This American Life – Ira Glass – Television – Review – The New York Times

On his radio show Mr. Glass has figured out that the story shortage in America is serious, and he fills the narrative reserves out of his own pocket more often than anyone admits. Specifically he supplies “transitions” in the stories that are nominally told by his guests. He talks telegraphically, using short phrases and confident deep breaths. He also has a way of seeming to swallow while he talks that’s endearing, like a spelling-bee champ fighting dry mouth.

Female listeners find Mr. Glass seductive in spite of his swallowed delivery. Probably this is because he makes liberal use of free, indirect discourse, the standard public radio trick of simulated empathy: it’s the version of the third person that stays deep inside the head of the subject. (A crude example: “Bethany went outside. Was it raining?”) For Mr. Glass it’s a way to take the wheel of stories when it’s clear that the everyman he’s recruited isn’t saying exactly what the producers want him to.

This strategy can be insidious. In the second episode of “This American Life” Mr. Glass debriefs a comedian who jokes about the death of her boyfriend on Sept. 11. She’s watching tapes of her early, less-than-successful post-9/11 routines, seeming to appreciate the artistry of her old act.

Mr. Glass has his own direction for the story. “So she kind of bombed,” he says. “She didn’t care. She wanted to be up there because she needed to move on. Get to the next phase of her life. And that part” — pause — “worked just fine.”

Let’s follow his harmless-sounding summary a minute. Mr. Glass proceeds hypnotically, giving first bad news — “she kind of bombed” — only to smoothly convert the insult into something good. He then presumes to tell the comedian what she wanted (“to be up there”) and needed (“to move on”), all in his sweet and halting way, and it sounds so true. But, wait, did she really bomb? Is she ready to say she “bombed”? He talks slowly, but he races to his conclusion, so maybe he’s right, and he has the radio voice.