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NewsHouse reporter Nate Mattise interviews public radio host Ira Glass.
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E-mail this storyA candid chat with Ira Glass
The host of 'This American Life' discusses story inspirations, being interviewed and why he avoids Twitter.
More than a million listeners feel like they chat with This American Life host Ira Glass in their living rooms each week. During Tuesday's visit to Syracuse University, Glass literally took a seat on the couch in the Hendricks Chapel den to talk with The NewsHouse.
Glass was honest, personable and conversational just as the legions of public radio fans would imagine.
He discussed a range of topics not necessarily covered in his speech later in the evening. Glass mentioned the reporters he grew up admiring, shared who has the potential to create a story and provided insight to where his mind goes while he’s being interviewed (even when it’s Stephen Colbert on the other side).
Glass was candid on why he doesn’t Tweet or devote himself to innovative web storytelling, surprised to find that campus dining prepared a theme dinner in his honor and encouraging when providing some strong journalism advice for aspiring storytellers (including a brief tip on interviewing for this reporter).
It was a surreal experience to sit next to a living legend and have the voice heard for a long time finally directed my way. Check out the video to see for yourself.
See photos and coverage of Ira Glass' talk at Hendricks Chapel.
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Way to go, Nate! At least you
Way to go, Nate! At least you can be internet famous.
Some of the tidbits that didn't make it...
- Ira Glass talked about how he "wasn't smart enough" to have journalists as heroes when he was young ("I wasn't like Rory Gilmore wanting to be Christiane Amanpour...").
-I also managed to give him a copy of the poster for SU Food Services "This American Dinner" (http://iraglassq.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/tomorrow-syracuse-welcomes-ira...) and he was absolutely flattered that there was a dinner in his honor. ("It's fantastic that there's a dinner in honor of some guy most students will have no idea exists...")
- He shared that despite feeling comfortable being interviewed at this point, there's no way to feel completely prepared when on the Colbert Report ("Literally, they come ask you if you've seen the show before hand. They explain that Stephen plays a character who's an ass. I went in expecting to argue over something and instead he was a really big fan of the show. The stuff he was making fun of was real inside perspective stuff.")
Nice job Nate, AJ & Andrew
Nate, you stayed so composed even though we all knew you were ready to jump out of your skin :) How did it feel when he picked apart your own interviewing techniques? Imagine that. Your reporting skills were legitimately analyzed by your journo hero! People would probably pay huge money for that kind of feedback from Ira Glass! Great work. I hope you're as excited now as I was when I met Joey and Lance from *NSYNC ;)
And guys on the production end, great job pulling this together--and in just a few hours. I like that you mixed it up with camera angles. And you didn't cut the interview too short. With such a vivacious subject, it's really worth the six minutes.
Look at that, TheNewsHouse.com doing big things in media. Does Romenesko know about us? I mean, we're kind of a big deal.
Great job, Nate! I know he's
Great job, Nate! I know he's your hero -- you guys kind of even look alike. Coincidence? I think not.
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