This American Life host Ira Glass to lecture

When asked to sum up his job in one sentence for a New York Magazine article, Ira Glass responded, "I try to make things more fascinatinger." And he most certainly does that.

As producer, creator and host of the popular show "This American Life," produced by Chicago Public Radio and Public Radio International, Glass makes a living communicating stories of the everyday, stories that don't make the six o'clock news, stories of normal people—people just like you and me.

A forerunner in the contemporary American writing and humor world, Glass is perfectly fit to speak at Vassar's annual Alex Krieger '95 Memorial Lecture. His talk, entitled "Radio Stories & Other Stories," will take place Tuesday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. in the Students' Building.

The lecture series is named for Vassar student Alex Krieger, who was tragically killed in an automobile accident during his freshman year. However, his legacy as an extraordinary individual and a lover of humor and American literature live on. According to Assistant Dean for Campus Activities Terry Quinn, who organized the event in conjunction with Krieger's parents, "The real goal is to bring someone to campus that the students will really enjoy," adding, "It's a wonderful opportunity that Alex's parents have provided for Vassar to have the memory of their son continue on."

Past lecturers have included Davis Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day), John Irving (The World According to Garp), Augusten Burroughs (Running With Scissors), Tom Wolfe (The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test) and Wendy Wasserstein (The Heidi Chronicles), to name a few. Guests run the gamut as playwrights, radio hosts, novelists, journalists, screenwriters and cartoonists, but share a common thread as distinguished writers who place a particular emphasis on humor.

Glass' presentation will give audiences special insights into the making and development of "This American Life," a program honored high and wide for its journalistic excellence and its place in the radio vanguard revolution. In addition, Glass will use real audio material including monologues, interviews, field recordings and music to illustrate the many components that make up quality public radio. Finally, Glass will explain the process through which he frames narratives, edits raw material and sifts through life experiences with a creative imagination to communicate solid, compelling stories.

Said Quinn excitedly, "He's going to do a fabulous talk, and he's really excited to come here."

What makes "This American Life" so special is the incredible humanity that backs up each and every story. In an article published by New York Magazine, Glass explained, "We're documenting things with no particularly uplifting social mission. The mission is that of an ambitious novel or movie: to point out universal feelings and moments."

For those less familiar with "This American Life," the show airs weekly and is centered loosely around a particular theme. These themes are then examined through the lenses of various "acts"—each presented through first-person narratives. The truth is, though, it's pretty tough to get across the gist of "This American Life" without tuning in to hear the show itself. In fact, for appreciation's sake, it would probably be best to listen to a story or two before seeing the real deal.

Uncovering tales of the humorous, the thought-provoking, the ironic and even the gloomy may define "This American Life," however, Glass did not always have such a keen ear for storytelling. "I'm a natural interviewer, a natural listener, but I'm not a natural storyteller. When I think about a story today, I think about it in a very mechanical way; I'm very aware of the structural parts of it and what I need for it to work," he said in an interview with Slate magazine.

Glass attended Brown University as a semiotics major, which despite its pretentious qualities, ended up helping him understand the inner-workings of interesting stories. Of the many questions semiotic theory asks, one is: "How does a story give pleasure?" Glass explained one component of a pleasurable story as the unexpected—when narratives conceal honest information, convince you of the opposite, then go out with a bang as they reveal the truth in the end.

Though currently one of the most well-respected public radio hosts in the country, Glass started his career not unlike many Vassar kids—at the young age of 19, working his way through various internships, trying to make it big time.

The upcoming Krieger Memorial Lecture will no doubt be a treat for all members of the Vassar community as Glass is likely a household name among the many radiophiles on this campus who instinctively turn their dials to NPR. Above all of that, though, there's no denying that everyone loves a good story.