WINTER BRAVO! 2017
“Up Close”
A benefi t concert
for Direction Service
Sat., March 11 • 7:30 PM
Wildish Th eater
630 Main St., Springfi eld
Th e Dance Factory
465 Washington St. • Eugene
541-484-2700
EugeneDanceFactory.com
Radioman Diaries
POPULAR NPR HOST IRA GLASS HITS THE STAGE IN EUGENE
BY WILLIAM KENNEDY
B
88 th SEASON!
The Very Little Theatre
presents
Hilarious Farce by Nell Benjamin
Directed by Chris McVay
Jan. 13-15, 19-22, 26-28
7:30 pm curtain; 2 pm Sundays
Tix: $19; $15 Seniors & Students
$15 for everyone on Thursdays!
Box office open 2:00-6:00 pm
Wed.-Sat., 2350 Hilyard St.
Tix on-line at TheVLT.com
Production
Sponsor:
541-344-7751
@EUGENEWEEKLY
22
efore binge-watching, there was binge-listening, and
NPR’s This American Life damn near invented the
practice. To some, the hugely popular show might
seem ponderous and overly introspective (and to many
others, these traits may even be considered faults).
Nevertheless, the program, hosted by Ira Glass, has been
exploring different facets of the American psyche since 1995, with
subject matters ranging from Hurricane Katrina to an episode
called “Kid Logic” entirely devoted to the reasoning abilities of
children.
Regardless of the topic, Glass acts as a sort of emcee and
occasional therapist, bringing it all into focus, connecting the dots
to present a picture of this weird and wonderful world we call
America.
As a side gig, Ira Glass launched a traveling version of his
show, with a tour stop in April at the Hult Center.
Recently, Eugene Weekly caught up with Glass to talk
inspiration, the future of broadcasting, a radioman’s stage fright
and an NPR host’s unlikely sex appeal.
Most of us know you from the radio. Tell us what to expect
from a live appearance?
I talk about stories we’ve done on the radio show and stuff
we’ve never even put on the radio show, and play clips and
re-create the sound of the show around me. Also, I play a lot of
video — things I think our audience hasn’t seen that we’ve made
over the years.
What’s it like for a radio guy to get our there in front of a
live audience?
When I started doing this, honestly it was totally terrifying.
Now I’m used to it. In the beginning, I felt like I had no idea how
to do it, so to get through it I tried to make my speech as much like
a radio show as possible: I brought clips and music, basically
mixed the thing live.
At the time, I had to have a mixing console on the stage where
I would sit — like a desk with a mixer. Now the technology’s
changed so that’s basically what I have in an iPad. I tried to make
it as much like something that I knew as possible.
The internet has disrupted all kinds of traditional media.
What’s the future of terrestrial radio?
Honestly, I’m not a big expert on that. In our little corner of
January 19, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
radio, things are going great. Shows that are doing narrative
journalism — long stories — are popular, and there are more and
more of them all the time, springing up as radio shows and
podcasts.
Malcolm Gladwell [Outliers] has his own narrative nonfiction
radio show. That’s a sign things are going good when someone
who’s insanely successful at what he’s been doing decides: “Oh
I’m going to do that, too.” There’s trouble in other kinds of
journalism. This is one little corner where things are very healthy.
Hosting a show called This American Life for as long as you
have, have you learned anything about this American life?
I don’t have a concise answer to that at all. But I’m optimistic
about America. We’re still a bunch of funny, smart, good-natured
people.
Where do you find inspiration for topics covered on the
show? Is there anything you’ve always wanted to cover on the
show but have yet to?
Our format is flexible enough that if there’s anything we’re all
excited to do, we can do it — especially in the last few years, as
we’ve seen more money because of podcasting. Our audience has
doubled. That means that we have more money that we can spend
on stories. If that means we want to go visit refugee camps in
Greece, we now have the money to do it.
Stuff in the news definitely inspires a certain amount of
coverage. Occasionally something happens that will lead to some
thought that we can put on the air. That’s rarer than you think. The
stories have to be pretty surprising, pretty big. So it’s hard to get
stories on the show.
Last, and this is the most important question of the
conversation: What’s like being such a sex symbol for the
intelligentsia?
[Laughing] I don’t feel like that at all! That is not my
experience. I’ve been with the same person for 20 years.
Well, when I floated that question to some friends preparing
for this interview, they all thought that was the one I had to
ask.
Is that true? Am I misperceiving my own allure?
Reinventing Radio: An Evening with Ira Glass is April 22 at the Hult Center; $35-$75,
tickets at hultcenter.org or 541-682-5000.