Ira Glass on Storytelling

**Author's note: I have been a fan of Ira Glass for the past two years or so. At the height of my fandom, I would download the podcast of This American Life just as soon as it hit the airwaves. It is my not-so-secret desire to have a career similar to the one that he has been lucky enough to enjoy. To me, Glass represents the ultimate storyteller. He balances an honest conversational tone with intriguing topics ranging from the jovial to the depressing. He devotes an unbelievable amount of interest into everything he reports on and the entire show is better for it.

It is funny to see someone speak about something as simple as storytelling. Stories have been told since, well, since there were stories to tell. You'd think that something so primordial would be deeply entrenched in our psyche, you'd think that noone would have to tell us how to tell a story. Alas, Glass shows the listener/viewer that there is a lot to it, in a short series of brief videos.

What struck me as being the most potent of all was how he spoke of the inescapable nature of failure. "Failure is a big part of success," Glass says, adding on that it sounds like the tagline of a Michael Jordan commercial. Failure is what makes our achievements that much better. As Glass points out, there is a tendency among journalists to become incredibly attached to a piece and maybe even refuse to see the faults in it. Something that is sub-par has the passion of a journalist behind it for any number of reasons. But the ability to recognize failure is a necessity. I like what Glass says: "You need to enjoy in the killing of it." It's a bit of a Sophie's choice: kill one story so that another can thrive. As a journalist sifts through the masses of stories that are presented to them, they learn to be more dilligent about what they choose to produce. It may take awhile to come across a story that is truly great, but if there is a willingness to accept failure than the greatness of the successful story will be exponentially better. The combination of high standards, high volume, and a high failure rate will inevitably lead to a better reporter. The most important thing to hold on to, Glass seems to emphasize, is the reliance on keeping good taste. So long as you have good content and you develop your voice, your ability to get good stories across will be unavoidable.

I dont think that enough can be said about the importance in having a solid foundation in storytelling, for any profession. Glass can, and should, be perceived as one of the pre-eminent journalists in the field because of his ability to grip his listeners. In the age of a-story-a-second type of news reporting, it is always refreshing to tune into Glass's slow and careful voice on TAL every Sunday. The anecdote, as Glass talks about, is what separates a potentially boring story from becoming just that. By including details that raise questions, you are gripping the audience. We have read about the importance of getting to the point, of being straightforward, of bare-boned writing styles; but I withhold that there should always be a place for a bit of creativity in the world of non-fiction. It is a foundation in creative details that seperates dull anchors from the superb ones; a bit of attention to aesthetic entrenches certain speeches in the confines of history

Perhaps I am assigning too much value to Glass's lectures, but I really dont think so. Consider how news shows can get muddled, there is a reason why many people dont watch the news: its boring. Glass is not impervious either, he shows the listener his own immature imperfections as a young reporter in a display of teaching modesty. Every great reporter comes from small beginnings that seems to be void of a possible future. But if you stick to the fundamentals and continue to hone your craft and voice, then the success and the engagement of an audience will follow soon after.