Pretty much everyone I know loves and has a crush on Ira Glass.  Yeah, you know him, the host of This American Life, the radio series (and now TV series) broadcast every Sunday on NPR affiliates around the country.

The show, a favorite since childhood, picks a theme each week and presents a story or many stories expounding on that theme.  Many celebrity writers have built a name by producing shorts for TAL, including David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell, but many other voices add to the mix.

People are obsessed with this guy — he’s probably the most well-loved indie guy of all time.  Somehow he’s made it trendy to be awkward. But more importantly, the show has brought back the shared experience of radio — millions of people tune in each week to hear stories.

So I was thrilled to discover Glass’s video series on storytelling tips.  Check out the four-part series below:

Glass talks about the building blocks of storytelling (pose an anecdote, raise questions, reflect), about how to edit your stories once you’ve found them (”Not enough gets said about the importance of abandoning crap”), and how to kill your mediocre works.

Check out the series — very exciting.