| View All |
April 23, 2009
For Immediate Release
For an Interview:
David W. Scott
(801) 863-6884
You know you’re good when Ira Glass, of National Public Radio (NPR) fame, asks to feature your work for a full segment on "This American Life." Such is the case for UVU’s Scott Carrier, whose compelling and unusual stories will be featured in the first ever hour-long segment of "This American Life" made up of a single contributor’s pieces.
"Most people on the radio sound like each other. Most people on TV sound like each other. Most writing in the newspaper is like all the other writing in the newspaper," says Glass in the introduction of the program. "Scott is the rarest thing you can find in mass media: somebody who sounds only like himself."
The nationally aired segment, entitled "The Friendly Man," can be heard locally on KUER this Saturday and Sunday, and online at Chicago Public Radio’s "This American Life" Web site, www.thislife.org.
The segment begins with the story of how Carrier first got on the radio, which is highly atypical to say the least. Then it progresses to a series of other seemingly disconnected pieces - from profiling schizophrenics in Salt Lake City, to trying to find someone with the type of amnesia you see in soap operas - all of which, as Glass says on the show, connect and in fact are "telling one, long story."
Writer and UVU assistant professor Carrier said he remembers, not long after meeting Glass back in 1983 (some 12 years before his radio program), recording together. "I’d heard his show," Carrier said, "But I told him, I don’t think you’d want my stories. And he said, no, I definitely want your stories. So we did some." This weekend’s program will feature a number of those early recordings, some of the first Carrier ever made.
"Scott is one of the rare writers who can combine the most compelling storytelling with profound, relevant points in terms of everyday life and people," said Christa Albrecht-Crane, associate professor and assistant department chair for the UVU Department of English & Literature. "When one of his programs is on, it’s one of those driveway moments - you forget where you are and just listen."
Carrier’s reporting has been featured on various NPR programs, as well as in Esquire, Rolling Stone, GQ and Harper’s. He has received the Peabody Award - the oldest and most prestigious recognition in media - for his radio work, and is the author of "Running After Antelope." He is currently working on his second book, "Prisoner of Zion," which is a collection of stories about people at home and abroad.
# # #
University Marketing Contact:
Erin Spurgeon
(801) 863-6807