Ira Glass is a radio and television host known for This American Life. He was born in Baltimore in 1959 and attended Northwestern and Brown universities. He began his career in radio in 1977 and moved to Chicago in 1989. This American Life debuted in 1995 and became nationally syndicated the following year. Glass has also collaborated on a comic book about radio production and married publisher Anaheed Alani in 2005.
Ira Glass is an American public radio host best known for his radio and television show This American Life. Glass’ radio show debuted in 1995, and the television version first aired in March 2007 on Showtime. Each hour-long radio program consists of a series of narrative ‘acts’ on a variety of typically non-fiction topics.
Glass was born in Baltimore, Maryland on March 3, 1959. His father, Barry Glass, was an accountant and radio announcer, and his mother, Shirley, was a psychologist. Ira Glass was active in student theater during his time at Mitford Mill High School. He also dabbled in radio as a teenager, writing jokes for Baltimore disc jockey Jonny Walker. After graduation, Glass attended Northwestern University, then transferred to Brown University, where he majored in semiotics.
Ira Glass made his broadcast debut as R2D2 on a local radio show in 1977. He moved to Chicago, where he began working at Chicago Public Radio, in 1989 to be with his then girlfriend, cartoonist Lynda Barry. While the relationship didn’t work out, the move proved serendipitous for Glass’s career. Early radio shows Glass worked on include All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Talk of the Nation. Glass has produced and hosted This American Life, originally titled Your Radio Playhouse, since its very first episode.
This American Life began on WBEZ, a Chicago public radio station, and became nationally syndicated the year after it debuted. In addition to Ira Glass, the radio show helped jump-start the careers of authors Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris. Unaccompanied Minors, a 2006 film starring Lewis Black and Wilmer Valderrama, was based on a personal story told in an episode of This American Life.
Ira Glass collaborated with comic artist Jessica Abel on the 1999 comic Radio: An Illustrated Guide, which details the making of This American Life and offers advice on how to produce your own radio show. Ira Glass married publisher Anaheed Alani in 2005 and the couple moved from Chicago to New York City the following year.
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