PORTLAND – Award-winning broadcaster Ira Glass will blend storytelling with monologues, music, witty observations, audience interaction and recorded features from public radio’s “This American Life” Saturday, April 18, at Merrill Auditorium.

Glass is host and producer of “This American Life,” which premiered on Chicago’s public radio station WBEZ in 1995 and is now heard on more than 500 public radio stations each week.

The weekly podcast of the program is one of the most popular podcasts in America and “This American Life” has won the highest honors for broadcasting and journalistic excellence.

The 8 p.m. performance follows on the heels of the recent sold-out engagement by David Sedaris, Glass’ friend, collaborator and fellow humorist and satirist.

In 2007, Riverhead published “The Kings of Non-Fiction,” a collection of narrative nonfiction essays chosen by Ira Glass. A feature film, “Unaccompanied Minors,” based on a story from “This American Life,” was released by Warner Brothers in December 2006.

The groundbreaking radio show produced and hosted by Glass has released its own comic book, three greatest hits compilations, a paint-by-numbers set and a DVD, created with cartoonist Chris Ware.

In March 2007, a television adaptation of “This American Life” premiered on cable network Showtime to critical acclaim.

The show won two Emmy Awards in 2008 for Outstanding Nonfiction Series and Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming.

“What’s amazing is how new ‘This American Life’ sounds. It has this beat all to itself. The stories float right up into your brain and lodge there,” it was written in The Nation magazine.

Tickets for this event, presented by PCA Great Performances as part of its Voices from America and the World series, are $38 and $32. Tickets are available through PortTix, the box office at Merrill Auditorium; by calling 842-0800; or at www.pcagreatperformances.org.