On October 7, UCSB Arts & Lectures hosted a reception with Ira Glass for premium ticket holders before his talk at the Granada Theatre. About 50 guests got to casually mingle in the Founders Room with this star of public radio. Glass is the creator, producer, and host of This American Life, which brings entertaining and heartfelt stories to millions of radio and podcast listeners every week. Glass is also the editorial advisor for the podcasts Serial and S-Town.
After a half hour of mingling, Senior Director of Development and Special Initiatives Sandy Robertson greeted the guests and thanked Glen and Suzi Serbin for sponsoring this event and also for sponsoring Fareed Zakaria last season. She introduced Glass and opened the program for questions.
When asked where his stories come from, Glass responded that “it is a disturbingly random process,” that it is a mix of people writing in to the show with ideas and subjects that the staff get obsessed about on its own.