Ira Glass admits he plays a 'nicer version' of himself on the radio

A note from Wild Card host Rachel Martin: It probably goes without saying, but Ira Glass is legendary in my audio world. He hosts This American Life, one of the most famous and successful radio shows and podcasts of all time. And so when I got an invitation to interview him live at a convention called Podcast Movement, I was super nervous and a smidge intimidated.

When we met backstage, I was surprised to find out he seemed a little intimidated too. Not by me, to be clear, but by the format of Wild Card. He was about to be asked all these potentially personal questions — in front of a really big audience. And he told me that revealing things about himself didn’t come naturally when he was younger — it was something he had to learn to do. But to his credit, he bravely faced the deck and answered every question that came his way.

This Wild Card interview has been edited for length and clarity. Host Rachel Martin asks guests randomly-selected questions from a deck of cards. Tap play above to listen to the full podcast, or read an excerpt below.

Question 1: What is something you think people misunderstand about you?

Ira Glass: I play a much nicer, more empathetic person on the radio than I am in real life.

Rachel Martin: I don’t believe it. You’re not a nice, empathetic person?

Glass: To a point — to the point where I could play it on the radio.

Martin: So there’s like public Ira Glass and then like normal Ira Glass. How far apart are the two?

Glass: Um, I contain that sort of empathetic, people-pleasing person who I’m playing on the radio. That’s most of who I am, but I’m a person under weekly deadlines. And I get freaked out and tired and irritable and don’t want to talk to people. And I get annoyed. And I curse a lot. I really love cursing. So, like, I am that person, but I’m more than that person.

I hesitate telling this story because it’s a little self-something, congratulatory, or something. But one of the very first live shows was a town hall in New York City. And The New York Observer wrote an article about coming to the show, and the article was just about how there were a lot of women who had crushes on me over the radio.

And for the article, they interviewed my senior producer at the time, Julie Snyder. At the time, our staff was me and three women. And she said, “Look, I love my husband. But I’d love him a lot more if every word he said was edited by three women.” That’s the difference between the public and private version of me.

Question 2: Do you think about the legacy that you will leave behind?

Glass: No, I do not. I think that’s bull****. I don’t care at all about that. F*** legacy. F*** people of the future. F*** people who will be after all of us are dead. F*** the people who will be alive, having lunch and seeing movies. F*** them. I hate them. I’m not making a radio show for them. I’m making a show for people who hear it now. And when it’s done and we don’t make it anymore, it’s perfectly fine for it to vanish into the mists of time. Like everything will, and it’s fine if that happens very quickly. It doesn’t matter.

Martin: I asked the poet Nikki Giovanni and she basically said the same thing. And she told me that she is often engaged with people who think a lot about their legacy — even thinking about the stamps that America will make with their visage.

Glass: That’s sad. That’s just a sad person. That’s pathetic. Unless you’re President Obama, unless you’re an actual historical figure. Like, that’s appropriate for him to think about his legacy. But he’s the first Black president of the United States. He should think about that.

Question 3: What truth guides your life more than any other?

Glass: I mean, the actual truth is a little embarrassing to say, and I’ve never put it to myself this way, but I think it’s true: I feel like I’m trying to be a good boy. I’m trying to show that I really am trying my hardest all the time to those around me.

I’m given a simple thing to do. And then I make it way more complicated and spend a lot more time on it than I probably should. Or there’s some like thing in a mix that four other people have heard, and it’s Friday, and then I just hear it and say we have to put three-fourths of a second pause here and four-tenths of a second pause there to make this last moment work, which I would like to believe makes it better.

And I feel like I’m always being a good soldier in appropriate and inappropriate situations. In personal situations where it’s intrusive and not called for, and in work situations where I work with super competent, the very best-at-their-jobs-in-the-world people who very much don’t need my help sometimes. And so it’s a quality that is both good and bad.