Carol Miller and Marge Klindera

Marge Klindera spent decades teaching home economics to Illinois middle and high school students. As she was transitioning into retirement, she began looking for other ways to share her years of knowledge and experience. In 1983, she began working at a seasonal call center—answering questions from those needing last-minute information on cooking a turkey.

Each Thanksgiving, for more than 30 years, Butterball has run their Turkey Talk-Line. Operating from October to December, trained professionals like Marge answer thousands of turkey-related questions from home cooks across the United States and Canada.

At StoryCorps, Marge (pictured above right), 79, sat down with her longtime coworker, Carol Miller (pictured above left), 68, to remember some of the best callers they have had, as well as some of the best advice they have dished out.

Originally aired November 27, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Studs Terkel

Legendary oral historian Studs Terkel was a lover of the human voice. He shares a story about an experience he had at an airport searching for, and later finding, the “vox humana.”

Originally aired November 7, 2008, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Cheng Wang, Kay Wang and Chen Wang

Kay Wang had a reputation for being strong-willed—a reputation she earned as a child.

When this interview was recorded, Kay was 87 years old, and reluctantly answered questions from her son, Cheng, and granddaughter, Chen.

Just weeks after their conversation, Kay Wang died of cancer.

StoryCorps asked Cheng and Chen to come back into the studio and record a tribute to Kay—and we’ve turned that into an animated short, “No More Questions!”

Originally aired July 18, 2008, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

William and Kimberly Weaver

Lynn Weaver talks with his daughter, Kimberly, about his father, Ted Weaver, who worked as a janitor and chauffeur in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Weaver was Chairman of Surgery at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta when this interview was recorded in 2007.

Dr. William Lynn Weaver died in May 2019.

Originally aired April 13, 2007 on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Ramón “Chunky” Sanchez

Ramón  “Chunky” Sanchez was raised in a small farming community in southern California in the 1950s. As was common practice at that time, teachers at his local elementary school Anglicized the Mexican American students’ names.

Ramón came to StoryCorps to remember a classmate who proved to be the exception to the rule.

Click here to watch “Facundo the Great,” the StoryCorps animation of Ramón’s story.

Originally aired June 6, 2008, on NPR’s Morning Edition. 

Cherie Johnson and James Ransom

Cousins Cherie Johnson and James Ransom recall their formidable Sunday school teacher, Miss Lizzie Devine, the only woman who scared them more than their own grandmother.

Watch an animated version of their conversation.

Originally aired March 24, 2006, on NPR’s Morning Edition. A shortened version was rebroadcast on February 16, 2018, on the same program.

Hector Black

In 2001, Hector Black’s daughter, Patricia Ann Nuckles, was murdered after she surprised an intruder in her Atlanta home. Her attacker was hiding in a closet, and when he asked her for sex, she told him he would have to kill her first. He then murdered her.

After learning more about the killer’s life, Hector and his wife went to the district attorney’s office and asked that prosecutors not pursue the death penalty. At StoryCorps he remembers his daughter and discusses how he came to make that request.

Originally aired February 8, 2008, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Photo of Patricia courtesy of Hector Black.

Priya Morganstern, Ken Morganstern, and Bhavani Jaroff

Five years after Ken Morganstern was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, he sat down with his daughters, Priya Morganstern (left) and Bhavani Jaroff (right), to talk about some of the memories he had left.

At 81, he couldn’t see and he needed some prompting from time to time, but family stayed strong in his memory.

Priya asked him if he wished he had gotten anything in life that he didn’t get. “I have no regrets on anything,” he responded. “I have a family that I love. And they’re loving people.”

This interview was first broadcast in 2006 and Ken died in 2007.

His daughters say they listen to the original interview often. “I think my father had the opportunity to say what was important in his life,” Bhavani says. “And it really came down to love.”

Originally aired November 17, 2006, on NPR’s Morning Edition.