Walton Arts Center welcomes Ira Glass, NPR voice

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS, Dec. 21, 2015 –Walton Arts Center kicks off the 2015-16 Coca- Cola Night Out Series with "Reinventing Radio: An Evening with Ira Glass" on Saturday, Jan. 16 at 8 pm. Glass mixes stories on-stage, combining narration with pre-taped quotes and music to recreate the sound of the show as you watch and listen along.

Ticket prices range from $18 to $48 plus applicable fees and can be purchased by calling Walton Arts Center's Box Office at 479.443.5600 or by visitingwaltonartscenter.org. For downloadable photos, visit the Ira Glass Dropbox.

Ira Glass is the host and creator of the public radio program "This American Life." Over 2.2 million listeners on 500 public radio stations hear the show each week, with another million downloading the podcast.

The show also airs each week on the CBC in Canada, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's radio network and on BBC Radio 4 Extra in the United Kingdom.

For many years, the "This American Life" podcast was the most popular podcast on iTunes, until the show started its first spin-off program "Serial," which quickly became the most popular podcast in the world.

Glass began his career as an intern at National Public Radio's network headquarters in Washington, D.C. in 1978 when he was 19 years old. Over the years, he worked on nearly every NPR network news program and held virtually every production job at NPR's headquarters.

He has been a tape cutter, newscast writer, desk assistant, editor, reporter and producer, among others. He has filled in as host of "Talk of the Nation" and "Weekend All Things Considered."

Under Glass' editorial direction, "This American Life" has won the highest honors for broadcasting and journalistic excellence, including five Peabody awards. The American Journalism Review declared that the show is "at the vanguard of a journalistic revolution." A television adaptation of "This American Life" ran on the Showtime network for two seasons in 2007 and 2008, winning three Emmy® awards including Outstanding Nonfiction Series.

"Mr. Glass is a journalist but also a storyteller who filters his interviews and impressions through a distinctive literary imagination, an eccentric intelligence and a sympathetic heart." — The New York Times

The Gayly - 12/21/2015 @ 4:28 p.m. CST