Ira Glass

Glass was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 3, 1959, to Jewish parents Barry and Shirley Glass,{{cite web |url=https://www.geni.com/people/Ira-Glass/6000000031184132658 |title=Ira Glass |website=geni_family_tree |date=March 3, 1959 |access-date=May 7, 2019}} and grew up with two sisters, one younger and one older.{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=2}} Barry started out as a radio announcer, but eventually became a CPA and businessman who founded the Glass Jacobson Financial Group,{{cite web |url=https://www.ptindirectory.com/tax-preparers/maryland/owings-mills-md/218587/glass-jacobson-and-associates-pa/barry-s-glass-cpa |title=Barry S. Glass, CPA - Owings Mills MD Tax Preparer |website=www.ptindirectory.com |access-date=November 17, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181117105044/https://www.ptindirectory.com/tax-preparers/maryland/owings-mills-md/218587/glass-jacobson-and-associates-pa/barry-s-glass-cpa |archive-date=November 17, 2018 |url-status=live}}{{cite web |title=1: New Beginnings |url=https://www.thisamericanlife.org/1/transcript |website=This American Life |access-date=April 8, 2019 |date=December 14, 2017}}{{cite web |url=https://www.glassjacobson.com/ |title=Accounting Services & Wealth Management Firm - Glass Jacobson |website=Glass Jacobson Financial Group |access-date=May 7, 2019}} while Shirley Glass was a clinical psychologist,{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=2}} whose work prompted The New York Times to call her "the godmother of infidelity research".{{cite web |url=http://www.shirleyglass.com/bio.htm |title=Bio of Dr. Shirley Glass |publisher=Shirleyglass.com |access-date=February 4, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214061028/http://www.shirleyglass.com/bio.htm |archive-date=February 14, 2012}}{{cite web |url=http://www.shirleyglass.com/nytimes.htm |title=New York Times Obituary of Dr. Glass, 10/14/03 |publisher=Shirleyglass.com |date=March 1, 1936 |access-date=May 1, 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306080610/http://www.shirleyglass.com/nytimes.htm |archive-date=March 6, 2012}}

File:Ira Glass Senior Year.JPG

As a child, Glass wanted to be an astronaut,{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=2}} while his parents hoped he would become a doctor. From a young age, he loved comedy and his family frequented the theater.{{cite web |last1=Dreifus |first1=Claudia |title='To Get Things More Real': An Interview with Ira Glass |url=https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/08/08/to-get-things-more-real-an-interview-with-ira-glass/ |website=The New York Review of Books |access-date=August 8, 2019 |date=August 8, 2019}} By the time he was 11, he and his sister put on shows in their house's basement and invited neighborhood children to watch. As a teen, he moonlighted as a magician.

Glass attended Milford Mill High School in Baltimore County where he held editorial roles as a member of the school's yearbook staff and as co-editor of the student literary magazine. His involvement in yearbook started in tenth grade and continued until his graduation in 1977. As a member of the Milford drama club, Glass was cast in several stage productions: his roles include Captain George Brackett in Milford's 1975 production of South Pacific,{{cite book |title=75 Milestone |year=1975 |publisher=Milford Mill High School |location=Baltimore, MD |page=162}} Lowe in the school's 1976 production of Damn Yankees,{{cite book |title=76 Milestone |year=1976 |publisher=Milford Mill High School |location=Baltimore, MD |page=164}} and Bud Frump in its 1977 production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.{{sfn|Staff|1977|p=164}} Glass was also a member of the International Thespian Society. Glass has remarked that his style of journalism is heavily influenced by the musicals he enjoyed when he was younger, especially Fiddler on the Roof.{{citation |title=Ira Glass In Three Acts |url=http://www.wnyc.org/story/ira-glass-naked/ |access-date=August 16, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816235203/http://www.wnyc.org/story/ira-glass-naked/ |archive-date=August 16, 2017 |url-status=live}} He was involved in student government during his junior and senior years as a member of the executive board,{{cite book |title=76 Milestone |year=1976 |publisher=Milford Mill High School |location=Baltimore, MD |page=128}} made Milford's morning announcements, and was a member of the Milford Mill Honor Society in 1977.{{sfn|Staff|1977|pp=58, 116, 119, 126, 129, 130, 155, 164}} While in high school, he wrote jokes for Baltimore radio personality Johnny Walker.{{cite web |url=http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/people/2009/10/radio-days |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130926201948/http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/people/2009/10/radio-days |url-status=dead |title=Baltimore Magazine |archive-date=September 26, 2013}}

After Glass graduated from high school, he was accepted into Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and was initially a pre-medical student. He attended with fellow alums Mary Zimmerman and David Sedaris, though he did not know them at the time.{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=2}} He spent a lot of time at the university's radio station making its promos.{{cite journal |last1=Benson |first1=Heidi |title=Storytelling's new frontier / Ira Glass' quirky, smart radio show has sent ripples across the airwaves. Now it's coming to television. |journal=SFGate |date=March 21, 2007 |url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Storytelling-s-new-frontier-Ira-Glass-quirky-2608792.php |access-date=April 9, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180705233554/https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Storytelling-s-new-frontier-Ira-Glass-quirky-2608792.php |archive-date=July 5, 2018 |url-status=live}} He transferred to Brown University, where he concentrated in semiotics.{{cite news |url=http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/05/16/the_semio_grads/ |title=The semio-grads |first=Paul |last=Greenberg |newspaper=The Boston Globe |date=May 16, 2004 |access-date=May 1, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822032755/http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/05/16/the_semio_grads/ |archive-date=August 22, 2006}} There, he was introduced to S/Z by Roland Barthes, an analysis that, in hindsight, "made [him] understand what [he] could do in radio". He graduated in 1982.

After his freshman year, 19-year-old Glass looked around Baltimore for work in television, radio, and advertising without success; meanwhile, he was employed in the shock trauma unit at a medical center.{{cite journal |last1=DiLonardo |first1=Mary Jo |title=IRA GLASS |journal=Atlanta |date=April 2003 |volume=42 |issue=13 |page=72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GeECAAAAMBAJ&q=%22It%20didn't%20work.%20And%20%E2%80%9CGolden%20Calf%2C%E2%80%9D%20all%20about%20people%20worshipping%20a%20false%20idol%22&pg=PA72 |access-date=April 9, 2019}} After someone at the local rock station recommended that he seek out Jay Kernis at National Public Radio's headquarters in Washington, DC, he found work as an unpaid intern editing promotional announcements, before becoming the production assistant to Keith Talbot.{{cite journal |title=Ira Glass's Manifesto, Part One |journal=The Transom Review |date=June 1, 2004 |volume=4 |issue=2 |url=http://transom.org/?p=6978 |access-date=December 15, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111021205823/http://transom.org/?p=6978 |archive-date=October 21, 2011}} At the end of the summer, he chose to stay with NPR and abandon medicine, a decision that disappointed his parents. When he graduated from college, they placed a sardonic ad in the classified section of their local newspaper that read, "Corporate office seeks semiotics grad for high paying position."{{cite web |last1=Massing |first1=Michael |title=Are the Humanities History? |url=https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/04/02/are-the-humanities-history/ |website=The New York Review of Books |access-date=April 12, 2019 |date=April 2, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190405042059/https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/04/02/are-the-humanities-history/ |archive-date=April 5, 2019 |url-status=live}} Talbot brought Glass with him to New York between 1986-87 as an intern on Kids America produced at WNYC.{{cite web | url=https://www.inquirer.com/philly/entertainment/celebrities/kids-corner-wxpn-kathy-oconnell-robert-drake-anniversary-20180417.html | title=WXPN's 'Kids Corner' celebrates 30 years of creating a radio oasis for Philly's children | date=April 17, 2018 }} In Glass' half-hour weekly segments, he took the on-air persona of "Bob" and asked opinion poll style questions.

Glass returned to DC and worked at NPR for 17 years, where he eventually graduated to being a tape-cutter, before becoming a reporter and host on several NPR programs, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Talk of the Nation.{{cite web |last1=Conan |first1=Neal |title=Interview: Ira Glass discusses 10 years of "This American Life" |url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A161809654/GPS?sid=GPS&xid=a1db82f0 |website=Talk of the Nation |access-date=April 12, 2019 |date=December 22, 2005}} In an interview, Glass recalled that his first show was with NPR's Joe Frank, and says the experience influenced him in a "huge way", adding: "Before I saw Joe put together a show, I had never thought about radio as a place where you could tell a certain kind of story."{{cite video |url=http://joefrank.com/m3u/ira.david.m3u |title=Ira and David Discuss Joe Frank |medium=Audio |format=m3u |people=Glass, Ira; Sedaris, David |publisher=joefrank.com |access-date=March 19, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061211234651/http://www.joefrank.com/m3u/ira.david.m3u |archive-date=December 11, 2006}} He has also said that editing for Noah Adams, an early host of All Things Considered, taught him how "to step back from the action and move to some bigger thought and then return to the plot", a technique that he still uses to structure This American Life. As he approached 30, he tried reporting his own stories, but said he was not good at it and that he performed poorly on air, took a long time to create a single piece, and did not have strong interviewing skills.{{cite web |author1=The Editors |title=Q&A: Ira Glass on structuring stories, asking hard questions |url=https://www.cjr.org/special_report/qa-ira-glass-turnaround-npr-jesse-thorn-tal.php |website=Columbia Journalism Review |access-date=August 9, 2019 |date=June 22, 2017}} During this time, he dated a lawyer for seven years who, according to him, made him feel terrible and did not take his work seriously or love him.{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=2}} He says that while she was away working in Texas, he felt his writing improved in her absence, and their relationship ended by the end of the summer.{{sfn|Krulwich|2005|p=2}}

In 1989, Glass followed his then-girlfriend, cartoonist Lynda Barry, to Chicago and settled into the Lakeview neighborhood. Although he began producing award-winning reports for NPR's All Things Considered, specifically on school reform at Taft High School and Irving Elementary School, Glass said it was a piece he did on the 75th anniversary of Oreo cookies that taught him how to write for radio.{{sfn|Krulwich|2005|p=1}} Soon, he and Gary Covino created and co-hosted a Friday-night WBEZ Chicago Public Radio program called The Wild Room, which featured eclectic content with a loose style and aired for the first time in November 1990. By this time, Barry and Glass were no longer a couple, but she initially collaborated on the project, even giving the show its title after she and Glass agreed that Covino's suggestion (The Rainbow Room) was "stupid". The first show aired in November 1990. In Glass's first professional interview (with Cara Jepsen in 1993), he said: "I like to think of it as the only show on public radio other than Car Talk that both NPR news analyst Daniel Schorr and Kurt Cobain could listen to."{{cite web |last1=Jepsen |first1=Cara |title=The Rest Of The Story |url=https://illinoisentertainer.com/2006/03/the-rest-of-the-story/ |access-date=April 8, 2019 |date=March 30, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408170841/https://illinoisentertainer.com/2006/03/the-rest-of-the-story/ |archive-date=April 8, 2019 |url-status=live}} During this time they spent two years reporting on the Chicago Public Schools—one year at a high school, and another at an elementary school. The largest finding of their investigations was that smaller class sizes would contribute to more success in impoverished, inner-city schools.{{cite journal |last=Bracey |first=Gerald W. |title=Research oozes into practice: the case of class size |journal=Phi Delta Kappan |date=September 1995 |volume=77 |url=https://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5000352169 |access-date=December 15, 2011}}

Glass eventually tired of "free-form radio" and, looking at other opportunities, began sending grant proposals to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

{{main|This American Life}}

In 1995, the MacArthur Foundation approached Torey Malatia, the general manager of Chicago Public Radio, with an offer of {{US$|150,000|link=yes}} to produce a show featuring local Chicago writers and performance artists.{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=2}} Malatia approached Glass with the idea, who countered that he wanted to do a weekly program, but with a different premise, a budget of {{US$|300,000}}, and a desire to make it a national show. He then took two months off without pay to work on the pilot. Glass, however, didn't include his co-host in his plans, assuring him that the deal was unlikely to happen. When the show went on without him, Covino says he felt "betrayed". He continued to produce The Wild Room alone until February 1996.

{{quote box |salign=right |quote=You have to ask yourself, What is the radio good for? The radio is good for taking somebody else's experience and making you understand what it would be like. Because when you don't see someone, but you hear them talking—and, uh, that is what radio is all about—it's like when someone is talking from the heart. Everything about it conspires to take you into somebody else's world.|source=Ira Glass in an interview with Chicago Magazine|width=300px}}

Early on, the idea was to make a show telling stories of "nobody who's famous, nothing you've ever heard of, nothing in the news".{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=1}} The everyday stories would be placed between works from journalists, fiction authors, or performing artists.{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=1}} Glass invited David Sedaris to read his essays on the program before producing Sedaris' commentaries on NPR and contributing to Sedaris's success as an independent author.{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=1}}{{cite journal |last=Carlin |first=Peter Ames|title=Elf-Made Writer |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20123516,00.html |access-date=December 15, 2011 |newspaper=People |date=October 20, 1997 |volume=48 |number=16 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120517040020/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0%2C%2C20123516%2C00.html |archive-date=May 17, 2012}} The show—then called Your Radio Playhouse—first aired on November 17, 1995; the episode was titled "New Beginnings". It included interviews with talk-show host Joe Franklin and Shirley Glass—who maintained her position that her son should consider work in television because of his resemblance to Hugh Grant—as well as stories by Kevin Kelly (the founding editor of Wired) and performance artist Lawrence Steger. The show's name changed to This American Life beginning with the episode on March 21, 1996,{{cite web |title=17: Name Change / No Theme |url=https://www.thisamericanlife.org/17/transcript |website=This American Life |access-date=April 9, 2019 |date=December 14, 2017}} and was syndicated nationally in June 1996 by Public Radio International after NPR passed on it.{{cite news|title=Is PBS Still Necessary |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/arts/television/17mcgr.html |work=The New York Times |date=February 17, 2008 |access-date=February 15, 2008 |first=Charles |last=McGrath |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121008041242/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/arts/television/17mcgr.html |archive-date=October 8, 2012}}

Glass devoted himself to the effort by making the daily commute from his North Side apartment and spending 70 to 80 hours per week in the offices on the Navy Pier.

The show quickly received wide acclaim and is often credited with changing the landscape of journalistic radio in the US. It won a Peabody Award within six months of its first broadcast for excellence in broadcast media. The fictional pieces were gradually replaced with more reporting in a storytelling format, such as in the show's coverage of victims of Hurricane Katrina.{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=1}} Over the years, guest contributors included Dave Eggers, Sarah Vowell, Michael Chabon, Tobias Wolff, Anne Lamott and Spalding Gray. On November 17, 2005, This American Life reached its tenth anniversary and the following week, in celebration, broadcast for the first time outside of Chicago.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

File:Ira_Glass_(14250930862)_(cropped).jpg

The television network Showtime approached the show's production team and proposed to convert This American Life into a television program; the team originally refused, as they did not want to compromise the format and make something "tacky and awful",{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=3}} but agreed to make the program for television after Showtime conceded to various conditions, including a format that did not resemble a news magazine. After viewing the pilot, Showtime ordered six episodes in January 2007 and the first half-hour episode aired on March 22, 2007.{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=3}}{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=2}} Glass had to move to New York for filming,{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=1}} and said in an interview with Patt Morrison on Southern California Public Radio that he lost {{convert|30|lb|kg}} over the project.{{cite web |title=Patt Morrison for March 22, 2007 |work=Patt Morrison |publisher=KPCC |url=http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2007/03/22/ |date=March 22, 2007 |access-date=May 13, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622013448/http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2007/03/22/|archive-date=June 22, 2011}} The show aired for thirteen episodes over two seasons before ending in 2009 because of the heavy workload needed to produce it.{{cite web |last=Kaufmann |first=Justin |title=Ira Glass dishes on end of TAL TV. Will he return to Chicago?|url=http://www.wbez.org/jkaufmann/2009/09/exclusive-ira-glass-dishes-on-end-of-tal-tv-coming-back-to-chicago/6109 |publisher=WBEZ |access-date=December 15, 2011 |date=September 18, 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130813200719/http://www.wbez.org/jkaufmann/2009/09/exclusive-ira-glass-dishes-on-end-of-tal-tv-coming-back-to-chicago/6109 |archive-date=August 13, 2013}}

Chicago Public Media announced it would begin self-distribution of This American Life starting on July 1, 2014, through Public Radio Exchange (PRX).{{cite news |title=Chicago Public Media taking over distribution of "This American Life" |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2014/05/28/chicago-public-media-taking-over-distribution-of-this-american-life/ |work=Chicago Tribune |date=May 28, 2014 |access-date=November 8, 2014 |first=Robert |last=Channick |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141107183655/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-05-28/business/chi-chicago-public-media-this-american-life-20140528_1_this-american-life-ira-glass-stations |archive-date=November 7, 2014}}

By 2020, This American Life reached more than 4.7 million listeners each week. Glass can be heard in all but four episodes.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} In July 2013, the 500th episode premiered.{{Cite news|last=Candler|first=Laura|date=12 July 2013|title=This American Life Celebrates Its 500th Episode; Take The TAL Quiz!|work=North Carolina Public Radio|url=https://www.wunc.org/arts-culture/2013-07-12/this-american-life-celebrates-its-500th-episode-take-the-tal-quiz|access-date=26 June 2021}} For the 2013 fiscal year, the WBEZ board voted to raise Glass's salary from $170,000 annually to $278,000.{{cite journal |last1=Buckley |first1=Cara |title=Ira Glass's 'This American Life' Leaves PRI |journal=The New York Times |date=July 2, 2014 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/arts/ira-glasss-this-american-life-leaves-pri.html |access-date=April 9, 2019 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160619135218/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/arts/ira-glasss-this-american-life-leaves-pri.html |archive-date=June 19, 2016 |url-status=live }} However, he requested that it be lowered to $146,000 the following year, and has since asked for it be lowered again, calling the original sum "unseemly".{{cite web |last1=Rodriguez |first1=Lisa |title=Ira Glass On His Public Radio Salary, Being Recognized And Finding 'Sparkly' Stories |url=https://www.kcur.org/post/ira-glass-his-public-radio-salary-being-recognized-and-finding-sparkly-stories#stream/0 |website=www.kcur.org |access-date=September 4, 2019 |language=en |date=October 23, 2015}} He supplements his income with speaking engagements, which earn him "five figures per talk".

In May 2009, the This American Life radio show episode "Return to the Scene of the Crime" was broadcast live to more than 300 movie theaters.{{cite AV media |title=Interview on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, May 23, 2008 |url=http://www.hulu.com/watch/20990/late-night-with-conan-obrien-fri-may-23-2008 |access-date =February 29, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528060009/http://www.hulu.com/watch/20990/late-night-with-conan-obrien-fri-may-23-2008 |archive-date=May 28, 2008 |time=30:00 |publisher=hulu |ref=conan}}

Outside of radio, Glass has also worked as a print author. In September 1999, he collaborated on a comic book, Radio: An Illustrated Guide, with Jessica Abel. The book describes how This American Life is produced and instructs the reader into building their own radio program. In October 2007, he published the anthology The New Kings of Nonfiction.

Glass has collaborated on several feature films. In the show's contract with Warner Bros., This American Life has first pick options on any films that emerge from stories of that program.{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=3}} By extension, Glass goes to Warner Bros. with any movie idea he may have.{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=3}} In 2006, he was an executive producer of the feature film Unaccompanied Minors, which is based on the true story of what happened to This American Life contributing editor Susan Burton and her sister Betsy at an airport one day before Christmas. Burton had already produced a segment on This American Life about the same experience before the story was adapted to film. In 2007, he and Dylan Kidd wrote a screenplay based on the nonfiction book Urban Tribes about a man who must choose between his friends and his girlfriend.{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=3}} Glass also produced the 2018 Netflix movie Come Sunday.{{cite web |last1=Debruge |first1=Peter |title=Film Review: 'Come Sunday' |url=https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/come-sunday-review-1202671818/ |website=Variety |access-date=April 13, 2019 |date=January 22, 2018}}

Glass regularly collaborates with comedian Mike Birbiglia. In 2012, Glass co-wrote and produced Birbiglia's film Sleepwalk with Me and they both went on a country-wide promotional tour for the film to give interviews and visit theaters to introduce the film. On September 17, 2012, Glass made a special voice appearance on The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert to promote Sleepwalk with Me and invite Colbert to participate in a This American Life episode.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} Glass was credited as a co-producer in Birbiglia's 2016 film Don't Think Twice, alongside Miranda Bailey and Amanda Marshall. Glass is also the producer for Birbiglia's 2018 one-man Broadway show The New One.{{cite web |last1=Heyman |first1=Marshall |title=43 Minutes Before Curtain With A Very Tense Mike Birbiglia |url=https://observer.com/2018/11/mike-birbiglia-shares-embarrassing-story-minutes-before-curtain/ |website=Observer |access-date=April 19, 2019 |date=November 10, 2018}}

In 2013, Glass partnered with Monica Bill Barnes & Company to produce Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host and worked alongside Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass.{{cite news |last1=La Rocco |first1=Claudia |title=Off the Air, Onto the Stage: Ira Glass Stars in 'Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/theater/ira-glass-stars-in-three-acts-two-dancers-one-radio-host.html |access-date=September 28, 2015 |work=The New York Times |date=September 12, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001101820/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/theater/ira-glass-stars-in-three-acts-two-dancers-one-radio-host.html |archive-date=October 1, 2015}}

Glass toured Google's headquarters in November 2013 and met the Google Doodle team, who collectively agreed to collaborate with This American Life. Glass suggested that for Valentine's Day 2014 they interview "random" people about their experiences with love.{{cite web |last1=Hom |first1=Jennifer |last2=Glass |first2=Ira |title=Valentine's Day 2014 (US) |url=https://doodles.google/doodle/valentines-day-2014-us/ |website=www.google.com |access-date=April 19, 2019 |date=February 14, 2014}} Users in the American market could click on a candy heart that corresponded to each letter in "Google" and listen to a different story of unusual love in the same style as the radio program. Roger Neill composed the music, while Glass, fellow American Life producer Miki Meek, and Birbiglia conducted the interviews.

In 2019, Glass went on tour with the show Seven Things I've Learned, where he talks about the art of storytelling. The titles of the show's acts include "How to tell a story", "Save the cat", "Failure is Success", "Amuse yourself, and "It's war". Two dancers from Monica Bill Barnes & Company, whom Glass had collaborated with before, performed in the show.{{cite web |last1=Bell |first1=Camryn |title=Story and motion: Ira Glass returns to Zellerbach with 'Seven Things I've Learned' |url=http://www.dailycal.org/2019/04/01/ira-glass-seven-things-ive-learned/ |website=The Daily Californian |access-date=April 19, 2019 |date=April 1, 2019}}

• This American Life — Live! (2009){{cite news |title=Ira Glass Discusses 'This American Life' (Updated) |url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A197852599/GPS?sid=GPS&xid=ca2a56c1 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=April 12, 2019 |date=April 15, 2009}}
• Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host (2013–2017)
• Seven Things I've Learned (2019){{cite web |title=Story and motion: Ira Glass returns to Zellerbach with 'Seven Things I've Learned' |url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A580843426/GPS?sid=GPS&xid=b79617a9 |website=UWIRE Text |access-date=April 12, 2019 |date=April 1, 2019}}

• Radio: An Illustrated Guide (1999)—written with Jessica Abel
• The New Kings of Nonfiction (2007)

Glass made several appearances on late-night television, his first being Late Show With David Letterman.{{cite journal |last1=Glass |title=DIARY: Ira Glass |first1=Ira |journal=Slate Magazine |date=7 June 1999 |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/1999/06/ira-glass-5.html |access-date=13 July 2020 }} He has also been on The Colbert Report.{{cite web |last1=Broverman |first1=Neal |title=Glass on Glass |url=https://www.advocate.com/news/2007/04/09/glass-glass |website=Advocate |access-date=13 July 2020 |date=9 April 2007 }}{{cite web |title=The Colbert Report - April 22, 2009 - Ira Glass |url=http://www.cc.com/episodes/87lhkr/the-colbert-report-april-22--2009---ira-glass-season-5-ep-05054 |website=Comedy Central |access-date=April 9, 2019 |date=April 22, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180628144303/http://www.cc.com/episodes/87lhkr/the-colbert-report-april-22--2009---ira-glass-season-5-ep-05054 |archive-date=June 28, 2018 |url-status=dead}}

In 2004, UCLA commissioned a one-night storytelling event called Visible and Invisible Drawings: An Evening With Chris Ware and Ira Glass.{{cite press release |last1=Sheen |first1=Scalla |title=Cartoonist Chris Ware and Public Radio's Ira Glass Join Forces in a Unique and Exclusive UCLA Live-Commissioned Event April 10 |url=http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/Cartoonist-Chris-Ware-and-Public-4976 |website=UCLA Newsroom |access-date=April 21, 2019 |date=March 3, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190421022031/http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/Cartoonist-Chris-Ware-and-Public-4976 |archive-date=April 21, 2019 |url-status=dead}} In February 2005, Glass visited the Orpheum Theater in New Orleans to present Lies and Sissies and Fiascoes, Oh, My!, which shares a name with a This American Life compilation album.{{cite journal |last1=Tracey |first1=Adam |title=Lies and sissies and fiascoes, oh, my! |journal=New Orleans Magazine |date=February 2005 |volume=39 |issue=5 |page=85}} Glass served as the monologist for ASSSSCAT at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York on February 21, 2010. On September 17, 2011, Glass participated in the Drunk Show at the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival,[http://eugenemirman.com/2011/09/line-up-for-the-eugene-mirman-comedy-festival-2011/ Lineup for the 2011 Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival]. {{webarchive

|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111121050226/http://eugenemirman.com/2011/09/line-up-for-the-eugene-mirman-comedy-festival-2011/ |date=November 21, 2011}} Retrieved October 13, 2011.{{cite web |url=http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2011/09/eugene_mirman_f_3.html |title=Eugene Mirman Fest 2011 --- Day 3 in pics (Rachel Maddow, John Hodgman, Jon Benjamin, Ira Glass & many more) |work=Brooklyn Vegan |date=September 19, 2011 |access-date=October 13, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111024134548/http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2011/09/eugene_mirman_f_3.html|archive-date=October 24, 2011}} during which Glass became so drunk he blacked out and vomited backstage.[http://www.avclub.com/chicago/articles/ira-glass-got-blackout-drunk-onstage-with-eugene-m,62607/ Ira Glass got blackout drunk onstage with Eugene Mirman, Rachel Maddow|AVClub.com] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003135002/http://www.avclub.com/chicago/articles/ira-glass-got-blackout-drunk-onstage-with-eugene-m%2C62607/ |date=October 3, 2011}} Retrieved October 13, 2011.

Glass has been a guest on various podcasts, such as TBTL.{{cite web |last1=Walsh |first1=Andrew |title=Episode #2304: Ira Glass: Friend or Acquaintance? |url=https://www.apmpodcasts.org/tbtl/2017/01/ira-glass-friend-or-acquaintance/ |website=APM Podcasts |access-date=April 10, 2019 |date=January 27, 2017}} On February 24, 2010, the podcast Freakonomics published a bonus episode (after its first) interviewing Glass on how to make a great podcast.{{cite web |last1=Dubner |first1=Stephen J. |title=Ira Glass: "Why in the World Would You Want to Make a Podcast?" |url=http://freakonomics.com/2010/02/24/ira-glass-why-in-the-world-would-you-want-to-make-a-podcast/ |website=Freakonomics |access-date=April 22, 2019 |language=en |date=February 24, 2010}} On June 17, 2011, he and his wife at the time, Anaheed Alani, appeared on the podcast How Was Your Week, where he revealed that, if he were not in radio, he would be a professional poker player.{{cite podcast |title=How Was Your Week with Julie Klausner: Ira Glass, Anaheed Alani "What's This? It's the Style" Episode 15 |url=https://howwasyourweek.libsyn.com/ep-15-what-s-this-it-s-the-style-ira-glass-anaheed-alani |website=howwasyourweek.libsyn.com |access-date=April 19, 2019}} Glass appeared on the edition of June 24, 2011, of The Adam Carolla Podcast, where he and Adam Carolla discussed the podcast claiming the title of "Most Downloaded Podcast" from the Guinness Book of World Records. On September 19, 2011, Glass appeared on WTF Live with Marc Maron.{{cite web|last=Kinski|first=Klaus|title=Nerdist, Doug Benson & Marc Maron keep taping podcasts in NYC, Eugene Mirman fest coming soon (tix back on sale today) |url=http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2011/09/nerdist_doug_be.html|publisher=Brooklyn Vegan|access-date=December 15, 2011|date=September 13, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111225002607/http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2011/09/nerdist_doug_be.html|archive-date=December 25, 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_213_-_artie_lange_nick_dipaolo_nick_griffin_joe_mande_wayne_koesten|title=Episode 213 – Artie Lange, Nick DiPaolo, Nick Griffin, Joe Mande, Wayne Koestenbaum, Elna Baker, Morgan Spurlock, Ira Glass|publisher=WTF with Marc Maron|date=September 26, 2011|access-date=December 15, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111216120844/http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_213_-_artie_lange_nick_dipaolo_nick_griffin_joe_mande_wayne_koesten|archive-date=December 16, 2011}} Glass guest co-hosted Dan Savage's sex-advice podcast, "Savage Love", on January 31, 2012.{{cite web |last=Savage |first=Dan |url=http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/01/31/ever-wanted-to-hear-ira-glass-give-sex-advice |title=Ever Wanted to Hear Ira Glass Give Sex Advice? | Slog |publisher=Slog.thestranger.com |date=January 31, 2012|access-date=February 4, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120203234258/http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/01/31/ever-wanted-to-hear-ira-glass-give-sex-advice|archive-date=February 3, 2012 }} On Monday, November 24, 2014, Glass appeared on the Here's The Thing podcast.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/ira-glass-interview |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141229221523/http://www.wnyc.org/story/ira-glass-interview/|url-status=dead|title=Ira Glass | Here's the Thing |archive-date=December 29, 2014 |website=WNYC Studios}} In 2022, Glass's interview with Debbie Millman was featured on the Storybound season 5 premiere.{{cite episode |last1=Brewer |first1=Jude |title=Debbie Millman discusses her book "Why Design Matters," featuring David Byrne, Saeed Jones, Ira Glass, and more |url=https://thepodglomerate.com/shows/storybound/debbie-millman-discusses-her-book-design-matters-featuring-david-byrne-saeed-jones-ira-glass-and-more/ |website=Podglomerate |access-date=6 May 2022 |series=Storybound |type=podcast |date=March 8, 2022}}

On May 18, 2012, Glass gave the commencement address for the Goucher College class of 2012 graduation ceremony, where he also received an honorary degree.{{cite web |url=http://www.goucher.edu/x46444.xml |title=Ira Glass Commencement 2012 : Goucher College |publisher=Goucher.edu |date=May 18, 2012 |access-date=August 13, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120526090948/http://www.goucher.edu/x46444.xml |archive-date=May 26, 2012 }} Glass was one of the voice artists for the audiobook "Suddenly, a Knock on the Door: Stories" by Etgar Keret.{{cite journal |author1=R. I. G. |title=SUDDENLY, A KNOCK ON THE DOOR: Stories |journal=AudioFile |date=June–July 2012 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=39}}

Glass also lent his voice to The Simpsons in Season 22 in the episode "Elementary School Musical" and appeared in a green motion capture suit in a John Hodgman segment on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on November 4, 2010, where he acted as the main character of the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City video game. Archival footage of Glass is used in the film We Cause Scenes, which premiered at the 2013 South by Southwest conference.{{citation needed|date=January 2014}} In 2014, Glass appeared as himself in the film adaptation of the U.S. television series Veronica Mars{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2771372/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast |title=Veronica Mars (2014) - Full Cast & Crew - IMDB |website=IMDB.com |access-date=July 2, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150228084017/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2771372/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast |archive-date=February 28, 2015 }} and in the extended cut of John Hodgman's Netflix comedy special John Hodgman: Ragnarok.{{cite web |first=John |last=Hodgman |url=http://www.johnhodgman.com/greenfield|title=John Hodgman, RAGNAROK SURVIVAL KIT|work=Tumblr |publisher=Tumblr|access-date=January 10, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140125044325/http://www.johnhodgman.com/greenfield|archive-date=January 25, 2014|author-link=John Hodgman}}{{Unreliable source?|date=December 2020}} In 2018, Glass made a cameo appearance in the film Ocean's 8. In 2019 Glass appeared as himself in the episode "The Struggle for Stonewall" (season 1, episode 8) of the Fox legal drama Proven Innocent.{{Cite press release |title=Listings: PROVEN INNOCENT: Episode Title: (PI-108) 'The Struggle for Stonewall' |url=http://www.thefutoncritic.com/listings/20190313fox11/ |publisher=The Futon Critic |date=April 5, 2019 |access-date=May 19, 2019}}

Ben Sinclair, a co-creator of HBO's TV show High Maintenance, sought out Glass to appear in the 2020 season premiere.{{cite web |last1=Murthi |first1=Vikram |title=How High Maintenance Found Itself in Conversation With This American Life |url=https://www.vulture.com/2020/02/high-maintenance-this-american-life-cycles-ira-glass.html#_ga=2.9802355.753714208.1594726054-409752877.1594726054 |website=Vulture |access-date=14 July 2020 |date=14 February 2020}}

Glass has been called a visionary for his work in radio. In 2001, Time magazine named Glass the "Best Radio Host in America". Critics remark on the dedication and distinct vision he brings to the show. Steve Johnson with the Chicago Tribune called Glass "the deliberately mysterious, apparently highly romantic force who is the program's host, co-founder and executive producer".{{cite news |last1=Johnson |first1=Steve |title=IRA GLASS AND 'THIS AMERICAN LIFE': PUTTING THE PUBLIC BACK IN PUBLIC RADIO |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1998-10-18-9810180472-story.html |access-date=August 12, 2019 |work=Chicago Tribune |date=October 18, 1998}} After remarking that, unlike on most shows, Glass serves as the director, senior producer, host, administrator, librarian, and researcher, Chicago writer Sarah Vowell said, "Part of that is that he's a control freak. Part of it is he has so much experience. Part of it is he really does have a vision for the show." Glass is credited with being a forebear of podcasting and modern audio storytelling.{{cite web |last1=Harmon |first1=Steph |title=Ira Glass: 'I feel like I'm actually sort of scared all the time' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/may/07/ira-glass-i-feel-like-im-actually-sort-of-scared-all-the-time |website=The Guardian |access-date=April 8, 2019 |date=May 7, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180222000531/https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/may/07/ira-glass-i-feel-like-im-actually-sort-of-scared-all-the-time |archive-date=February 22, 2018 |url-status=live }} Samuel Fishwick of the Evening Standard called Glass the "godfather of podcasting".{{cite journal |last1=Fishwick |first1=Samuel |title='People like stories' — Ira Glass on his podcast empire |journal=Evening Standard |date=April 22, 2020 |page=25}}

{{quote box |salign=right|width=310px |align=right |quote=I don't have a good radio voice. But this thing happens now. People say "you have such a nice radio voice." And I say, that's the force of repetition. You're used to hearing me on the radio, so it seems like I should be on the radio. But when you hear me versus someone who should really be on the radio, you can tell, that I really have no business being on the radio. |source=Glass in a 2011 interview{{cite news |last1=Franklin |first1=Libby |title=Ira Glass explains his decision to sound different |url=https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/ira-glass-explains-his-decision-sound-different#stream/0 |access-date=22 April 2019 |work=news.stlpublicradio.org |date=June 15, 2011 |language=en}}}}

The nature of his voice also inspires commentary in the media. Vogue called his voice "the aural embodiment of Sensitive Guy Who Is Friends with All the Girls."{{cite journal |last1=Fisher |first1=Marc |title=It's a WONDERFUL Life |journal=American Journalism Review |date=July–August 1999 |volume=21 |issue=6 |page=40 |url=http://ajrarchive.org/article.asp?id=326 |access-date=April 9, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403093007/http://ajrarchive.org/Article.asp?id=326 |archive-date=April 3, 2019 |url-status=live }} American Journalism Review called his voice "adenoidal" and said it has a "slight stutter, not a speech defect, but a verbal tic, a device". Johnson said Glass' voice sounds like it does not belong on the radio and that it is "kind of querulous, decidedly conversational."

Jenji Kohan has said that Glass is part of the inspiration behind the character Maury Kind on her show Orange Is the New Black, in particular, his glasses.{{cite web |last1=Molloy |first1=Tim |title=Ira Glass 'Politely Declined' Role on 'Orange Is the New Black' |url=https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/news/ira-glass-politely-declined-role-orange-black-214515730.html |website=The Wrap |publisher=Yahoo Entertainment |access-date=April 10, 2019 |date=August 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190410173523/https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/news/ira-glass-politely-declined-role-orange-black-214515730.html |archive-date=April 10, 2019 |url-status=live }} She offered Glass a role on the show, but he "politely declined" the offer due to his busy schedule.

For a time, Glass dated cartoonist and author Lynda Barry. She briefly joined him in Washington, D.C., but she moved to Chicago to be near fellow cartoonists in the summer of 1989,{{cite journal |last1=Powers |first1=Thom |title=The Lynda Barry Interview |journal=The Comics Journal |date=January 2, 1989 |issue=132 |url=http://www.tcj.com/the-lynda-barry-interview/ |access-date=April 8, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190322194910/http://www.tcj.com/the-lynda-barry-interview/ |archive-date=March 22, 2019 |url-status=live}} with Glass following her.{{cite news|url=http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/what-becomes-of-the-brokenhearted/Content?oid=897809|title=Ira Glass's Messy Divorce: What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?|work=Chicago Reader|first=Michael|last=Miner|date=November 20, 1998|access-date=January 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202052916/http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/what-becomes-of-the-brokenhearted/Content?oid=897809|archive-date=February 2, 2017|url-status=live}} Reflecting on the relationship, Barry called it the "worst thing [she] ever did", and said he told her she "was boring and shallow, and...wasn't enough in the moment for him." She later drew a comic based on their relationship titled "Head Lice and My Worst Boyfriend", which was later included in her book One! Hundred! Demons!...{{cite web |last1=Cronin |first1=Brian |title=Comic Book Legends Revealed #242 |url=https://www.cbr.com/comic-book-legends-revealed-242/ |website=CBR |access-date=April 8, 2019 |date=January 7, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408192948/https://www.cbr.com/comic-book-legends-revealed-242/ |archive-date=April 8, 2019 |url-status=live}} Glass did not deny her assertions, and told the Chicago Reader: "I was an idiot. I was in the wrong...about so many things with her. Anything bad she says about me I can confirm."

Glass married Anaheed Alani, a writer and editor, in August 2005.{{cite web |url=http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/March-2006/His-American-Life/index.php?cparticle=2&siarticle=1 |title=His American Life: A Look at Ira Glass |work=Chicago Magazine |access-date=March 31, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120423152743/http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/March-2006/His-American-Life/index.php?cparticle=2&siarticle=1 |archive-date=April 23, 2012}} They had dated before splitting harshly, but decided to give the relationship another try.{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=2}} "We have the entire Middle East crisis in our house," joked Glass. "Her mom is Christian and her dad is Muslim, from Iraq."{{cite magazine |url=http://www.ajlmagazine.com/content/032007/iraglass.html |title=THIS GLASS IS HALF FULL |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070430125133/http://www.ajlmagazine.com/content/032007/iraglass.html |archive-date=April 30, 2007 |magazine=American Jewish Life Magazine |date=March–April 2007 |access-date=August 13, 2014 |url-status=dead }} They shared a pit bull named Piney, which they refused to put down even after it bit several people including two children, drawing blood. (Glass referred to these bites as "nips".){{cite web | url=https://www.thisamericanlife.org/480/animal-sacrifice | title=Animal Sacrifice | date=November 30, 2012 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.petful.com/pet-health/ira-glass-dog-piney/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160805130408/https://www.petful.com/pet-health/ira-glass-dog-piney/ | archive-date=August 5, 2016 | title=A Walking Time Bomb? The Trouble with Ira Glass's Dog, Piney - Petful }} In March 2017, Glass announced on This American Life that he and Alani had separated,{{cite web |title=612: Ask a Grown-Up |url=https://www.thisamericanlife.org/612/transcript |website=This American Life |access-date=April 9, 2019 |date=December 14, 2017}} and in an interview later that year, specified that they had been separating over the previous three years.{{cite web |last1=Dukmasova |first1=Maya |title=One question for Ira Glass |url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2017/12/14/one-question-for-ira-glass |website=Chicago Reader |access-date=April 9, 2019 |language=en |date=December 14, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219215457/https://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2017/12/14/one-question-for-ira-glass |archive-date=February 19, 2018 |url-status=live }} On April 17, 2017, Glass reportedly filed for divorce.{{cite web|title=This American Life host Ira Glass files for divorce from writer Anaheed Alani|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/american-life-host-ira-glass-files-divorce-article-1.3066746|website=New York Daily News|date=April 17, 2017 |access-date=April 19, 2017 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170418080427/http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/american-life-host-ira-glass-files-divorce-article-1.3066746 |archive-date=April 18, 2017}} The pitbull contributed to the divorce.{{cite web | url=https://www.dailycal.org/archives/story-and-motion-ira-glass-returns-to-zellerbach-with-seven-things-i-ve-learned/article_11b16378-2f29-5e66-b508-542e04756505.html | title=Story and motion: Ira Glass returns to Zellerbach with 'Seven Things I've Learned' | date=April 2019 }}

Alani later bought another pitbull. Glass has since resumed dating, calling it "kind of nice and sort of sweet," and saying, "[t]here's a lot of hope to it."

His older sister, Randi Glass Murray, is a literary agent based in San Francisco, while his younger sister, Karen Glass Barry, was a senior vice president in film development at Disney Studios. He is a first cousin once removed of composer Philip Glass, who has appeared on Glass' show and whose music can often be heard on the program.{{cite web |title=528: The Radio Drama Episode |url=https://www.thisamericanlife.org/528/transcript |website=This American Life |access-date=April 9, 2019 |date=December 14, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180307023159/https://www.thisamericanlife.org/528/transcript |archive-date=March 7, 2018 |url-status=live }}

Glass has donated to Prison Performing Arts and dedicated a whole episode of This American Life around one of the organization's productions of Hamlet.{{cite video |title=Ira Glass on why he donated to Prison Performing Arts |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg9m00DlEh0 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/Eg9m00DlEh0| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|access-date=April 10, 2019 |date=November 11, 2014}}{{cbignore}}{{cite web |title=218: Act V |url=https://www.thisamericanlife.org/218/transcript |website=This American Life |access-date=April 10, 2019 |date=December 14, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190410170559/https://www.thisamericanlife.org/218/transcript |archive-date=April 10, 2019 |url-status=live }}

Glass decided to become a vegetarian after visiting United Poultry Concerns' chicken sanctuary.{{cite web |title=UPC Chickens Got Ira Glass to Go Veg, He Tells David Letterman |url=https://www.upc-online.org/summer07/iraglass.html |website=www.upc-online.org |access-date=April 22, 2019}}

Glass likes the shows Gilmore Girls and Family Guy, and says he never missed an episode of The O.C.{{sfn|Coburn|2007|p=3}} His favorite podcasts include WTF with Marc Maron,{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} The Daily,{{cite web |last1=Rowe Moyer |first1=Shelby |title=Ira Glass to share 'Seven Things I've Learned' at Rialto in Tacoma |url=https://southsoundmag.com/ira-glass-rialto-theater/ |website=South Sound Magazine |access-date=April 22, 2019 |language=en |date=May 15, 2018}} Reply All, Radiolab, Heavyweight, ''Stay Tuned with Preet'."

Glass has stated on This American Life that he is a staunch atheist.{{cite web |title=394: Bait and Switch |url=https://www.thisamericanlife.org/394/transcript |website=This American Life |access-date=April 9, 2019 |date=December 14, 2017}} "It's not like I don't feel like I'm a Jew," he explained. "I feel like I don't have a choice about being a Jew. Your cultural heritage isn't like a suitcase you can lose at the airport...But even when I was 14 or 15, it didn't make that much sense to me that there was this Big Daddy who created the world and would act so crazy in the Old Testament. That we made up these stories to make ourselves feel good and explain the world seems like a much more reasonable explanation. I've tried to believe in God but I simply don't." Atheism aside, he said, "Some years I have a nostalgic feeling to go into a shul and I'll go in for a High Holiday service. Rabbi Seymour Essrog was really funny, a great storyteller. He was so good that even the kids would stay and watch him. He'd tell a funny anecdote, something really moving, and go for a big finish. That's what the show is."

Glass has stated that "Christians get a really bad rap in the media" and that contrary to the way they are portrayed in pop-culture, the Christians in his life "were all incredibly wonderful and thoughtful".{{Cite web|url=http://www.relevantmagazine.com/slices/ira-glass-christians-are-horribly-covered-media|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130609070949/http://www.relevantmagazine.com/slices/ira-glass-christians-are-horribly-covered-media|url-status=dead|title=Ira Glass: Christians Are Horribly Covered by the Media|archive-date=June 9, 2013}}{{cite web |last1=Halliday |first1=Ayun |title=Atheist Ira Glass Believes Christians Get the Short End of the Media Stick |url=http://www.openculture.com/2013/06/atheist_ira_glass_believes_christians_get_the_short_end_of_the_media_stick.html |website=Open Culture |access-date=April 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180911153418/http://www.openculture.com/2013/06/atheist_ira_glass_believes_christians_get_the_short_end_of_the_media_stick.html |archive-date=September 11, 2018 |date=June 3, 2013}}

Glass was named the recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award for Outstanding Contributions to Public Radio in 2009.{{cite web |url=http://www.cpb.org/pressroom/release.php?prn=748|title=Ira Glass Receives Edward R. Murrow Award|publisher=CPB Media Room|date=July 8, 2009 |access-date=December 15, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109075628/http://www.cpb.org/pressroom/release.php?prn=748|archive-date=November 9, 2011 }}{{cite video |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRlbGiWckEU|title=Ira Glass acceptance speech for the Edward R. Murrow award |publisher=YouTube |access-date=December 15, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130723002915/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRlbGiWckEU|archive-date=July 23, 2013}} In 2011, he earned the George Polk Award in Radio Reporting for "Very Tough Love", an hour-long report that showed alarmingly severe punishments being meted out by a county drug court judge in Georgia. The episode prompted Georgia's Judicial Qualifying Commission to file 14 ethical misconduct charges against Judge Amanda Williams and, within weeks, Williams stepped down from the bench and agreed never to seek other judicial offices.{{cite web |url=http://www.liu.edu/About/News/Univ-Ctr-PR/2012/February/Polk-PR_Feb-20-2012.aspx|title=LIU Announces 2011 George Polk Awards in Journalism|publisher=Long Island University |date=February 20, 2012|access-date=February 25, 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120223024207/http://www.liu.edu/About/News/Univ-Ctr-PR/2012/February/Polk-PR_Feb-20-2012.aspx|archive-date=February 23, 2012}}

In 2012, Glass was awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters honoris causa from Goucher College in Baltimore. In May 2013, Glass received the Medal for Spoken Language from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.{{cite web |title=Medal for Spoken Language List |url=http://www.artsandletters.org/awards2_popup.php?abbrev=Spoken |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Letters |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130823013044/http://www.artsandletters.org/awards2_popup.php?abbrev=Spoken |archive-date=August 23, 2013}}{{cite web |last1=Glass |first1=Ira |title=When Ira Glass met Michael Jackson |url=https://www.thisamericanlife.org/about/announcements/when-ira-glass-met-michael-jackson |website=This American Life |access-date=April 9, 2019 |date=December 12, 2017}} He was on the team that won the Gold Award for best documentary from the Third Coast International Audio Festival in 2013 for Harper High School,{{cite web |last1=Miner |first1=Michael |title=It took two: WBEZ's education reporters receive national honors |url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/blogs/Bleader/?page=876 |website=Chicago Reader |access-date=April 9, 2019 |date=October 21, 2013}} and was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in November 2014.

In 2020, Glass and the rest of the This American Life staff (together with Molly O'Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green of Vice News) won the inaugural Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting for the episode "The Out Crowd," which demonstrated "revelatory, intimate journalism that illuminates the personal impact of the Trump Administration's "Remain in Mexico" policy".{{cite news |last1=Mulligan |first1=Megan |title=Announcement of the 2020 Pulitzer Prizes |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/news/announcement-2020-pulitzer-prizes |access-date=May 8, 2020 |date=May 4, 2020 |format=press release}}{{cite web |title=2020 Pulitzer Prizes {{!}} Journalism |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2020 |website=Pulitzer |access-date=May 8, 2020}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |author=Staff |title=77 Milestone |date=1977 |publisher=Milford Mill High School |location=Baltimore, MD }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Krulwich |first1=Robert |title=The Trouble with Birthdays: Ira Glass |journal=Stop Smiling Magazine |date=2005 |url=http://www.stopsmilingonline.com/story_detail.php?id=476 |access-date=April 22, 2019}}
• {{cite web |last1=Coburn |first1=Marcia Froelke |title=His American Life: A Look at Ira Glass |url=https://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/March-2006/His-American-Life/index.php?cparticle=1&siarticle=0&requiressl=true#artanc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309072916/http://www.stopsmilingonline.com/story_detail.php?id=476 |archive-date=March 9, 2016 |website=Chicago Magazine |access-date=April 8, 2019 |year=2007}}

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• [http://www.thislife.org/ Official website]
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