Ira Glass

Ira Jeffrey Glass (born March 3, 1959) is an American public radio personality, and host and producer of the radio show This American Life and the television program of the same name.

Ira Glass in 2006

Quotes

• Music is like basil. Put it on. Don't think twice.
  • Johnson, Steve (October 18, 1998). "IRA GLASS AND `THIS AMERICAN LIFE': PUTTING THE PUBLIC BACK IN PUBLIC RADIO". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved on 12 August 2019. 
  • On editing

• The Cruise is one of my favorite films and very close to the spirit of This American Life: It’s funny and moving and surprising and just beautiful to look at–black and white, shot on the cheap with all natural light on digital video, incredibly.
  • Glass, Ira (7 June 1999). "DIARY: Ira Glass". Slate Magazine. Retrieved on 13 July 2020.

• There are stories that change the way I see stuff, like the Harper High School story. I didn't really understand what it was like to live in a neighborhood like that, or be a kid like that. One of the things we learned is that every kid in the school is in a gang. The nerd kids are in a gang. The drama kids are in a gang. Before I read that series, and this is kind of ugly to say, but I would think, ‘Well, if they got shot they're a gang kid ... that's a bad kid.’ I don't feel that any more at all. Those of us who don't live in neighborhoods like that, we're so dumb.
  • In a 2014 interview with The Guardian in response to the question, "Of all those stories, which have meant the most to you personally?"
  • Spencer, Ruth (3 May 2014). Ira Glass: 'The first time I took ecstasy, my anxiety lifted away'. The Guardian. Retrieved on 12 April 2019.

• 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.
  • Spencer, Ruth (3 May 2014). Ira Glass: 'The first time I took ecstasy, my anxiety lifted away'. The Guardian. Retrieved on 12 April 2019.

• 'I don’t know, it seems weird to be making this much money and asking people to donate money,' It seemed unseemly. So I said, 'I think that I should just make less.’ I just thought it ... seemed fair. It seemed like I should make what you make if you're like, a high school principal or something. Not even the principal, but the assistant principal.
  • Rodriguez, Lisa (October 23, 2015). Ira Glass On His Public Radio Salary, Being Recognized And Finding 'Sparkly' Stories (in en). www.kcur.org. Retrieved on 4 September 2019.
  • On why he asked public radio station WBEZ Chicago to pay him less

• Why is my job like the second job that somebody who's a genius at something else can do, and actually still be really good at? It's not fair!
  • On the fact that so many people and organizations are starting podcasts
  • Harmon, Steph (7 May 2016). Ira Glass: 'I feel like I'm actually sort of scared all the time'. The Guardian. Retrieved on 8 April 2019.

• The honest answer to your question is that I think Anaheed and I could do this whole thing better, and that we're a terrible role model for anyone. We muddle our way through, for sure. And we've been together for 20 years—but it's hard on us. I feel like I know other people who manage it way, way better.
  • In a 2016 interview with The Guardian when asked how he balances a relationship with a partner who is equally busy
  • Harmon, Steph (7 May 2016). Ira Glass: 'I feel like I'm actually sort of scared all the time'. The Guardian. Retrieved on 8 April 2019.

• The thing that happens to me is that if it’s going well, and the person is really talking from the heart about a thing that means something to them. And I’m talking back to them, and we’re understanding each other, and like I start to feel really close to them. I know that as like a professional journalist, it’s not like the right thing to say, to say this, but I start to really love them. Like it has the intimacy of any like actual intimate conversation with somebody who I feel super close to.
  • Q&A: Ira Glass on structuring stories, asking hard questions (in en). Columbia Journalism Review (June 22, 2017). Retrieved on 9 August 2019.
  • On the intimacy of audio

• I'm just a very mindful, worried person in a lot of ways. And I remember the first time I took ecstasy, all that goes away. And I remember having the thought, "Do other people live this way? Is this what it's like for other people? Are there people who have this experience of feeling no anxiety, and just walking up to people and assuming that people might like them?
  • Paiella, Gabriella (February 10, 2020). Ira Glass Talks 'High Maintenance' and What Taking Ecstasy Taught Him (in en-us). GQ. Retrieved on 14 July 2020.

This American Life

• Nobody hearing my words right now is thinking, Oh man, remember that show, back when it used to be good?
  • From his first episode of This American Life, then called Your Radio Playhouse
  • Krulwich, Robert (December 25, 2005). "The Trouble With Birthdays: Ira Glass :: Stop Smiling Magazine". www.stopsmilingonline.com. Retrieved on 22 April 2019.

• Progress' constant companion is nostalgia for the way things used to be.
  • "Pandora's Box", This American Life, television season 1, installment 6, 26 April 2007.

• Not enough gets said about the importance of abandoning crap.
  • "Ira Glass on Storytelling, part 2" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW6x7lOIsPE

• What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.
  But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story.
  It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.
  • The Taste Gap: Ira Glass on the Secret of Creative Success, Animated in Living Typography at brainpickings.org

• Before Google Docs existed, those rare times I met software engineers, I’d ask them to please create software so two people in different locations could edit a document together online. God bless Google Docs.
  • Orin, Andy (July 23, 2014). I'm Ira Glass, Host of This American Life, and This Is How I Work. Lifehacker. Retrieved on 9 August 2019.

About

• I called Ira up and I said, 'You're gonna be a cult hero eventually'—and I think it's coming true. The other thing I said to him was, 'It's gonna devour you.'
  • Jay Allison, a dean of independent radio producers, after hearing the pilot of what would become This American Life
  • Johnson, Steve (October 18, 1998). "IRA GLASS AND `THIS AMERICAN LIFE': PUTTING THE PUBLIC BACK IN PUBLIC RADIO". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved on 12 August 2019. 

• "Ira is a big fag. He's just not a homosexual."
  • David Rakoff on pervasive rumors that Ira Glass is in the closet
  • Bergquist, Kathryn (November 26, 2002). "The host with the most". Advocate (877).