay, as differing points of view are rolled out and presented. This American Life is all about the stories and people who make


up this vast, varied and always complicated world and Ira Glass is the yarn-spinner that leads the always-fascinating narrative.


The Rage Monthly recently spoke with Glass about how it all works.


You are such a master at the narrative and such an amazing sto- ryteller. I’m interested to know if that was a tradition you were surrounded with, or was it primarily a skill you developed? No, no, there wasn’t. I was a total suburban kid. In fact, in real


photography by stuart mullenberg


life, I don’t think I’m an especially talented storyteller. I feel like I had to learn the elements of a great story, while making radio stories, because I didn’t have any special talent for it as a person. Like in my marriage, my wife was definitely the more charismatic, interesting storyteller when we were out with friends. In our office, I am not the most dynamic, talented storyteller. Not even close, there are at least four or five people ahead of me. If something super interesting happens, I can tell, but I’m not a really great storyteller like the ones who can make anything that happens to them pretty interesting. There’s a school of thought around talent that says it’s really all about commitment, practice and focus on your craft. There are of course, exceptions like Pavarotti or someone like Aretha Franklin, but even for them, it’s still about commitment. Any thoughts on that concept? I’ve thought about this a lot, yes. I was not somebody who had a special, innate talent for anything, except maybe for editing. The


only part of making stuff that came easily to me was editing. For whatever reason when I walked into NPR at nineteen and tried to talk my way into a job, as soon as people gave me raw tape to listen to and diagnose what the interesting part would be to put on the air, that was the one thing I was able to do. Being able to write or figure out how to report a story or do an interview, all the other parts, I was really bad at it. So, I definitely had a talent for a thing, but it was a very small piece of the puzzle. When I see the younger producers whom I work with, definitely


some of those people just have a real aptitude for certain parts of it. They learn it way, way faster and younger than I did. I do think talent is absolutely a real thing, but I also think that I learned to get good. Sometimes when I do my shows, I play stuff from my early years of broadcasting. It’s not like some sort of weird, humble brag, it’s stuff from six or seven years ago and it’s just not good. (Laughs) There is one clip that I often play that one of our produc- ers from years ago, Alix Spiegel, now host of [NPR’s] Invisible, when she was sort of a producer of our show [This American Life]. We were doing something about poultry, she pitched the idea and I said that I had done a story on this exact thing when I was in my 20s. She said, “Oh yeah, a recording?” I said yes and gave her the recording, it’s the one that I play at my shows. She listened to it and said, “Wow, there is no sign that you have any talent for radio. Like there is no indication, that you are ever going to make it. (Laughs) The performance is bad, the writing is incomprehensible, the tape isn’t interesting and it’s a clip that doesn’t make much sense.” It’s good to have a perspective on where you came from and how you’ve grown. I look back at some of my early stuff and cringe as well. In a way, it’s really very reassuring that you know, people can


get better. It’s funny, I was pretty old before the thought occurred to me that not everybody is going to make it. I really thought we are all just trying to get better and we’ll all eventually get there. What made you decide that you wanted to work at NPR at the beginning of your career? Was there a burning desire or something like that? No, there was really nothing. I had never even heard of NPR, literally, it was 1978 and nobody had really heard of NPR. It was a tiny radio network with an afternoon news show, no morning news show and a bunch of music shows. I grew up in Baltimore and was looking for a summer job or internship somewhere in the media. I went to a couple stations in the Baltimore area and somebody at the rock station said, “I don’t have anything for you, but I have a friend that works at this new outfit in D.C. called National Public Radio, give him a call.” I didn’t call, I just kind of showed up and asked to see him and kind of talked my way into an unpaid intern- ship in the promos department. Once I was in, the following year one of the people I had made promos for, offered me a production assistant’s job. You really worked your way up, through many departments there, it seems. It almost feels like you were educating yourself on the entirety of the radio business. Was that your intent? There was no plan. It really was about the fact that I liked


AUGUST 2017 | RAGE monthly 49


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