Radio show favors listening over opinion squawking
Riddle me this:
“It’s a weekly show. It’s an hour. Its mission is to document everyday life in this country. We sometimes think of it as a documentary show for people who normally hate documentaries; a public radio show for people who don’t necessarily care for public radio,” said Ira Glass, radio personality for This American Life (TAL).
TAL broadcasts from WBEZ Chicago and is distributed by Public Radio International. TAL focuses on the details and complexities of ordinary people’s lives.
The host, Glass, and the small staff usually works an average of 50 hours per week to put together the one-hour show. Performers and writers such as David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell also contribute.
It plays in Cache Valley Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. on 91.5 FM. The TAL Web site, www.thislife.org, has an extensive archive of past shows in Real Audio. It also has links to the books and music premiered on the show.
Each week the staff chooses a theme to frame the stories. Anger and forgiveness and jobs that take over your life are a few examples.
When TAL’s weekly theme was vacations, Glass described a slide show of his trip to Hawaii with his family.
“I brought the pictures of my trip to show you. This one is the condo we stayed in. You can see palm trees through the window. That’s my sister, Karen, on the couch with the Diet Coke.
“Radio is a really visual medium,” Glass said, “but you have to tell people what they’re looking at.”
Glass said the idea for TAL emerged out of a desire to create news that is more intriguing and entertaining. He cites “Jon Stewart’s Daily Show” as one example.
Glass also uses music to thread the stories together. It complements the contours of the guest’s experiences.
“Everything sounds better with music underneath it,” Glass said.
Glass also relies on the devices of good storytelling. The shows have characters, plots, scenes and suspense.
Instead of speaking in a deep authoritative voice like most newscasters, he uses a conversational tone, because he said it emits intimacy.
The guests on the show speak openly about their private lives and are vulnerable to criticism. However, whether Glass interviews a prisoner, a prostitute, a drug dealer or a politician, he does not judge them.
“We try to portray [people on the show] in their own terms,” Glass said.
During an interview, he is objective but interested. His curiosity is rooted in empathy and is tangible to the guests and to the audience. He asks the guests to give more details; he asks them why they do what they do or feel what they feel and he will urge the listeners to try to understand.
Glass’ nonjudgmental stance is a rarity. Shows like Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect” assume that everyone has an opinion about every topic. TAL proves that opinions are overrated and listening is underrated.
“Our mission,” Glass said, “is to understand the world through their point of view.”
TAL consistently accomplishes this. The show has been on for five years and almost 1 million people tune in weekly. Yet, Glass told “Feed” magazine he still feels anonymous. The appeal of TAL and Glass is that he can make the audience feel less anonymous. Although TAL does not give people a face, it gives people a voice.