The American radio personality who created, produces, and hosts public radio's popular hour-long talk show, This American Life.

Glass was born in Baltimore to Barry Glass, an accountant, and Shirley Glass, a psychologist and distinguished researcher of infidelity. He began college at Northwestern but disliked his fellow Wildcats; he transferred to Brown after a year. His career in radio began while he was still in school: he interned at NPR when he was 19 and he remained there in different departments, doing different jobs, until 1995. He then switched allegiance to Public Radio International when NPR passed on his proposal for a new show called Your Radio Playhouse. Four months after its debut, Your Radio Playhouse changed its name to This American Life, the widely popular weekly show it is today. The show has also acted as the launching pad for the careers of a number of authors, including David Sedaris. Glass' voice is broadcast to over 500 stations and 1.7 million listener nationwide each week.

In 2007, Glass and the team behind the radio show began filming a TV show for Showtime. The show followed the same format as the radio show, though viewers could now see Glass rather than just listen to his voice. Thirteen episodes aired before Glass & Co. asked to end production: creating two shows in a week was just too much.

Glass has been married to writer/editor Anaheed Alani since 2005. A long-time Chicagoan, Glass moved to New York during the short-lived production of the This American Life TV show, and has remained there ever since. [Image via Getty]