Saturday, November 3
"This American Life" NPR Host
Ira Glass
LAXSON AUDITORIUM | 7:30 p.m.$25 Premium | $20 Adult/Senior | $15 Student/Child
"Glass is a storyteller who filters his impressions through . . . an eccentric intelligence and a sympathetic heart." — The New York Times
For 12 years, This American Life has been lauded for reinventing the way people listen to radio. "We do these stories that are like movies for radio," says Ira Glass, the show's venerable writer, producer, and on-air host. Locally broadcast on KCHO/KFPR radio, This American Life airs on 500 NPR stations with 1.7 million listeners weekly. A television version of This American Life featuring Glass premiered on Showtime earlier this year.
Ira 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 has filled in as host of Talk of the Nation and Weekend All Things Considered.
This American Life had its premiere on Chicago's public radio station WBEZ in late 1995. Under Glass's editorial direction, This American Life has won the highest honors for broadcasting and journalistic excellence, including the Peabody and DuPont-Columbia awards, as well as the Edward R. Murrow and the Overseas Press Club awards. The American Journalism Review declared that the show is "at the vanguard of a journalistic revolution." It has won critical acclaim and attracted continuous national media attention over the years. In 2001, Time magazine named Glass "Best Radio Host in America."
2007 marks a stellar year for Glass. In addition to his television show being picked up for a second season, Riverhead Books will publish The New Kings of Non-Fiction, a collection of narrative non-fiction essays edited by Glass. A feature film, Unaccompanied Minors, based on a story from the radio show was released by Warner Brothers in December 2006. The show has put out its own comic book, three greatest hits compilations, a paint-by-numbers set, a "radio decoder" toy and a DVD, which was created with cartoonist Chris Ware.
This event is co-sponsored by KCHO/KFPR and Cottonparty.
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Paul Hawken
Jean-Michel Cousteau
Bill Cosby
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Garrison Keillor
Steve Earle & Allison Moorer