I found out late last night that Ira Glass was going to be in Amsterdam this weekend.  He's the host of a radio program called This American Life -- and in the last several months, since my wife first introduced me to the weekly podcast of the program, he's passed Garrison Keillor as my favorite radio personality on the air.  I realize, of course, that public radio personalities don't exactly draw rock-star adoration from most folks -- but for me, to hear that my favorite radio personality happened to be in my city, with scheduled events to interact with the public at the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA)... well, it was pretty exciting.

So even though IDFA's internet site didn't make it seem very likely that I'd be able to get a ticket to his afternoon presentation today, I went down to the Rembrandtplein to see for myself.  When I showed up at Club Escape, where the presentation was to be held, I was flatly told that the show was completely sold out.  I was not given much reason for hope.  But I went to the main box office and stood in line, hoping to figure out a clever way to score a ticket.  While standing in line, I struck up a conversation with an IDFA volunteer and asked if I had any hopes of fineagling a ticket, and my hopes were boosted when she said that all unclaimed reservations are released for sale 15 minutes before the show.  When it got to be my turn in line, I asked about the Ira Glass presentation with pretty low expectations and was delighted to find that I could get into the presentation after all!

I'm so glad I did.

In a very intimate setting -- with perhaps 200 or 250 other festival-goers -- I got to hear Ira Glass talk about Storytelling.  Sculpting plot and scene and narrative, to create the most effective story possible.  Stripping away pretension and phony packaging in journalism.  Making the news entertaining as well as informative... All the things that I love about This American Life!   It was fascinating stuff.  Entertaining stuff.  And very educational stuff, too.  If I ever notice that they've posted the content of the presentation on the IDFA website, I'll have to link to it so you can watch it, too.

I sometimes wonder if This American Life should be required listening for all preachers.  It's simply excellent storytelling.  One of the intriguing things that Ira Glass said during his presentation is that he recently discovered that the "formula" he uses for producing his radio program is basically the same "formula" that preachers have been using for centuries.  In fact, he said there was one point when he (an atheist from a culturally Jewish background) realized that he was basically copying the format of many of Jesus's sermons from the Bible!  And yet Glass does it so well, week-in, week-out, on his radio program that I think we all really have something to learn from him...

I've also noticed that many recent shows have offered a highly valuable mirror of Evangelical Christianity -- not so much from a vindictive, angry, antagonistic, attacking point of view (which seems to be so common in the secular media today), but from a place of genuine interest, curiosity, and seemingly neutral, third-party objectivity.  Just this last week, the program entitled Starting From Scratch featured an provocative adaptation of the Bible's Creation story which, though not entirely theologically correct, was nevertheless fascinating and insightful to hear.  The week before that, the show was called Bait and Switch -- with several different stories about the classic bait-and-switch phenomenon, including one whole story about Evangelical Christianity's tactics for sharing the gospel with non-believers.  And other recent shows have featured extensive quotes of C.S. Lewis (on the topic of the Devil on my Shoulder) and other invaluable perspectives on how the rest of the world sees Evangelical Christians.

So anyway -- all that to say this:  I was excited to see Ira Glass in Amsterdam today.  And I would highly recommend you check out the program (broadcast on National Public Radio in America or available for weekly download on their podcast) sometime for yourself.