Appeared in Dateline UC Davis on June 25, 2010.
The lights went down as always to start the show in the Mondavi Center’s Jackson Hall. Only this time, they went all the way down, until the full house sat in absolute darkness. And then came the unmistakably sarcastic voice of Ira Glass.
“This part of the program is supposed to emulate radio,” he said.
“I tried to get the Mondavi to let me do this big theatrical thing in the dark, but they didn’t think it was a good idea. So, I guess we should turn on some lights.”
And as the lights came up, so did the applause, a roaring round of applause, for the producer and host of National Public Radio’s This American Life. An estimated 1.7 million people tune in weekly to the critically-acclaimed program and 1 million more listen to the weekly podcast.
Glass’ April 29 appearance marked the final installment in the Mondavi Center’s 2009-10 Distinguished Speakers series. See separate story for information on next year’s series, as well as a separate program featuring the author of the 2010-11 selection in the Campus Community Book Project.
With storytelling, humor and insightful commentary on human nature, he presented a program much like one of his radio shows, in which he brings together real people evoking real emotion by telling real stories.
“Radio mimics the intimacy of human conversation,” Glass said. “Nothing is more personal than a voice to get the meaning of a story across.”
Perhaps that is why radio is succeeding while print and broadcast journalism are fading, Glass said, because, people aren’t drawn to the typical “news robot” anymore.
Journalists are too fixated on devastation and hardship, and forgetting about the hopeful, lighthearted discoveries that transpire every day, he said. This American Life, on the other hand, focuses “not on what’s new, but what is.”
Each week’s program is dedicated to a universal theme, like the cruelty of children, or stories about each of the Ten Commandments, or cheating, cheaters and the cheated.
In creating the show, Glass had one mission: to give life to a new kind of public radio that would “actually be fun to listen to.”
“There’s this strict segregation in radio between the serious and the funny. Why can’t there be both?” Glass asked.
As an example, he played the song “Bet Against the American Dream” — about a hedge fund that creates toxic financial securities, bets against them, makes millions of dollars and destroys the global economy along the way.
Though the track is set to an upbeat Broadway tune, the lyrics depict a devastated housing market that left hundreds of thousands of homes in foreclosure.
Glass said such stories are entertaining distractions during an “odd cultural moment in which we are bombarded with information,” but they are also a poignant reminder of the power of narrative.
“It is so interesting how narrative is a back door to a place in us. It makes us feel what it is like to be in another person’s shoes and transports us.”
Then, as the lights came up, the audience gave another round of roaring applause.
