David Sedaris, possibly This American Life’s most celebrated veteran, is joining all the live action for the upcoming visual extravaganza starring Ira Glass and company, to be beamed into theaters nationwide on May 10. Glass announced April 23 via teleconference that Sedaris’ trademark wit will play its part in the cinematic takeoff on the radio show’s signature exploration of the road less floundered. more ›

Some things you just have to see to believe, and "This American Life" is one of them. more ›

Ira Glass, long the heart-throb of geeky NPR fans, has been on a tear lately. Perhaps he's tired of that squeaky clean "This American Life" image and is eager to take it down a couple notches now that he's safely ensconced within the amber of being a bona fide cultural cornerstone. Whatever the reason, we're thoroughly enjoying his recent willingness to play against type with revealing results. more ›

Usually we like to keep our sensational Ira Glass headlines based in reality since they are so much funnier that way. But yesterday A.V.Club Chicago uncovered this little bit of comedy genius lampooning everyone's favorite NPR host. more ›

Ira Glass appears on this week's WTF podcast with Marc Maron that was recently taped live at The Bell House in Brooklyn. Glass admitted feeling a bit weird about being in the room since just a few days before the taping Glass also appeared on the same stage for The Drunk Show during Eugene Mirman's Comedy Festival. According to Glass: more ›

This past Sunday, The Simpsons kicked off yet another season of mischief and comedy and while the premiere featured a great guest spot by Flight of The Conchords, this cameo by Ira Glass seems more appropriate for our site. [via TAL] more ›

• Yesterday's death of bicyclist Jepson Livingston has been ruled a homicide; police allege Livingston was caught in an altercation between two cars and was struck when one driver tried to intentionally hit the other car.
• Details are emerging regarding the death - apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound - of 12-year-old Michael Maxey Jr. of Gary, Indiana who went missing Monday afternoon.
• United Airlines continues to battle the city over the O'Hare Expansion.

Not that that's a bad thing, actually. Writer/humorist/actor John Hodgman is everywhere these days. Hodgman, a Daily Show correspondent and contributor to both McSweeney's and This American Life (and, yes, the PC in those Apple ads), is also now promoting the paperback of his 2008 book More Information Than You Require, a follow-up to 2005's The Area of My Expertise. more ›

Yesterday, Mediabistro reported comments from This American Life's Ira Glass on the future of the program's TV show: "I don't know if I can say this yet, but we've asked to be taken off of television." So why did it all go down? Is Ira Glass bringing the show back to Chicago HQ? WBEZ's Justin Kaufmann talked to Ira and got some answers. more ›

This American Life's Ira Glass appeared on The Colbert Report last night. Much comedy ensued. more ›

Yesterday, we gave some shout-outs to some local media outlets who took home some award hardware and asked readers to let us know of what we've missed. Reader Matthew R. pointed out a glaring oversight on our part: a pair of local Peabody Award winners. WBEZ's This American Life was recognized for their outstanding episode - produced in conjunction with NPR News - "The Giant Pool of Money." Another Peabody was given to the film "Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita," a film shown on PBS' Independent Lens series that prominently features many Chicago-area scientists and researchers. The film was produced by Kartemquin Films, and produced and directed by Chicago's own Maria Finitzo. Congrats and, again, if we missed anything, let us know at tips (at) chicagoist (dot) com. more ›

Don’t be fooled by the trademark nasal North Carolina accent—David Sedaris owes a lot to his stint in Chicago. Discovered while reading his diary in a Chicago club by another famous nasal voice—Ira Glass—Sedaris went on to National Public Radio fame, five essay collections, numerous New Yorker essays, and legions of adoring literary groupies. more ›

This American Life is hitting the road to record some live shows this spring. Ira and crew will be hitting the Chicago Theatre on April 19 for a live recording. Per the Theatre's website, "The performance will include extra-special visual components, and feature audience favorites Dan Savage, David Rakoff, Starlee Kine, Mike Birbiglia and Dave Hill." Sounds good to us! Tickets go on sale this morning in...about half an hour, so get your clicking fingers ready! [via Gapers Block] more ›

mad-libs. Holy crap. more ›

Best-selling memoirist/essayist and frequent This American Life contributor David Sedaris has a new book, When You Are Engulfed In Flames (out today), and is visiting Chicago next week for a pair of appearances. First is an appearance at Border's in Evanston on Wednesday, June 11 where he'll be reading from and signing the new book. The store will begin passing out free wristbands for the signing portion of the event at 2 p.m. the day of the appearance. Then, on Thursday June 12, Sedaris will be doing a lecture and signing at Barbara's Bookstore's UIC location. Tickets are required for the lecture portion of the event but are free with the purchase of Engulfed. There's a limit of two tickets per person and are available on a first-come, first-serve basis as seating is limited. The signing portion of the event, however, will be open to anyone who purchases any Sedaris release from Barbara's (with proof of receipt). more ›

High school students who ride horses in the streets of Philadelphia. An Iraqi who takes to the streets of Savannah to talk to Americans about the war. The life story of people named John Smith. These are some of the stories that will unfold in second season of the TV version of This American Life when it premieres on Showtime Sunday night. more ›

The following post is from our advertiser, This American Life on Showtime.
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Three people were apparently murdered in their home in West Englewood. A mother, father and their teenage son were found this morning on the 6100-block of South Hermitage. [S-T] more ›

Made in Chicago has been buried under snow and soot for a minute, but on a cold, wintry day such as this, we're digging it out with another homemade gem to share with all of you to help you finish out the week. more ›

Ira Glass wasn’t so popular with Chicagoans in 2006, when he announced that he would be moving production of This American Life from Chicago to New York. Showtime had approached Glass and his production staff with a television deal, but the budget just couldn’t work without a New York transplant, so the deal was sealed. Glass has publicly addressed this issue, saying “I’ve always said that because I end up working, like, 70 or 80 hours over the course of a week, I could be on the space shuttle and it wouldn’t make a difference.” more ›

What do get when you mix writers with improv actors with podcasts with open source programmers? Chris McAvoy, of TastebudChicago, gave us an answer, Same Title Different Story, a webzine of sorts through podcasts. The idea is similar to The First Line — give writers a common theme or idea, in this case a title, and let them have at it. more ›

When we saw Ira Glass at a "This American Life" taping a few weeks ago he bemoaned the fact that Showtime was doing so little to promote the television adaptation of the show they were working on. He said the network was only putting up money for a single billboard, so he hoped all of America would take time to drive past that billboard. Obviously Ira doesn't get online much, or he would've seen his face plastered over the top of just about every single website out there. more ›

If you’re a fan of This American Life, and you’ve been thinking about donating during Chicago Public Radio’s fall pledge drive, you might want to get on that. more ›

This American Life. A radio show, unlike any other radio show on the airwaves. They have humor, they have grace, yet, at the same time they give an insight to everyday life. They seem to have it all, except one thing, one tiny little thing. Free Podcasts. (We apologize for our bad Ira Glass impression, kind of hard to do an impression in this medium.) more ›

Chicagoist can sympathize with a man burdened by “complete world knowledge” since we share such an affliction. We are wowed when such a man actually tries to transcribe that “complete world knowledge” into an easily navigable almanac as author John Hodgman has done in his excellent tome, The Areas of My Expertise. You might recognize Mr. Hodgman from his appearances as a “square” PC in those Apple ads recently, or as the “resident expert” on... more ›

While Chicago may not be the "First town" of the nation, the babbling rant from the New York Post's gossip columnist Cindy Adams was odd in general, hilarious at best. In a column reminiscent of, oh, the fight over the World's Fair of 1893, the more ›

The Chicago Humanities Festival will be steered from a distance this year, with New Yorker Lawrence "Ren" Weschler taking the position of artistic director while remaining a resident of New York. He’ll spend four to five days in Chicago at a time for the job, and all the while keep his position as director of the New York Institute for the Humanities. more ›

Chicagoist never thought the day would arrive when we'd earnestly write "Smackdown" and "Ira Glass" in the same sentence. But the Rhinocerous Festival is always a time to defy expectations, pitting the gentle voiced This American Life host against Curious Theatre Branch's co-founder and spiritual force of the festival Beau O'Reilly Sunday night. These men shall duel—to the death! or at least till the end of the program!!—for the cultural supremacy of their respective artforms. O’Reilly’s armed with crafty monologues, deft characterization, and supreme elocution. Glass is bringing the mixing board, that cool background music, and the storytelling acumen that made him the cash cow of NPR pledge drives everywhere. more ›

Chicagoist first picked up David Rakoff's acclaimed Fraud a few years back because he was Canadian and we had a thing for our neighbors to the North. Then we discovered Rakoff was gay and, well, hot (our criteria for picking new authors today) and we were hooked. Rakoff is a regular on This American Life and has been called by TimeOut Chicago an amalgamation of "the wit of Stephin Merritt, the observations of Jerry Seinfeld... more ›

NewCity announced its Lit 50 today, a list of the top 50 �literati who help make our city as vibrant as possible by hosting readings and festivals; the bestsellers who flex Chi pride when they're meeting with their New York publisher; the writers whose prose we've always admired.� No shockers with Studs Terkel coming in first and U of C professor and Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee came in second, but they are really... more ›