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Radio Host Ira Glass On A Few Things He's Learned

Submitted photo

Ira Glass, the host of “This American Life,” is bringing his live show to Louisville on Saturday, December 3. The title of the show is “Seven Things I’ve Learned.”

I spoke with Glass recently, and asked him about some of the things he plans to discuss. It got a little weird.

Listen in the audio player above.

On his "seven things":

"I've just started giving this talk -- I've only given it five or six times, and I keep changing it each time. And it's a mix of things that have been on the radio like stories, me talking about how we make certain kinds of stories; video, little movies that we've made that I think people haven't seen, animations, things like that; and stuff that's never been on the air."

What's something you've learned that you had to un-learn? 

"I think the biggest thing I had to un-learn was self-reliance. I had to do that both in my work life and really in my marriage, too. Before I started the radio show, I was a reporter and producer for  All Things Considered and  Morning Edition.

"And so basically, I was working on these 10-minute stories, six-minute stories, whatever they were, four-minute stories. And within those stories, I would be in charge of those stories. And I wasn't in a situation of having to hand things off to other people and just trust other people.

"When I started the radio show, I had no experience at being a boss. And it turns out, yeah, I really had to learn on the job, with my staff telling me no no, you're doing this all wrong."

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