Who

An idol to hipsters and radio nerds alike, Glass—a New York City resident as of 2006—hosts the public radio show This American Life and the Showtime series of the same name.

Backstory

A native of the Baltimore suburbs, Glass attended Brown (he majored in semiotics) and started his radio career during a college summer break as a 19-year-old intern at National Public Radio. He ended up staying for 17 years. In 1995, Glass moved over to Chicago Public Radio, which is where he really made a name for himself: He created the program This American Life (it was actually called "Your Radio Playhouse" when it first launched), a quirky hour-long radio show that touched on everything from public school reform to superheroes. It soon became a cult favorite, earning a Peabody a mere six months after its debut, and attracting slew of literary stars as contributors including Sarah Vowell, Michael Chabon, David Sedaris and Dave Eggers. The program almost single-handedly revitalized radio storytelling as it spread to nearly 500 stations around the country.

In 2006, Glass moved from Chicago to New York to take his act to cable. The Showtime-version of TAL, produced by fellow Brown alum Christine Vachon's Killer Films, debuted in March 2007. (Glass says he lost 30 pounds so he'd be TV-ready.) Later that year, Glass published a nonfiction anthology called The New Kings of Nonfiction, featuring such "new" talents as Bill Buford, Malcolm Gladwell, and Chuck Klosterman.

On the side

Warner Brothers has a first-look deal with Glass and TAL, giving the studio first dibs on optioning any of the show's broadcasts. Unaccompanied Minors, released in December 2006, was the first TAL segment to be made into a movie, but it won't be the last—a film based on a TAL piece about a Hasidic punk rocker is currently in production with Paramount. Glass also developed a screenplay based on the Ethan Watters non-fiction book Urban Tribes.

Family ties

His first cousin once-removed is the composer Philip Glass. Ira interviewed Philip in 1999 for a piece on NPR's Fresh Air.

Personal

Much to the chagrin of geek girls everywhere, Glass married writer/editor Anaheed Alani in August 2005. His ex-girlfriend, cartoonist Lynda Barry, said going out with Glass was "the worst thing I ever did. When we broke up he gave me a watch and said I was boring and shallow, and I wasn't enough in the moment for him, and it was over." Glass sheepishly responded, "I was in the wrong … About so many things with her. Anything bad she says about me I can confirm." He and Alani live in an apartment on West 20th Street.

No joke

The O.C.'s resident spoiled brat Summer Roberts once snottily asked about This American Life, "Is that that show where those hipster-know-it-alls talk about how fascinating ordinary people are?" Ironically, Glass says The O.C. was one of his favorite TV shows; on tour promoting TAL's Showtime program, he admitted that he cried during the show's finale.