'Make the stuff you want to make now!'
'Make the stuff you want to make now!'
This American Life's Ira Glass delivered this brilliant commencement speech to journalism students at Columbia University five years ago today.
It’s commencement season in the USA, and no doubt there will be gilded moments to share on Speakola in the months to come. I’d love you to send recommendations to me when you come across a good one.
Here is a snippet from one of the greatest commencement speeches, especially for self-employed media creators like me. For journalists who aren’t sure they are ‘journalists’. For ‘words people’ sucked into this new media landscape, this glorious new world where everything’s free and everyone’s angry.
Ira Glass is the host and producer of ‘This American Life’ on NPR. The show has done as much for championing stories that weren’t usually ‘media stories’ as any other. In my view TAL ushered in the podcast age. Ira Glass is a hero to many of us who try to tell stories about our tiny square of the planet, and the people who inhabit it. He’s a reason I started Speakola. He’s a reason I write Good one, Wilson. Like he says in this commencement, ‘Don’t wait! Make the stuff you want to make now!’
He also says insightful things about Trumpism, the left right divide, truth, internships, and the importance of a good editor:
Love your editors. Choose them with the care you’d choose someone to have sex with. Do not have sex with them!
When Richard Fidler interviewed me for his Conversations podcast, this was one of the five speeches on Speakola that the show chose to talk about.
It’s one of the best.
Read the whole transcript on Speakola here.
Watch it on YouTube below, starting at 17 minutes.
I’ll finish below with the transcript from the end of his speech, which is wonderful.
Ira Glass: 'Don’t wait. Make the stuff you want to make now!', Columbia University School of Journalism - 2018
17 May 2018, New York City
It’s traditional in this sort of speech to give advice. I will not do that.
Except this: amuse yourself.
I don’t think enough gets said about that when we’re training journalists. Everything will be better if you’re out for your own pleasure. Noticing what you’re actually truly interested in ... and curious about ... and making your work about that.
Like I said earlier, our radio show is run on the principle that among other things, it’s there for our pleasure. For our fun and curiosity as a staff. And the show is at its very best when one of us gets obsessed.
But even when I was a baby freelancer and taking any story NPR threw my way, I had a rule. In every story there had to be something in there for me. Some little thing I observed that amused me, some funny line I could get in there, some interesting back-and-forth in a quote.
And by the way, any of you doing broadcast or podcast: be in the tape! Cajoling, hondling, joking with, arguing with, interacting with your interviewees. It’s the single easiest way to make your stories better. Be in the tape. An interview properly done is a drama with two characters and not being in there as one of the characters is giving up one of your greatest powers. Don’t leave that power unused. Be in the tape. Don’t settle for less. Don’t do less than you can. Be in the tape.
If you’re funny in real life … be funny in your stories. It makes them better. And it doesn’t mean you aren’t a serious person dealing with serious subjects in a serious way.
If you’re not funny in real life … for god’s sake don’t try to be funny. Be yourself!
Don’t wait. Make the stuff you want to make now. No excuses. Don’t wait for the perfect job or whatever. Don’t wait. Don’t wait. Don’t wait. One of the advantages of being a journalist is you don’t need permission. You can go and run down the story now and then find a home for it. Pay someone you respect - pay a friend - a little money to be your editor and the person you talk to about your next steps. Don’t wait. You have everything you need. Don’t wait.
Commencement addresses are a ridiculous form. It’s a kind of speech that’s doomed to failure. Precisely because nothing can be said that’s up to the task at hand. You are being launched from the training phase of your life into the vast exciting unknown of everything that’s to come. What words could possibly make that better? Seriously. What poncy little speech makes the liftoff of a rocket any better? Your ambition and your hopes for your coming lives … those are enough to fill this day with feeling. The wishes of your parents and loved ones for you … that’s enough.
To those I add my wishes for you. Which are big. I want you to be bold. I want you to change things. Although I am what came before you, I want you to tear up what came before you.
I really truly, no kidding, envy you. Starting as journalists today. To be starting at this moment when journalism itself is changing so much. To be part of remaking it into something new. To be reporting on these difficult times.
To be battling untruth with truth.
Best to you all, my new colleagues.
Thanks to everyone who has supported me and Speakola along the way. Whether on Patreon, by Paypal donation, or by upgrading a free subscription to a paid subscription to this newsletter.
Should I paywall more stuff? I don’t really like paywalls. It’d be great if fans of Speakola would become supporters.
Recent upgrades include ⭐Penny Oldfield ⭐Writeforyou
Best wishes
Tony
My most recent post on Good one, Wilson was a birthday tribute to my son, Jack.
