I suppose I shouldn't go around admitting I speak untruths on the radio.
From Ira Glass
But you can make good radio, interesting radio, great radio even, without an urgent question, a burning issue at stake.
In some theoretical way I know that a half-million people hear the show. But in a day-to-day way, there's not much evidence of it.
I think good radio often uses the techniques of fiction: characters, scenes, a big urgent emotional question. And as in the best fiction, tone counts for a lot.
If you want somebody to tell you a story, one of the most easiest and effective ways is if you're telling them a story.
It's rare for me to read any fiction. I almost only read nonfiction. I don't believe in guilty pleasures, I only believe in pleasures. People who call reading detective fiction or eating dessert a guilty pleasure make me want to puke.
I don't read novels, but my semiotics study influenced everything about the way I read and edit and write.
When I started 'This American Life', one of the reactions I got was, 'When is the adult going to show up who will host the show?' At some point, people just got used to it.
'Smallville' is like a Domino's pizza. While you're eating, you're thinking, 'This is good, and it reminds me of pizza, but there's not enough flavor in each bite.' That's the feeling you have the entire time with 'Smallville' - that it's just about to be good, but it never is.
It's tricky, performing the show live. Because when you're in a big auditorium, in front of 700 people, the natural tendency is to want to talk louder. You want to project.
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