Ira Glass, the host and creator of the public radio program This American Life, will be the fourth and final speaker in the 2012-2013 George T. Hunter Lecture Series on Sunday, April 7, at 4 p.m. at the Tivoli. Glass’s talk, dubbed Reinventing Radio, will focus on his famous program and how it's put together.
“WUTC has been broadcasting Ira Glass’s radio show, This American Life, for a decade,” said Dr. John McCormack, station manager of WUTC 88.1 FM. “We’re very excited to see him demonstrate his innovative storytelling techniques and audio tricks in front of a live audience.”
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What makes a compelling story? Where do they find the stories for their show? How do Mr. Glass and his staff push broadcast journalism to do things it doesn't usually do? While answering these questions he will mix stories from the show, live onstage, combining his narration with pre-taped quotes and music, recreating the sound of the show as the audience watches. And he plays funny and memorable moments from the show, and talks about what was behind their creation. It will be like spending time with Mr. Glass in the studio while he is producing the show.
The show premiered on Chicago's public radio station WBEZ in 1995 and is now heard on more than 500 public radio stations each week by more than 1.7 million listeners. Most weeks, the podcast of the program is the most popular podcast in America. The show also airs each week on the CBC in Canada and on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's radio network.
Mr. Glass began his career as an intern at National Public Radio's network headquarters in Washington, DC in 1978, when he was 19-years-old. Over the years, he worked on nearly every NPR network news program and held virtually every production job in NPR's Washington headquarters. He has been a tape cutter, newscast writer, desk assistant, editor, and producer. He filled in as host of Talk of the Nation and Weekend All Things Considered.
Under Mr. Glass's editorial direction, This American Life has won the highest honors for broadcasting and journalistic excellence, including several Peabody and DuPont-Columbia awards. The American Journalism Review declared that the show is "at the vanguard of a journalistic revolution."
This lecture is sponsored by the Benwood Foundation in partnership with UTC. All lectures are free and open to the public, no tickets necessary. The lecture begins at 4 p.m. and doors open at 2:30 p.m. For more information, visit benwood.org, facebook.com/HunterLectureSeries, or twitter.com/hunterlectures.