Ira Glass's Lessons

I went to see my public radio hero Ira Glass tonight at GW. He was great as per usual and conveyed the same effortless hilarity that he always does on his show. I was lucky to see him last year at UB with my friend Madalyn during my break from college. He used some of the same material this time around but of course I had forgotten all about it since the last time I heard it. His show is called This American Life and is broadcasted on NPR stations across the country. It's an excellent show. He says that news shows tend too take themselves to seriously and approach their subject matter as if they already know everything instead of reacting with awe or laughter or surprise when they hear something. It's very true and it often makes viewers think that the world is not only small, but boring. It makes us feel that nothing exciting or surprising or funny ever goes on because the news never reports that side of the story. That is what This American Life attempts to do.

Ira said that their free podcast on Itunes (which is how I listen to the show) is consistently the most downloaded show each week. I think that is very exciting for the state of the world. Ira thinks this method of story telling, over the radio, has the ability to make people feel empathy. He says it may not change their minds about issues or politics but it might make people more apt to understand and empathize with others. I thought that was a great point. Through looking at the, not the "lighter side of news" but the "ignored side of news" (not quite as catchy), listeners are able to relate to the people in the stories.

For example, Ira play one pre-recorded story where an Iraq war veteran talked about coming back from Iraq and not being able to be around Arabs or Muslims at the college he attended because he had such strong feeling against them after being attacked by them in Iraq. It was a simple tale of post traumatic stress disorder, a story every major news source had done. But somehow the story was more compelling hearing it from this guy, and hearing him describe his actual feeling of having to force himself to stay in the chair when he joined the Muslim Student Association. It made me feel like I understood and I could feel what it would be like.

A lot of the stories on the show are light and funny. The key Ira says is to tell a story by going "action..action..action" and then "reflection." Reflection is where you explain what it means generally or what the big picture is. He gave the example of a David Sedaris story on Morning Edition on NPR. He says that David, while being a hilarious comic, goes a bit beyond the place where most comics would end their story. He reflects at the end of an anecdote by telling us why it matters. I would recommend anyone download the podcast edition of This American Life. It's a free subscription if you search for it in the ITunes Music Store.

Anyhow, Ira motivated me to get a tape recorder and start recording things. I guess the best way to get started would be just to try it out. You never know what will make a good story. I would suspect that many things I think would make good stories might not, but I might as well try.