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

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

Ira Glass at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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In ‘No Other Choice,’ a loyal worker gets the ax — and starts chopping

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In ‘No Other Choice,’ a loyal worker gets the ax — and starts chopping

Lee Byung-hun stars in No Other Choice.

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In an old Kids in the Hall comedy sketch called “Crazy Love,” two bros throatily proclaim their “love of all women” and declare their incredulity that anyone could possibly take issue with it:

Bro 1: It is in our very makeup; we cannot change who we are!

Bro 2: No! To change would mean … (beat) … to make an effort.

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I thought about that particular exchange a lot, watching Park Chan-wook’s latest movie, a niftily nasty piece of work called No Other Choice. The film isn’t about the toxic lecherousness of boy-men, the way that KITH sketch is. But it is very much about men, and that last bit: the annoyed astonishment of learning that you’re expected to change something about yourself that you consider essential, and the extreme lengths you’ll go to avoid doing that hard work.

Many critics have noted No Other Choice‘s satirical, up-the-minute universality, given that it involves a faceless company screwing over a hardworking, loyal employee. As the film opens, Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) has been working at a paper factory for 25 years; he’s got the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect family — you see where this is going, right? (If you don’t, even after the end of the first scene, when Man-su calls his family over for a group hug while sighing, “I’ve got it all,” then I envy your blithe disinterest in how movies work. Never change, you beautiful blissful Pollyanna, you.)

He gets canned, and can’t seem to find another job in his beloved paper industry, despite going on a series of dehumanizing interviews. His resourceful wife Miri (Son Ye-jin) proves a hell of a lot more adaptable than he does, making practical changes to the family’s expenses to weather Man-su’s situation. But when foreclosure threatens, he resolves to eliminate the other candidates (Lee Sung-min, Cha Seung-won) for the job he wants at another paper factory — and, while he’s at it, maybe even the jerk (Park Hee-soon) to whom he’d be reporting.

So yes, No Other Choice is a scathing spoof of corporate culture. But the director’s true satirical eye is trained on the interpersonal — specifically the intractability of the male ego.

Again and again, the women in the film (both Son Ye-jin as Miri and the hilarious Yeom Hye-ran, who plays the wife of one of Man-su’s potential victims) entreat their husbands to think about doing something, anything else with their lives. But these men have come to equate their years of service with a pot-committed core identity as men and breadwinners; they cling to their old lives and seek only to claw their way back into them. Man-su, for example, unthinkingly channels the energy that he could devote to personal and professional growth into planning and executing a series of ludicrously sloppy murders.

It’s all satisfyingly pulpy stuff, loaded with showy, cinematic homages to old-school suspense cinematography and editing — cross-fades, reverse-angles and jump cuts that are deliberately and unapologetically Hitchcockian. That deliberateness turns out to be reassuring and crowd-pleasing; if you’re tired of tidy visual austerity, of films that look like TV, the lushness on display here will have you leaning back in your seat thinking, “This right here is cinema, goddammit.”

Narratively, the film is loaded with winking jokes and callbacks that reward repeat viewing. Count the number of times that various characters attempt to dodge personal responsibility by sprinkling the movie’s title into their dialogue. Wonder why one character invokes the peculiar image of a madwoman screaming in the woods and then, only a few scenes later, finds herself chasing someone through the woods, screaming. Marvel at Man-su’s family home, a beautifully ugly blend of traditional French-style architecture with lumpy Brutalist touches like exposed concrete balconies jutting out from every wall.

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There’s a lot that’s charming about No Other Choice, which might seem an odd thing to note about such a blistering anti-capitalist screed. But the director is careful to remind us at all turns where the responsibility truly lies; say what you will about systemic economic pressure, the blood stays resolutely on Man-su’s hands (and face, and shirt, and pants, and shoes). The film repeatedly offers him the ability to opt out of the system, to abandon his resolve that he must return to the life he once knew, exactly as he knew it.

Man-su could do that, but he won’t, because to change would mean to make an effort — and ultimately men would rather embark upon a bloody murder spree than go to therapy.

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Austin airport to nearly double in size over next decade

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Austin airport to nearly double in size over next decade

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport will nearly double in size over the next decade. 

The airport currently has 34 gates. With the expansion projects, it will increase by another 32 gates. 

What they’re saying:

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Southwest, Delta, United, American, Alaska, FedEx, and UPS have signed 10-year use-and lease agreements, which outline how they operate at the airport, including with the expansion. 

“This provides the financial foundation that will support our day-to-day operations and help us fund the expansion program that will reshape how millions of travelers experience AUS for decades to come,” Ghizlane Badawi, CEO of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, said.

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Concourse B, which is in the design phase, will have 26 gates, estimated to open in the 2030s. Southwest Airlines will be the main tenant with 18 gates, United Airlines will have five gates, and three gates will be for common use. There will be a tunnel that connects to Concourse B.

“If you give us the gates, we will bring the planes,” Adam Decaire, senior VP of Network Planning & Network Operations Control at Southwest Airlines said.

“As part of growing the airport, you see that it’s not just us that’s bragging about the success we’re having. It’s the airlines that want to use this airport, and they see advantage in their business model of being part of this airport, and that’s why they’re growing the number of gates they’re using,” Mayor Kirk Watson said.

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Dig deeper:

The airport will also redevelop the existing Barbara Jordan Terminal, including the ticket counters, security checkpoints, and baggage claim. Concourse A will be home to Delta Air Lines with 15 gates. American Airlines will have nine gates, and Alaska Airlines will have one gate. There will be eight common-use gates.

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“Delta is making a long-term investment in Austin-Bergstrom that will transform travel for years to come,” Holden Shannon, senior VP for Corporate Real Estate at Delta Air Lines said.

The airport will also build Concourse M — six additional gates to increase capacity as early as 2027. There will be a shuttle between that and the Barbara Jordan Terminal. Concourse M will help with capacity during phases of construction. 

There will also be a new Arrivals and Departures Hall, with more concessions and amenities. They’re also working to bring rideshare pickup closer to the terminal.

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City officials say these projects will bring more jobs. 

The expansion is estimated to cost $5 billion — none of which comes from taxpayer dollars. This comes from airport revenue, possible proceeds, and FAA grants.

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“We’re seeing airlines really step up to ensure they are sharing in the infrastructure costs at no cost to Austin taxpayers, and so we’re very excited about that as well,” Council Member Vanessa Fuentes (District 2) said.

The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin’s Angela Shen

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After years of avoiding the ER, Noah Wyle feels ‘right at home’ in ‘The Pitt’

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After years of avoiding the ER, Noah Wyle feels ‘right at home’ in ‘The Pitt’

Wyle, who spent 11 seasons on ER, returns to the hospital in The Pitt. Now in Season 2, the HBO series has earned praise for its depiction of the medical field. Originally broadcast April 21, 2025.

Hear The Original Interview

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