Press Clips

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.

Overview stories about This American Life:

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. April 11, 1999.

In The Nation: a commentary on the show by Bill McKibben, November 24, 1997. Reprinted with permission, this appears on our site.

In Business Week Online, a piece describing the show: Tuning In to the Voices of America , by Thane Peterson, April 3, 2001.

In the American Journalism Review: 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. July/August 1999. Reproduced on our site with AJR and Fisher's kind permission.

In Time Magazine, Ira Glass is named America's best radio host, with a profile written by David Mamet. June, 2001.


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

Other stories (in reverse chronological order)

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. May 23, 2005.

Online at Apple.com, Animating Historic Archtecture, by Bija Gutoff. An article on the creation of TAL's Lost Buildings DVD. March, 2005.

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. May 16, 2004.

At the Onion's A/V Club, an interview with Ira Glass, by Nathan Rabin. November 5, 2003.

In Current (the trade publication for public broadcasters), Hollywood finds kernels for movies in This American Life, by Mike Janssen. September 22, 2003.

In Teen Ink (Interviews written by teens), an interview with Ira Glass, by Rosemary H. and Blair H., September, 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. Fall, 2003.

In Current (the trade publication for public broadcasters), This American Life negotiates "first-look" deal with Warner Brothers," by Mike Janssen. September 2, 2002.

In On the Page magazine, Ira Glass talks about adult adolescence: A Conversation with Ira Glass, by Zoe Francesca. Summer, 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. June, 2001.

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 29, 2000.

In Chicago's New City, an article on the show: Radioheads. By Margaret Wappler, December 12, 2000.

At CreativePro.com: a review of the show and this website, "DasBot: Content, content uber alles." By Eric Stone. December 3, 1999.

At Sojourners Magazine: Fearless Curiosity--The Irreverent offerings of This American Life (a review of the show). By Kari Jo Verhulst. September - October 1999.

At Horizon Magazine: Ira Glass: A Cure for the Common Radio. By William Upski Wimsatt, September 1, 1999 (this piece in three parts).

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 in February '98, and the basis for the "How To Make Radio" appearances he makes in many cities.

In Salon Magazine: It takes vision to make good radio: tales from This American Life. By Julia Barton. July 1997.

In Current, the public broadcasting trade publication: This American Life. If you love this show, you really love it. By Jacqueline Conciatore. June 2, 1997.


Photo courtesy the Chicago Tribune.

Stories, speeches and conversations with Ira Glass:

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

In The New York Times Magazine, Howard and Me: Under new F.C.C. rulings, we are all shock jocks now, by Ira Glass. May 9, 2004.

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. December 28, 2003.

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 the week of June 6, 1999.

On our site, a transcript of a conversation held at the University of Minnesota between Ira Glass and graphic artist Chris Ware, New Media for Writing American Lives." February 18, 2002.

On the Poetry Center of Chicago website, a transcript of a conversation between Ira Glass and then poet laureate Billy Collins. November 11, 2002.