Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Ira Glass

By James

About two years ago, after I finished work, I was flipping through radio stations while sitting in some really bad traffic.  I happened to come upon NPR and started listening to a show called This American Life

The basic concept of the show was to have a particular theme, and to have usually 3-4 stories about that theme.  The particular show I was listening this particular afternoon was called Something For Nothing.  It was a simple concept that they were talking about, getting something for free, but then started going through a series of stories of how hard it is to truly get something for nothing.  One of the most entertaining that evening for me was about how some contestants could win a free truck simply by keeping their hand on a car.  Again, a simple concept, that becomes much more complicated than an average person realizes.

After listening to the whole one hour show (yes I was in traffic for over an hour), I became an instant fan of the show.  It has since become a show that I try to listen to regularly and makes sitting in Friday evening traffic much more pleasant.


On Saturday night, Karen and I got the opportunity to see Ira Glass speak at Benaroya Hall.  We found out about Ira Glass coming into town a couple of months ago and instantly bought tickets.  Despite the fact that we bought the tickets a couple of months in advance, we ended up in the upper deck, two rows from the very back.  We (and I assume a lot of people) bought tickets not even knowing what it was going to be about, but at this point we had become such big fans that it didn't matter.

It was truly strange, yet amazing, to me to think that here is a guy that I and many others have only heard on the radio.  He was having a show at Benaroya Hall talking about who knows what, and yet there we were there to see him.  The place was sold out and he received a rock star reception when he entered.  He sat down behind a single table, with just a mike and CD player.  He talked about what it takes to produce his show, his favorite clips, his funniest moments and whatever else he felt like such as what idealistic journalism is to him.  Overall it was a great talk and lasted two hours.

My personal top 3 favorite This American Life episodes:


1.  Something for Nothing - cause it's the first episode I ever heard.
2.  #1 Party School - about Penn State's reputation as the #1 party school in the nation and what life is like there from different perspectives.
3.  Nummi - about the auto industry in the 1960's and the struggles of the Nummi autoplant, which was a joint venture between Toyota and GM.

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