StoryCorps provides Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives.
Since Dave Isay founded StoryCorps in 2003, the organization has provided more than 100,000 Americans with access to a quiet booth and platform to record and share interviews about their lives. These Conversations are archived at the U.S. Library of Congress.
At the heart of StoryCorps is a simple, timeless idea: provide two friends or loved ones with a quiet space and 40 minutes of uninterrupted time for a meaningful face-to-face conversation that will be preserved for generations to come. StoryCorps seeks out the stories of people most often excluded from the historical record and preserves them so that the experience and wisdom contained within them may be passed from one generation to the next.
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Mary Lee McNelis suffers from a speech impediment. But her mother and grandmother never gave up on her. They reminisce with StoryCorps about Mary's long journey to finding her voice.
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In this StoryCorps, Emeline King, the first Black woman to design cars for the Ford Motor Company, remembers her inspiration: her father.
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While the Baltimore Orioles compete on the field, another battle takes place in the stands: the fight to be top vendor. StoryCorps brings a conversation with "Fancy Clancy," a vendor who's been selling beer at Baltimore Orioles games since 1974.
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In this StoryCorps, a New Orleans man remembers the harrowing moments when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast nearly 20 years ago.
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In 1968, Nathaniel Estes started his own plumbing business in Denver's Five Points neighborhood. As his company grew, he became a pillar of the local Black community. His son, Eddie Estes, and daughter, Cathy Lane, remember their now 94-year-old father, and what it was like growing up as the plumber's kids.
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Rayford Junior Miles — a World War II veteran from Alabama — came across as a classic tough guy. But to his granddaughter Melanie Harrison, he was just 'Papa.' Melanie spoke with her father, Jim Miles, to remember a grandfather with a soft heart and a comical communication style.
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Van Harris and his wife, Shirley, grew up a block away from each other in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. In this 2012 conversation they remember how they first met in the 1930s.
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Narjis Karimipour was born blind, and when she was 10 years old she lost her hearing. Three years later, she sat down for a StoryCorps conversation with her parents, Sarah Kassim and Mohammad Karimipour, to tell her story in the hopes of helping others struggling with disabilities.
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In this StoryCorps, two park rangers recall being part of a team specially trained to brave the heights and wash the four faces of the presidents on Mt. Rushmore — something no one had ever attempted.
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Two managers at a San Diego construction project were trying to boost the morale of workers in the middle of the COVID pandemic. In this StoryCorps, hear how some monarch butterflies helped.