StoryCorps explained

All the work that the StoryCorps mobile tour does happens in a parked trailer. The recording, photos, editing and archiving all occur in an Airstream trailer, customized to include office space, a photo space and a recording studio. The trailer traverses the country over the course of the year, stopping in big cities and tiny towns, all to record and archive the voices of Americans today.  See full story here.

Great Thanksgiving Listen

The holiday season is a time when families gather, usually for food and fun.  But in an age of video games, cell phone chats and abbreviated texts, sometimes, thoughtful conversations with elders are missed.  This year, St. Louis Public Radio, in partnership with StoryCorps, invited students from Maplewood Richmond Heights High School to spend some time asking questions of an important person in their lives. And then to just let the other person talk. For full article with  audio excerpts click here.

StoryCorps Thanksgiving

In the span of just three minutes, NPR broadcasts excerpts from often deeply personal and frank conversations, allowing listeners to get a feel for what moves their fellow Americans, otherwise perfect strangers. Started 12 years ago by Dave Isay, a radio reporter, the project recently launched its smartphone app, StoryCorps.me, in the hopes of making it easier for people to participate.  For full story click here.  

 

 

 

Schoolchildren interview their elders

High school students across the country (USA) are making oral history this week by recording interviews with their elders in an unprecedented effort to stockpile wisdom for the ages. The Great Thanksgiving Listen was conceived by leaders of the nonprofit oral history project StoryCorps. They're encouraging kids to send their audio recordings to a Library of Congress archive, using a free smartphone app available online at StoryCorps.me. StoryCorps president and found Dave Isay hoped to double, in one weekend, the 65,000 audio recordings StoryCorps has collected since 2003. Read full story and take the links to listen to the interviews here.

StoryCorps Goes Global

It's a big check for a big idea: $1 million, the annual TED prize awarded to a proposal that could change the world. The idea that won Dave Isay the TED grant was a phone app that puts his original big idea, StoryCorps, in the hands of anyone with a smartphone. For full story including an interview with Dave Isay, click here.

StoryCorps – Gay America

David Isay, the founder of the nonprofit oral history group StoryCorps, tried for many years with little success to raise money for a project to collect stories from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community. When his father died two years ago on the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots, he decided the project would proceed, with money or not.  For full story, click here.