Ira Glass
Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1296x1372, 1516 KB) Ira Glass of This American Life giving a lecture at Carnegie Mellon University in 2006. ...
Born	March 3, 1959 (1959-03-03) (age 48) Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Show	This American Life
Station(s)	WBEZ
Time slot	Syndication
Style	Presenter
Country	United States
Website	Official website

Ira Glass (born March 3, 1959) is an American public radio personality, and host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life. is the 62nd day of the year (63rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Flag Seal Nickname: Monument City, Charm City, Mob Town, B-more Motto: Get In On It (formerly The City That Reads and The Greatest City in America; BELIEVE is not the official motto but rather a specific campaign) Location Location of Baltimore in Maryland Coordinates , Government Country State County United... Official language(s) None (English, de facto) Capital Annapolis Largest city Baltimore Largest metro area Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area Area  Ranked 42nd  - Total 12,407 sq mi (32,133 km²)  - Width 101 miles (145 km)  - Length 249 miles (400 km)  - % water 21  - Latitude 37° 53′ N to 39° 43′ N... This American Life (TAL) is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by Chicago Public Radio. ... WBEZ (91. ... In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows to multiple stations, without going through a broadcast network. ... A television presenter is a British term for a person who is known for introducing or hosting television programmes. ... is the 62nd day of the year (63rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Public broadcasting (also known as public service broadcasting or PSB) is the dominant form of broadcasting around the world, where radio, television, and potentially other electronic media outlets receive funding from the public. ... This American Life (TAL) is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by Chicago Public Radio. ...

Early life

Glass was born in Baltimore, Maryland to Barry Glass, an accountant, and Shirley Glass, a psychologist and infidelity researcher. He attended Milford Mill High School in Baltimore (County) where he was active in student theater. He later attended Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois, but found himself frustrated with students who were "only interested in getting graduate degrees and making money."^{[citation needed]} He then transferred to Brown University, where he majored in semiotics.^[1] Baltimore County is a suburban county located in the northern portion of U.S. state of Maryland. ... Official language(s) None (English, de facto) Capital Annapolis Largest city Baltimore Largest metro area Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area Area  Ranked 42nd  - Total 12,407 sq mi (32,133 km²)  - Width 101 miles (145 km)  - Length 249 miles (400 km)  - % water 21  - Latitude 37° 53′ N to 39° 43′ N... Accountant, or Qualified Accountant, or Professional Accountant, is a certified accountancy and financial expert in the jurisdiction of many countries. ... A psychologist is a person who studies psychology, the systematic investigation of the human mind, including behavior, cognition, and affect. ... Look up infidelity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the concept. ... Northwestern University (NU) is a selective private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university with campuses located in Evanston, Illinois and downtown Chicago, Illinois. ... Incorporated City in 1872. ... Official language(s) English[1] Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Largest metro area Chicago Metropolitan Area Area  Ranked 25th  - Total 57,918 sq mi (140,998 km²)  - Width 210 miles (340 km)  - Length 390 miles (629 km)  - % water 4. ... Brown University is a private university located in Providence, Rhode Island. ... Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of signs and symbols, both individually and grouped into sign systems. ...

Career

Radio broadcasting

Glass has worked in public radio for some 30 years. He began as an intern at National Public Radio. He was a reporter and host on several NPR programs, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Talk of the Nation. Glass wrote, "The very first national public radio show that I worked on was Joe Frank's. I think I was influenced in a huge way... Before I saw Joe put together a show, I had never thought about radio as a place where you could tell a certain kind of story."^[2] Public broadcasting (also known as public service broadcasting or PSB) is the dominant form of broadcasting around the world, where radio, television, and potentially other electronic media outlets receive funding from the public. ... NPR redirects here. ... This article is about journalistic reporters. ... Morning Edition is an American radio news program produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). ... All Things Considered (ATC) is a news radio program in the United States, broadcast on the National Public Radio network. ... Talk of the Nation is a talk radio program based in the United States, produced by National Public Radio, and is broadcasted nationally on weekday afternoons (Eastern Standard Time). ... Joe Frank is an American radio personality, known best for his engaging, often philosophical, monologues and radio dramas. ...

From November 1990 until September 1995, he co-hosted, with NPR producer Gary Covino a weekly, local program on Chicago Public Radio called The Wild Room. In 1993, Glass said, “I like to think of it as the only show on public radio other than ‘Car Talk’ that both [NPR news analyst] Daniel Schorr and Kurt Cobain could listen to. I think it’s appropriate that the show [which aired on Friday evenings] is on a station that most people don’t listen to at a time when most people won’t hear it. And the fact that public radio never puts a new show on the air or takes any off is definitely to our advantage.”[1] Chicago Public Radio (CPR) is a noncommercial, public radio station broadcasting from Chicago, Illinois. ... Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... Car Talk is a radio talk show broadcast weekly on National Public Radio stations throughout the United States and elsewhere. ... Schorr (left) and NPRs Scott Simon prepare for Saturday broadcast. ... Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – c. ...

In 1995, the MacArthur Foundation approached Torey Malatia, general manager of Chicago Public Radio, with an offer of $150,000 to produce a show featuring local Chicago writers and performance artists. Maletia approached Glass who countered that he wanted to do a weekly program with a budget of $300,000. In 1998, Covino told the Chicago Reader, "The show he proposed was The Wild Room. He just didn't call it The Wild Room."[2] Covino continued to produce the Wild Room until February of 1996. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a major private grant-making foundation based in Chicago that has awarded more than US$3 billion since its inception in 1978. ... The Chicago Reader is an alternative newsweekly in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded in 1971[2] by a group of friends who attended Carleton College. ...

Since 1995, he has hosted and produced This American Life, from WBEZ. The show was nationally syndicated in June 1996 and is distributed by Public Radio International. It reaches over 1.6 million listeners weekly. Glass can be heard in all but one episode. WBEZ (91. ... PRI logo Public Radio International, or PRI, is a Minneapolis-based American public radio organization. ...

On November 17, 2005, This American Life celebrated its 10th anniversary. The following week, as a special show celebrating the anniversary, the first episode, "New Beginnings", was re-broadcast. Prior to this, the first episode had never been aired outside of Chicago. When the first episode was broadcast in 1995, the show was known as Your Radio Playhouse. That first episode includes interviews with talk-show host Joe Franklin and Ira's mother, as well as stories by Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired, and filmmaker, performance artist Lawrence Steger. 17 November is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece, coinciding with the anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nickname: Motto: Urbs in Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in the Chicago metro area and Illinois Coordinates: , Country State Counties Cook, DuPage Settled 1770s Incorporated March 4, 1837 Government  - Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Area  - City  234. ... Joseph Fortgang (born March 9, 1926) is an American radio and television personality who uses the stage name Joe Franklin. ... Kevin Kelly Kevin Kelly is the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and former publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

Interestingly, Glass' father was a radio announcer also during his youth, but Glass never became aware of it until after he had gotten into it himself.

Other works

While in high school, he wrote jokes for Baltimore radio personality Johnny Walker. In September 1999, Ira collaborated on a comic book entitled Radio: An Illustrated Guide with Jessica Abel. The book showcases how This American Life is produced, and how to produce your own radio program. Johnny Walker (born as James Embrey in Louisville, Kentucky) (1948 - March 1, 2004) was best known as a disc jockey on WFBR, a Baltimore, Maryland AM radio station from 1974 to 1987. ... Jessica Abel (b. ...

He also served as one of the executive producers of the 2006 feature film Unaccompanied Minors. It is based on the true story of what happened to This American Life contributing editor Susan Burton and her sister Betsy at an airport on the day after Christmas. Burton had already produced a segment on This American Life about the same experience before the story was adapted to film. Unaccompanied Minors (also called: Grounded: Unaccompanied Minors) is a 2006 film directed by Paul Feig and starring Lewis Black, Wilmer Valderrama, Tyler James Williams, Dyllan Christopher, Brett Kelly, Gina Mantegna, and Quinn Shephard. ...

On March 22, 2007, Glass and company began airing a television version of This American Life as half hour episodes on the Showtime network. During an interview with Pat Morrison on KPCC, Southern California Public Radio, Glass revealed that he lost thirty pounds for this venture.^{[citation needed]} is the 81st day of the year (82nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... This article is about the pay TV channel. ...

Personal life

Due to a recent encounter with objectors to a segment of his show, Glass became a vegetarian. He discusses this in an April 2007 appearance on David Letterman.^[3]

For a time, he dated cartoonist Lynda Barry and moved to Chicago in 1989 to be with her. He called Barry his "little ghetto girl" and she does not remember the relationship fondly. Barry is quoted in a 1998 Chicago Reader article as saying of Glass, "I went out with him. It was the worst thing I ever did. When we broke up he gave me a watch and said I was boring and shallow, and I wasn't enough in the moment for him, and it was over." In the same article, Glass is quoted on his feelings about their breakup: "I was an idiot. I was in the wrong. About the breakup... About so many things with her. Anything bad she says about me I can confirm."^[4] Barry has written a comic story about the relationship, entitled "Head Lice and My Worst Boyfriend," in her book One! Hundred! Demons!. Lynda Barry (born January 2, 1956) is an American cartoonist and author. ...

In August 2005, Glass married Chicago editor Anaheed Alani. Glass and Alani moved from Chicago to New York in March 2006. New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ...

Noted composer Philip Glass is his second cousin. Philip Glass' father is Ira Glass' great uncle.^[5] Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is a three-times Academy Award-nominated American composer. ...

Notes

Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 121st day of the year (122nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 78th day of the year (79th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947, in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.) is an award-winning American comedian, late night talk show host, television producer, philanthropist, and IRL IndyCar Series car owner. ... YouTube is a popular video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 110th day of the year (111th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 125th day of the year (126th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 74th day of the year (75th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 77th day of the year (78th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• This American Life official website
• Ira Glass at the Steven Barclay Agency
• Ira Glass's Manifesto at the Transom.org
• Ira Glass: Live and Uncut - Mother Jones interview. August 11, 1998
• Ira Under Glass - Savvy Traveler audio interview. September 12, 1998
• Ira Glass Is, Um (Pause, Delete) ... Listening, a New York Times profile of Glass from April 11, 1999
• Radio host: Ira Glass, a Time magazine essay about Glass written by playwright David Mamet in 2001
• The Onion A/V Club's interview with Ira Glass, November 5th, 2003
• Talk of the Nation: An Interview with Ira Glass - Audio interview with Ira Glass from December 22, 2005
• Ira Glass on WNYC's "The Leonard Lopate Show" (October 25, 2006)
• "This American Life" Live Performance at the Chicago Theatre (March 1, 2007 at 8 PM)
• An excerpt, from the New York Times, of David Carr's interview with Ira Glass
• "A Radio Host Tries His Voice on Television" - "New York Times" article about the TV version of "This American Life"
• Ira Glass interviewed by Charlie Rose April 4, 2007
• Ira Glass Goes Electric April 2007 interview with Ira Glass on his TV debut
• Ira Glass audio interview on The Sound of Young America November 2007