Ira Glass

Episode notes

(Photo: Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images)

This American Life has been on public radio airwaves for almost thirty years. It has won nine Peabodies, an Edward R. Murrow Award and a Pulitzer. It was a TV show on Showtime and has millions of podcast listeners. Its spinoff, Serial, basically made podcasts a thing.

This year, This American Life passed eight hundred episodes. And probably the most amazing thing is that the show is still really, really great.

For all the reasons it always has been – it’s engrossing, funny, moving. And new ones, too. As its resources have grown, so have its ambitions, and these days it’s often the show telling the most compelling stories about the most important issues in our world.

Behind all that, all this time has been Ira Glass. He created the show way back when, and he’s still steering the ship at 64. There’s a brilliant staff, of course, but the buck still stops with Ira.

We talk with the public radio legend himself to celebrate This American Life hitting eight hundred episodes. Plus, we learn just how many anagrams one can make with Ira Glass’ name.

In this episode...

Jesse Thorn

Host

Kevin Ferguson

Senior Producer

Jesus Ambrosio

Producer

Richard Robey

Maximum Fun Producer

Daniel Huecias

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Guests

Ira Glass

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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