Q: Is that what all great radio shows share, that forward momentum?Ī: It’s something all stories share. You need forward motion of a plot and someone who you want to hear what happens to them. I do think everyone has a story to tell but everyone does not have a story to tell on the radio. We’re constantly running up things and killing them. My workweek is a testament to the fact that most things aren’t interesting enough to be on the radio. Q: What makes a good podcast? Can any story be molded into quality radio or podcast material?Ī: Oh, no, of course not. The radio has stayed steady, but the podcast audience, which started off as nothing, sort of overtook it. We crossed over two years ago and now we have 3 million people listening to each episode as podcast, and 2.2 million listening as radio. The majority of the “This American Life” audience is listening via podcast. They don’t realize there’s this app and you just click a button and it pulls up 10 podcasts.Ī: I do think that’s changing. But I’m not finding people who are like, “I hate stories.” I think a lot of people who aren’t into podcasts have a technological aversion to it. Q: What do you say to those people who aren’t listening to podcasts?Ī: If you aren’t listening to podcasts, you shouldn’t feel uncool you are the solid majority. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP) ORG XMIT: INVW Ira Glass attends the premiere of Hulu's "Shrill" at the Walter Reade Theater on Wednesday, March 13, 2019, in New York. Partly because not enough people have even heard a podcast. Still, I don’t think it’s a thing where in a year or two the bubble will burst. There’s, what, 600,000-700,000 podcasts on iTunes right now? And on the business side, do I think people will get to a saturation point and feel sick of it? Yes, I do. Q: Whenever something gets big quickly, people start using the word “bubble.” Do you believe there’s a podcast bubble about to burst?Ī: It depends on what you mean by “bubble.” I think there are two things: the business side and in people’s hearts. The conversation has been lightly edited for length. We caught up with the public radio star to ask what podcasts he’s listening to and where the medium’s future lies. His “7 Things I’ve Learned” solo show lands Saturday at the State Theatre, featuring what Glass called “a bunch of stories I tell for people’s amusement.” Since launching “This American Life” in 1995, Glass, 60, also took to hosting events outside the studio, putting a face to voice and building on the program’s cult following. His signature storytelling approach - candid, narrative, sometimes startlingly intimate - inspired a generation of podcasters working across genres and styles. Ira Glass, host of the hit public radio show “This American Life,” is a founding father of the modern podcast movement.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |