It's hard not to love the adorably neurotic, gently funny, totally relatable Ira Glass, whose hosting duties on NPR's "This American Life" translated equally well to its televised version on Showtime. Self-deprecating and charming, he should be in peak form tomorrow night at Cal Performances, where he'll be speaking about the ideas that guide his work and the current direction of "This American Life." They'll have time for a Q&A session as well. Glass and the program take a lot of heat for being too white, upper-middle-class, bourgeois, etc., but for our money, they're doing some really great journalism alongside their ongoing emotional exploration of the American experience. (If you're a fan but haven't heard their excellent two-part program on the healthcare debate, get yourself to their website forthwith.) And if you've never heard the show before, spending some time with Glass will almost certainly win you over.

Ira Glass speaks at Cal Performances on Saturday, December 5, at 8 pm, at Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley. Tickets are $20, $28, or $36, depending on seating, and can be purchased here.