Skidmore News

Issue date: 3/12/10 Section: News

Media Credit: Lauren Elsner Glass had audio equipment with him on stage in order to play music and recorded interviews, as though he were doing a radio show. [Click to enlarge]

At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 9, the Filene Ladd Music Hall in the Arthur Zankel Music Center was packed with students waiting for a presentation by "This American Life" producer and host Ira Glass. Glass spoke about his show and the journey that brought him to his position at NPR.

Aviva Ariel '10, president of the Speakers Bureau, and Janet Casey, an English professor at the college, introduced Glass to the audience. "Most know Mr. Glass as a disembodied voice," Casey said.

The lights dimmed as he walked out onto the stage and for a moment, Glass was hidden in the dark. "Not seeing gains power in and of itself," Glass said.

He explained that he tried to get the Bureau to let him do the whole presentation in the dark. "They wouldn't go for it," he said.

Glass's presentation focused on the educational journey he had taken on his way to "This American Life". "I was once told that the job of journalism is not just to tell us what's new, it's to tell us what is," Glass said.

While he received his bachelor's degree in semiotics from Brown University, it took a substantial amount of work to become good at writing and reporting.

He explained that when one starts on a creative path, there is a large gap between what one likes and what one creates. "I took longer to get good at my job than anyone I've ever met," Glass said.

Glass started working as an intern at NPR at age 19, but he explained that it was not until he was 28 or 29 that he became decent at his job. "You have to fight your way through it," Glass said.

To improve, he had fellow colleagues read and interpret his work. "It's cheaper than grad school," he joked.

Glass also had some smaller roles in the world of radio and hosted several shows for years, including "The Wild Room".

Continued...

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