Keynote Speaker

Saturday, July 25

Ira Glass is the host and producer of the public radio program This American Life, which is heard on more than 500 public radio stations each week by over 1.7 million listeners. Under Glass's editorial direction, This American Life has won the highest honors for broadcasting and journalistic excellence, including the Peabody and DuPont-Columbia awards, as well as the Edward R. Murrow and the Overseas Press Club awards. The American Journalism Review declared that the show is "at the vanguard of a journalistic revolution." It has won critical acclaim and attracted continuous national media attention over the years. In 2001, Time magazine named Glass "Best Radio Host in America." The podcast of the program is the most popular podcast in America most weeks. Glass’s devotion to journalistic excellence is showcased in The New Kings of Nonfiction, a collection of narratives he chose as exemplars of the best new masters of nonfiction storytelling. The New York Times calls Glass “a journalist but also a storyteller who filters his interviews and impressions through a distinctive literary imagination, an eccentric intelligence, and a sympathetic heart.”

Glass began his career as an intern at National Public Radio's network headquarters in Washington, DC in 1978, when he was 19 years old. Over the years, he worked on nearly every NPR network news program and held virtually every production job in NPR's Washington headquarters. He has been a tape cutter, newscast writer, desk assistant, editor, and producer. He has filled in as host of Talk of the Nation and Weekend All Things Considered. A feature film, Unaccompanied Minors, based on a story from the radio show was released by Warner Brothers in December 2006. The show has put out its own comic book, three greatest hits compilations, a paint-by-numbers set, a "radio decoder" toy, and a DVD, which was created with cartoonist Chris Ware.

In March 2007, the television adaptation of This American Life premiered on Showtime to great critical acclaim and in 2008 won two Emmy awards: Outstanding Nonfiction Series and Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming.