Call Your Parents

Ira Glass reflects on how launching This American Life in 1995 unexpectedly transformed his strained relationship with his parents, from distant disapproval to warmth and inclusion, primarily through featuring them on the show multiple times in its first year.

Tensions with Adult Children

Glass describes his mid-30s distance from his parents, Shirley and Barry Glass, rooted in their disapproval of his low-paying public radio career—echoing their own middle-class climb from poverty—and past judgments he made in his 20s. Contact lapsed for months, hurting them. Starting the show pulled them in: they appeared five times in eight months, enjoying the attention and public affirmation as good parents. In a 1996 clip from "Adult Children," Glass interviews his mom, then 60, a Baltimore therapist, about facilitating a Hadassah group of 30 women fixated on strained ties with their grown kids. Common disappointments included unmarried/single children, lack of appreciation (one for three), no grandchildren, and mismatched spouses. She notes parents hold unmet dreams, making it harder on them; advice flows unasked, unlike ideal boundaries. One woman grew to love her child's partner over time. Glass observes their family defied this no-advice norm.