In 2018, there are stories everywhere. They are reported on evening network television, hyperlinked throughout our favorite platforms, summarized in 280 characters, or elaborately told on podcasts. Ira Glass, the producer of three of the most successful podcasts ever, knows a few things about storytelling, particularly those told on the medium of radio.
Since 1995, This American Life has aired weekly on public radio and is one of the absolute most popular shows today. Admittedly, Glass expressed that he and his colleagues had nothing close to a master plan to achieve such success; but looking back over the years, he found a few common themes.
Despite the fact that what Glass and his teams create are pieces of fact-checked journalism, he sees them as narratives, and that’s what makes them special. “Stories are all about motion,” Glass stated. “A sequence of events happens… feelings and ideas might be involved, but the momentum is so powerful, that you can get any sequence of events going no matter how banal.” Glass mixed a story of extraordinarily mundane events on stage to demonstrate this simple notion; he paused a few minutes in to remind us how boring the story was, and yet we were at a point where no one would turn off the radio—it was overwhelmingly charming.
Despite the fact that narrative forms and storytelling through movement is not a novel concept, it took Glass a decade or so to realize their power. “When I was in my twenties I had thought I invented something as old as the time as Jesus,” Glass said.
“I think of Jesus as more of a content guy than a structure guy,” Glass joked.
The rest of his speech was full of simple lessons which the audience was very eager to hear: failure is success, try new things, amuse yourself. Glass continued to be evermore charming than he is on radio by alluding to the lessons he continues to live by: “killing a story that’s good but not great is what makes the world a better place,” “great stories happen to those who tell them,” and “if you’re in the story business, you’re in the feelings business”.
What was furthermore eye-opening in it’s obvious truth, are the sheer numbers behind podcasting. For Serial Season 1, their goal was 3.6 million downloads, but in reality the show reached 190 million downloads. The opportunity for advertisers in the podcast industry, is truly remarkable. If you listen to podcasts, you hear the same advertisers over and over again, because marketers simply have not yet grasped the opportunity.
Glass blatantly put it:
“Advertisers come on in! It’s capitalism! The water’s warm!”
Glass wrote, edited and produced This American Life, Serial and S-Town. He recently produced a film, Come Sunday, which is scheduled to air on Netflix next month.