Ira Glass: Stories for a Saturday Night

A talk by Ira Glass, host of the public-radio show and podcast This American Life, staged at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Glass shares the storytelling style developed on the programme.

Ira Glass, the host of This American Life, presents a talk built around the storytelling method Glass pioneered on the radio programme. The stories follow ordinary people, combining humour with emotion, and the narrative approach has been widely imitated in audio storytelling.

The programme is heard every week and has gathered major broadcasting honours, including Emmys for a television adaptation, eight Peabody Awards and the first Pulitzer ever awarded to a radio programme or podcast. Critics quoted in the source describe its three-act structures and conversational narration as having shaped the audio documentaries that followed.

The talk suits longtime listeners of the show as well as visitors discovering Glass's work for the first time. It takes place at the Royal Festival Hall, a venue in London that hosts concerts and shows.