LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

Storycorps Dave Isay

WENDLAND: To me it seems like such a simple thing - storytelling is such a base human experience. How is it that you've become so renowned for doing such a simple thing?

ISAY: I don't know if it's "renowned," but I don't really think that Storycorps as about storytelling, despite the name, I think it's really a project about listening. And it's a project about generosity. It's about people taking the time to look a loved one in the eye and say how much they mean to us by asking them those questions about who they are, what they've learned, how they want to be remembered. It is a very, very, very simple idea, you know, it's not rocket science. I just think a lot of people don't take the time to do this. I travel the country and all the time I hear from people who say, "I wish I had had this conversation. I with I had interviewed my grandmother/my brother/a friend, but I waited too long." And that's part of what we're trying to do with Storycorps is make sure that folks don't wait too long. And I can promise two things if you decide to interview a loved one this holiday - that you're going to find out things that you didn't know about them and that you will never, ever regret it. I mean, you know, Tegan, that the microphone that gives you the license to have conversations that you wouldn't ordinarily have and it's really kind of an amazing and profound experience, and you can find out all of the information about how to do it at nationaldayoflistening.org.

WENDLAND: Some of your points lead me to wonder if storytelling is more about the story, or the storyteller?

ISAY: Yeah, I actually think it's more about the storyteller. I think it's about the act of listening. I think that it's about letting people know that they matter and that's the profound piece of doing interviews. You know, with Storycorps we've recorded tens and tens of thousands of interviews and we've broadcast just a few of those and those broadcasts are wonderful and these are stories that have this kind of universal quality every one of those 40,000 interviews is equally valuable, and it's not about the stories that are told but about that time to connect with a loved one.

WENDLAND: Is there any particular story that stands out in your mind where something changed for someone after they told their story?

ISAY: I think that happens every day and every week. I'm thinking about the most recent story we did, just this week, a story with a kid who has Asperger's syndrome and his mom came to Storycorps to record an interview. Kids with Aspergers are brilliant but often have a hard time socially, but when they recorded their original story this kid got hundreds of letters from public radio listeners telling him what a great kid he was and his mom put them together in a book and would show that time him when he came home from school and was being picked on or beat up, so these interviews are very important to people.

WENDLAND: Do you think some of the current interest in the intimacy of a project like this is the more disparate structure of our society?

ISAY: I think that people, whether we're in the digital age or not, I think that this kind of human connection is very important to people. I'm not sure if we've become a country that's become not as good at talking to family members now, as we were 20 or 25 or 30 or 50 years ago, I can't answer that - but I can tell you that the act of doing these types of interviews is powerful and important and what we're trying to do with Storycorps is start a national institution that encourages people to talk to family members and have face to face interactions doing these sorts of interviews, and to remember that sometimes in this country where we feel like we're so torn apart, that we may share a little more than you think watching the 24-hour news channels and that if we spend a little more time listening to each other and a little less time screaming at each other we might be a better and stronger country.