Telling America's Stories
An organization called StoryCorps encourages people to interview others (their moms, dads, grandparents, friends, family, etc.) and those recordings go into the Library of Congress. I think it’s pretty cool and wanted to point out other ways you can hear people tell their stories.
Right now I am really into listening to people tell stories about their lives — mostly via podcast. I am considering participating myself, or at the very least trying to get my husband to tell his life stories in public. He’s got a lot of interesting life experiences and is not afraid of public speaking one bit…all I’d do is talk about having cancer…maybe running…Zzz…
Anyway, there is StoryCorps and you can see a picture of the cool-lookin’ interview booth in Grand Central station here
The other storytelling organizations I’m interested in (besides This American Life) are:
- The Moth – A great, but short podcast. A wide variety of interesting stories. Some semi-famous people (Malcolm Gladwell, Greg Behrendt, Sara Vowell.) Almost the worst podcast intro I have ever heard, with this klezmer music on a violin. Ugh.
- First Person Arts – this is in Philadelphia and they have monthly story “slams.” If anyone has ever been to something like this and/or participated, I’d love to hear your take. They also have workshops frequently and a festival in November.
Does anyone have links to other websites or suggestions for podcasts similar to these?
Comments
They do these on NPR every Friday morning during All Things Considered. Usually they’re way too tear-jerky for me to be listening to in the morning.
You might also want to check out This I Believe. David Lynch also does a video podcast called The Interview Project that might be exactly what you’re looking for.
That’s what it seemed like based on an interview I saw on Colbert. The other places I mentioned are not nearly so tear jerky.
I have had a hard time getting into Terry Gross’s interviews, not for lack of trying. They are really interesting but make me sleepy.
Thanks for the suggestion!