Arts Agenda - Glass half-full

He’s the balladeer of broken spirits, the keeper of public confessions, the poet of the peculiar and the voice of strange obsessions. He’s a storyteller whose characters are Speedo-clad tequila pushers, failed superheroes, inept con artists, the babysitters of imaginary children and, each Thanksgiving, condemned poultry. He’s Ira Glass: creator, host, producer, and all-around bard in residence of the public radio show “This American Life.”

In the scarce air of public radio, where the volumes of edifying information and analysis are too often told with ... let’s just say an excess of tranquil reserve, “This American Life” is a rarity: an addictive and wildly popular hit show. Glass will talk about his experiment in radio journalism and give a live demonstration at the Rialto this weekend.

With 421 public radio stations bringing the show to about 1.4 million listeners, “This American Life” has been called a postmodern “Prairie Home Companion,” with Garrison Keillor’s mythic town of quirky Lutherans replaced by Glass’ grittier (and mostly factual) wider world of wistful weirdoes. Part of the show’s appeal is certainly a freak show fascination, a voyeuristic, reality TV, absurdist attraction. But instead of wallowing in his subjects’ frailties and failures, Glass’ stories are told kindly, quietly, finding fragments of answers to life’s fundamental questions in the strangest or most mundane situations. “The facts have to be surprising,” says Glass, “but also it should lead to a surprising thought.”

That’s not to suggest that the show is overly grand or archly cerebral. “My image of the show is not a German guy in a leather jacket and fancy glasses,” says Glass. “My image is a car with the top down, and they’ve got some beer. And they’re yelling, ‘Come on! Come on! Let’s go to the beach.’” In Glass’ ride, you know that you’ll spend some time ogling the doped-up body builders and nearly-nude specimens of plastic surgery gone awry and maybe stop by a wet T-shirt contest, but then you’ll lay in the sand by a bonfire, finding patterns in the crazy mess of stars.

i>Ira Glass speaks Sat., April 19, at 8 p.m. at the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts, 80 Forsyth St. $20-$40. 404-651-4727. www.rialtocenter.org.