Third video in the four part series. Ira Glass on having “good taste”.
He talks about how we (those who ambition to be storytellers, journalists) get into the business because we have good taste. But he realizes–from his own experience–that even though we have good taste, our pieces don’t live up to our good taste for the first several years of being in the business. We know our work sucks, but we can’t do anything about it.
Glass uses one of his old radio stories as an example. The piece is about interesting stuff, but because of its presentation, it is really boring. His tone, inflection, manner of speaking, and writing aren’t great, and basically encourage the listener to zone out or change the channel.
While talking about his piece, he criticizes his inflection and begs reporters to talk naturally, like they normally would. In a future video he says something like, “We already have one Ted Koppel in the world, so you don’t need to sound like him, too.” He claims it’s best to be yourself and I heartily agree.
