Ep. 29 Former ACLU Executive Director Ira Glasser

Ira Glasser is one of the most consequential civil liberties
figures in American history.


He ran the ACLU as its executive director from 1978 until his
retirement in 2001. In the process, he transformed the
organization from a small, $4 million nonprofit with offices in a
few cities into a household name with an annual budget of $45
million, a $30 million endowment, and staffed offices in every
state, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico.


This week is the 50th anniversary of when Glasser started with
the ACLU on May 1, 1967. In this exclusive, wide-ranging
interview, he shares how he went from a part-time math teacher
with no law degree to the leader of one of America’s most
prominent legal organizations.


His story takes us to Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, where in 1947,
Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball and inspired
a generation of civil rights activists, to the offices of Robert
Kennedy, where the junior U.S. senator spoke with a young Glasser
and convinced him to take a job with the ACLU — a job he
initially didn’t want.


In explaining how he got from “here to there,” Glasser puts on a
master class in principled free speech advocacy, effective
management strategies, and how following your passions can lead
you to delightfully unexpected places.


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Interview transcript:
thefire.org/so-to-speak-podcast-transcript-ira-glasser-aclu/


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