Meryl and Ira in Cleveland

If you’re a fan of This American Life, if you’re an Ira Glass fanboy, or if you’re generally a radio geek, you need to read Meryl’s blog post about seeing Ira and David Rakoff at the Ohio Theater.

It’s a wonderfully told account, with some great moments:

Ira and David both said that a lot of times they’d get to the very end of a story and stop and say, “So what does this actually mean?” and that a lot of stories get thrown out at that point because they don’t seem to have any larger implications. He said that some stories have really strong themes and it’s clear the whole way through what they’re about, but others have to be shaped at the last minute. “It’s always that last paragraph where we scramble for some false epiphany,” Ira said. “And then you add music to make it seem like a real epiphany,” David added.

But the best part is how afterwards, during the book signing, Ira starts giving her story advice (Meryl is a journalism student), and she pulls out her recorder and starts taping him.

Seriously. Check it out. You’ll be jealous.