Press Clips

Overview stories about This American Life:
(in reverse chronological order)

Below find TAL press and miscellany that's on the Web. If you're aware of an article or feature we haven't linked, or if any of these links have changed (it's hard to keep up), let us know. Thanks.

June 2001

In Time Magazine, Ira Glass is named America's best radio host, with a profile written by David Mamet.

April 3, 2001

In Business Week Online, a piece describing the show: Tuning In to the Voices of America, by Thane Peterson.

July/August 1999

In the American Journalism Review (AJR): It's a Wonderful Life
This American Life, Ira Glass' innovative public radio program, is in the vanguard of a journalistic revolution. By Marc Fisher. Reproduced on our site with AJR and Fisher's kind permission.

April 11, 1999

In the New York Times Sunday Magazine: a profile of Ira Glass and the show, The Glow at the End of the Dial. By Marshall Sella, with photography by Amy Arbus

November 24, 1997

In The Nation: a commentary on the show by Bill McKibben. Reprinted with permission on our site.

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Other stories (in reverse chronological order)

A special insider Sneak Peek at the TAL Storage wall! All our old DATs, cassettes, etc, and so neatly organized!
Photo copyright Jon Hughes.

May 23, 2005

In The Nation, Confessions of a Listener, by Garrison Keillor.  Forget what he says about our show. This essay is a graceful reminder of what's so great about listening to radio in the first place.

March, 2005

Online at Apple.com, Animating Historic Archtecture, by Bija Gutoff. An article on the creation of TAL's Lost Buildings DVD. .

May 16, 2004

In the Boston Globe, The semio-grads: How an obscure Brown concentration trained graduates to crack the codes of American culture and infiltrated the mainstream, by Paul Greenberg. Features Ira Glass, a Brown University semiotics grad.

November 5, 2003

At the Onion's A/V Club, an interview with Ira Glass, by Nathan Rabin.

September 22, 2003

In Current (the trade publication for public broadcasters), Hollywood finds kernels for movies in This American Life, by Mike Janssen.

September, 2003

In Teen Ink (Interviews written by teens), an interview with Ira Glass, by Rosemary H. and Blair H.

Fall, 2003

In Say What (a magazine written and edited by high school and college-aged kids at Young Chicago Authors), an interview with Ira Glass. The interviewer, Emily Rabkin, is seventeen.

September 2, 2002

In Current (the trade publication for public broadcasters), This American Life negotiates "first-look" deal with Warner Brothers," by Mike Janssen.

Summer, 2001

In On the Page magazine, Ira Glass talks about adult adolescence: A Conversation with Ira Glass, by Zoe Francesca.

June, 2001

In Resonance Magazine, a print and RealAudio interview with Ira Glass: Radio Active Ira Glass & This American Life make journalism's most antiquated medium fun again, by Dan Eldridge.

December 29, 2000

On the New York Times website, a review of our live shows: Now on Video, Briefly Back From the Dead to Give Mourners Some Advice. By Julie Salamon.

December 12, 2000

In Chicago's New City, an article on the show: Radioheads. By Margaret Wappler.

December 3, 1999

At CreativePro.com: a review of the show and this website, "DasBot: Content, content uber alles." By Eric Stone.

September - October 1999

At Sojourners Magazine: Fearless Curiosity--The Irreverent offerings of This American Life (a review of the show). By Kari Jo Verhulst.

September 1, 1999

At Horizon Magazine: Ira Glass: A Cure for the Common Radio. By William Upski Wimsatt, (this piece in three parts).

February 1998

In Current, the public broadcasting trade publication: Mo' Better Radio: For Ira Glass, it means surprises, empathy, fun--in 45-second stanzas.   The trade newspaper of public broadcasting, which is called Current, published what amounts to a manifesto explaining how to produce a show like This American Life. It's the transcript of a lecture Ira gave in Minnesota, and the basis for the "How To Make Radio" appearances he makes in many cities.

July 1997

In Salon Magazine: It takes vision to make good radio: tales from This American Life. By Julia Barton.

June 2, 1997

In Current, the public broadcasting trade publication: This American Life. If you love this show, you really love it.  By Jacqueline Conciatore.

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Stories, speeches and conversations with Ira Glass

Photo courtesy the Chicago Tribune.

July 9, 2004

At Transom.org, Ira Glass's manifesto on how to make radio, in three parts: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

May 9, 2004

In The New York Times Magazine, Howard and Me: Under new F.C.C. rulings, we are all shock jocks now, by Ira Glass.

December 28, 2003

In The New York Times Magazine, a remembrance written by Ira Glass about his mom, Dr. Shirley Glass, part of the Magazine's annual year-end section, The Lives They Lived.

November 11, 2002

On the Poetry Center of Chicago website, a transcript of a conversation between Ira Glass and then poet laureate Billy Collins.

February 18, 2002

On our site, a transcript of a conversation held at the University of Minnesota between Ira Glass and graphic artist Chris Ware, PDF file of the transcript - New Media for Writing American Lives."

June 6, 1999

At Slate: Ira Glass' Television Diaries. Ira details a trip to Los Angeles to pitch a television version of This American Life. Featured at Slate.

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