This American Unchanged by Technology

Ira Glass created and hosts “This American Life,” a public radio show that has a devoted following of listeners who tune in weekly to hear its real-life stories, which are alternately hilarious, poignant, disturbing, haunting or a combination of several of the above.

Glass, 41, whose cousin is composer Philip Glass, ties together the interviews, monologues and documentary sound clips of each show with commentaries that have caused more than one listener to sit in a parking lot and keep listening.

The show normally originates from Chicago, but as part of a tour, Glass and a roster of guest readers will be taping shows before live audiences Dec. 19 and 20 at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

DESKTOP COMPUTER: A Mac G3. Up until five years ago, when we started the show, I was a total PC person. But then we found out we could buy used Macs, with sound cards and hard drive and everything we needed for digital mixing, for $2,500.

One of the things I love about the Mac is that it’s like being a member of an embattled religion. I was having a conversation with a friend the other day, and we were wondering if there were more Jews or Mac users in the country, and what was the overlap.

LAPTOP: I just bought one of the fancy Mac Powerbooks--I think it will become my main computer because I spend a lot of time on the road. And I have to say, I just love it so much. I love the look of it.

Computers are like digital sound equipment. We’ve gotten to the point where we have mastered the art of sound reproduction, so you should just get something that’s good-looking because you’re going to have to look at it a lot. I’m going to see this gear more than I see my girlfriend.

It’s weird because buying things for looks doesn’t happen in any other part of my life--if you could see my furniture, my clothes, my car, they’re nothing special.

HAND-HELD: I got one after I saw a friend’s Palm V and it was just so nice. But I feel bad about it. I didn’t want to be the sort of person who had one--it seems like such a bratty, pretentious thing to own. It makes me feel like the yuppie I never wanted to be. I won’t take it out in public.

As technology, it’s thoughtful and elegant, and it’s hard not to respect the people who did it. But there is a part of me that wants to lie about having one.

BOOKMARKED SITES: There are many exciting Web sites, I’m sure, but I haven’t found them myself. My girlfriend is not just my girlfriend, she’s my Web portal.

I look in on our own site [https://www.thisamericanlife.com], and I catch the Onion [https://www.onion.com] because it is so fantastically funny. I go to Open Letters [https://www.openletters.net]. They publish a letter from someone every day--it’s sort of like our show.

I also go to https://www.soulbath.com. It’s a purely graphical site. I don’t know what the theory is behind it, but it’s so nicely done.

CELL PHONE: I’ve had one for eight months, a Nokia, and I find it so aggravating. Recently, I was in Los Angeles, driving down La Cienega from the Beverly Center to the 10 Freeway, and my cell phone just cut off. This was not in the middle of the Ozarks; I was in the second-largest city in the country. The same thing happens to me in Chicago 10 blocks from downtown. It’s stupid technology. We should all admit it does not work.

Q: We’ve gotten used to places where the signal drops out.

You would not accept that kind of service from an iron. If there was a spot on your shirt it missed every time, you would throw it away.

HOME VIDEO/AUDIO SYSTEM: For a decade, I had no TV at all. And one of the things that happens if you don’t is that people are constantly trying to give you one. It’s like when you’re not married and they want you to meet someone.

Finally I bought one. It’s a basic Sony, not one of the big ones.

Q: No TV entertainment center?

Movies are intense enough as it is. I don’t need to feel the bombs go off in “Saving Private Ryan” in my living room.

I did just get TiVo, and I have it programmed for four shows: “Buffy,” “Angel,” “West Wing” and “Nightline.”

I have a theory about “West Wing.” We are so desperate for a politician to act on principle that we have built our own White House in Los Angeles and hired the finest actors and writers to make it come real. I watch it and get choked up and think, “This is a really great country.” Then I remember, “This is not the real president.”

HAS TECHNOLOGY CHANGED YOUR DAILY LIFE? I feel like I have not mastered how to handle e-mail. I get about 30 e-mails a day from people I know. I try to answer them, but there is much too much to deal with in the middle of the day.

Sometimes, I put an important e-mail aside, and two months later, I realize this person had sent me a long, personal letter. Then I have to do a profound job of sucking it in and calling them. It requires an escalation in arms--you go to the phone call.

Otherwise, there is a deep part of me that thinks the answer is no, that all this technology has not changed anything about me.

I don’t feel different. I don’t think my personality has changed, even if I do keep my schedule on a pretty, evil device.

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--As told to DAVID COLKER