Thursday, Mar. 29, 2012
Ira Glass
Age: 53
Occupation: Host, This American Life
Since 1995, This American Life has grown from a cult public-radio favorite to a multimedia juggernaut, with 1.8 million weekly listeners, a top spot in iTunes' podcast charts and an Emmy-winning (albeit short-lived) TV show. Glass, the show's mild-mannered face and voice, has become a standard bearer for long-form journalism, and with good reason: his grilling of monologuist Mike Daisey over his errors in a widely cited exposé on Apple suppliers in China is this year's finest example to date of must-listen programming.