Questions for Ira Glass

What’s next and a few Ira links from the past month…

Nate M. — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:09:50 +0000

How did your semester go?

Great question… and I’ve fielded it every year since 2004. The answer always varies but I can say I never thought my response would include, “Well, I got to meet Ira Glass.”

I still struggle with describing this to folks. It’s like a good high school basketball player getting 15 minutes with Michael Jordan- you’re at the point where you are strongly immersed in the craft and can really appreciate how incredibly brilliant the person sitting across from you is. It strengthens your desire to achieve your professional goals and helps you refocus on what you need to do next to grow. Plus, you can’t stop mentioning it to everyone who cares even an ounce about that particular entity.

So if meeting Ira Glass was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, then Questions for Ira Glass will be too (sort-of). This blog helped focus my thoughts (that, thankfully, later became true interview questions), force me into a new writing copy-cycle, strengthen my pursuit of articles to read and also likely helped my credibility to gain the interview assignment.

All of that is too good to simply stop. You can’t talk to Ira Glass every month, so Questions for Ira Glass may be done. There are plenty of other personal heroes that occasionally sneak through CNY however so Questions for (Someone) is something that’s definitely on the horizon. I even have the first post-Ira candidate in mind.

Until then, enough about me and this site. Here’s some of what’s been going on with Ira since November:

He became a hot tag for graffiti artists

In addition to the tag, he also became a hook for a rap artist

His parent company Tweeted about my interview (which also prompted someone to say we looked like twins)

Ira (and company) did an entire TAL episode the next time he went to a college campus. Students (or a student) at PSU then responded to the experience.

Among the legions of Ira swag available for the holidays: a t-shirt, a postcard, a pillow

Finally, it’s always been popular to be an NPR/Ira Glass fan, but it got even hipper when Justin Timberlake was confirmed as a TAL fan

Links: PRI’s Twitter feed | WBEZ’s Twitter feed | BleacherReport.com | The Daily Collegian | Etsy

E-mail us if you have any suggestions on who should be the focus of a Questions blog next… or if you have any more Ira info.

Was it really a week ago already?

Nate M. — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:23:41 +0000

I couldn’t sleep at all the night before, the day itself was a blur. I needed to somehow document what November 17 was like for me as an official interviewer for Ira Glass. This is the video diary more or less.

I. Sat. Down. And. Talked. With. Ira. Glass.

Nate M. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:15:43 +0000

via TheNewsHouse.com

Tomorrow, Syracuse welcomes Ira Glass!

Nate M. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:01:01 +0000

Some of the welcoming signs he can expect in CNY tomorrow:

via the Syracuse University homepage

via Syracuse University Food Services

via me (if they shipped overnight, instead it’s just a dream on Etsy.com)

via Al’s Wine & Whiskey Bar (in Downtown Syracuse)

via the official university flier all over campus

via a Twitter search of “Ira Glass” near and around “Syracuse, N.Y.”

via me, and there’s a lot more where that comes from today. Follow @NathanMattise or search #IraGlass

http://kwout.com/cutout/c/9c/wu/kni_bor.jpghhhh

The Next Four Weeks: What question(s) should make the cut?

Nate M. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:41:19 +0000

Ira comes in less than a week! Time to narrow down the Q’s for my ten minutes with him (well, and then the hour long convo I get to sit in on plus the Q&A during his speech at night…)

The best questions of the first four weeks

Question No. 30: “How the heck did you do that?”

Nate M. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:20:01 +0000

Ira Question | Written by Nathan Mattise

Today I got rejected from the Carnegie-Knight foundation’s News21 journalism initiative.

The application-to-interview-to-result timeframe was so fast I haven’t really had time to process it. I know I was up against some heavy competition – folks who have been doing videography/design/ flash for years, people with professional experience at high profile outlets, students with awards in all the high profile student competitions.

I like to think my materials are strong, I interview well and I display a willingness to learn the skills and techniques I haven’t mastered. There are plenty of other young journalists like me that for one reason or another just haven’t had opportunities like News21 to devote ourselves to a meaningful project with the opportunity to really expand our skillsets. It’s a Catch-22 however. Without the skills/experience to begin with, you can’t participate in opportunities to gain skills/experience.

Current Lectures « University Lectures via kwout

That’s where Ira Glass becomes a bit of a role model. Somehow, some way he took his non-journalism degree, interned at NPR in Washington and eventually worked his way through, “nearly every NPR network news program” and “held virtually every production job.”

So, Ira, it’s too cliche to ask for advice, but…

Is it possible to have a professional rise like yours in today’s professional media culture? Can you grab an opportunity to showcase your abilities without previous indicators and then somehow work your way to the top echelon of an outlet?

Links: News21.org| Lectures.syr.edu

E-mail us if you have a question for Ira Glass to discuss or if you have insight on this one.

Question No. 29: “Do you have the time?”

Nate M. — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:38:44 +0000

Ira Question | Written by Nathan Mattise

With the big lecture just over a week away, I managed to get a few of my classes to agree to hold TAL TV showings.

We opted to watch the “Escape” episode because it’s so rich and offers a journalism class tons of topics to draw on (visuals, interviewing, narration, angles, staging shots… the list goes on).

The one question that came out of it that no one seemed to have a pulse on was about time however. Clearly a story like the Mike Phillips piece in “Escape” requires tons of time to research beforehand, conduct multiple interviews to develop that frank rapport, and then clean-up time for follow-up interviews or additional shoots if you need visuals to match some great audio.

I know time is a limited resource, but when you’re only filming six episodes a season…

On average, how much time does it take to produce a great story? What is the time breakdown between preparation, actual filming and reporting, then tying all the loose ends (refilming, follow-ups, etc.) in post-production? How does the TV preparation compare to doing the same for a radio episode?

Links: n/a

E-mail us if you have a question for Ira Glass to discuss or if you have insight on this one.

Question No. 28: “And the morale of the story is?”

Nate M. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:16:45 +0000

Ira Question | Written by Nathan Mattise

I know journalism always preaches unbiased reporting, but TAL isn’t pure journalism…. it’s pure storytelling.

Stories have morals. Habeas Schmabeas teaches us about how even prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are human beings deserving of fairness. 81 Words sheds light on the beginning of society’s push to truly understand homosexuality. Hell, there are even episodes that go directly at morality and decision making in the human brain.

It has to be impossible to tell all these stories and not have something to draw from, right?

What is the best moral you can take away from a story you’ve produced on TAL? How much of an impact has what you’ve seen, heard and interacted with made on your life outlook?

Links: This American Life

E-mail us if you have a question for Ira Glass to discuss or if you have insight on this one.

Question No. 27: “You accept submissions, right?”

Nate M. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:36:55 +0000

Ira Question | Written by Nathan Mattise

Today I attended a conversation with former Playboy CEO Christie Hefner. Given the territory, she had tons of provocative and profound things to say. One in particular really peaked my interest however.

A student asked if it’s tough to attract young journalists to Playboy because of the potential trouble it could cause on a resume down the road. Hefner retorted that actually the opposite is true, Playboy doesn’t have enough room for all the writers that want to be published within and the list of writers who have contributed (including publishing the original excerpts of Fahrenheit 451 and All The President’s Men) has made it a badge of honor. She finished the thought by noting that, especially for storytellers looking to have non-traditional journalism pieces published, Playboy is actually one of the very few places that features short-form fiction (evidenced by their yearly contest for unknown writers).

Seems like it’s a rough market for young storytellers…

What advice do you have for young storytellers looking to share their work in the digital age? Given the fact that many of the known outlets are very difficult to get published through (books, select literary magazines, public radio reading opportunities, etc.) would you recommend starting off self-publishing for free or cheap online (and hoping that the merit of your work can lead to more wide-reaching, established means)?

Links: The Newshouse | Playboy Online

E-mail us if you have a question for Ira Glass to discuss or if you have insight on this one.

Question No. 26: “What’s the web site again?”

Nate M. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:57:01 +0000

Ira Question | Written by Nathan Mattise

We talked about innovating new ways of communicating a story in my web journalism class tonight. We’ve worked with slideshows, audio interviews, video sequencing and, of course, text already. Our professors showed us some free web tools to try some things (umapper.com for instance) but my mind immediately went to the work of Jonathan Harris. He’s someone a new media prof. of mine turned me on to and I immediately began questioning how viable my future in online storytelling was.

This American Life via kwout

The thought that next came to mind was the TAL web site. Ira Glass and co. were adventurous enough to take storytelling to the video medium for two successful seasons of TAL TV. Radio has held strong for them and translated fine to podcasting…

…so the next logical step…

Why not support your storytelling through innovative online multimedia (or even do uniquely online pieces)? Do you have plans for the TAL web site beyond just storing and organizing your radio stories?

Links: Number27.org | In Pursuit of the Trivial