Ira Glass on Effective Storytelling

Ira Glass is a mas­ter sto­ry­teller, as any­one who has ever lis­tened to This Amer­i­can Life can attest. Below, in a series of occa­sion­ally hilar­i­ous videos and arti­cles, Ira reveals his secrets of effec­tive sto­ry­telling: from how to tell when a story isn’t work­ing, to turn­ing the cre­ative process into a pol­ished, fin­ished product.

The 13 prin­ci­ples to cre­at­ing “more, bet­ter radio”, from a 1998 lecture

Three-part ‘man­i­festo’ on sto­ry­telling and work­ing in radio, from 2004

Ira’s fan­tas­tic speech at Gel (32:25)

Four-part inter­view series:

• Part One: The build­ing blocks of a good story (5:24)
• Part Two: On find­ing great sto­ries (4:02)
• Part Three: On good taste (5:20)
• Part Four: On two com­mon pit­falls (2:46)

(Mostly) via Kot­tke (1, 2)