“Recent polls demonstrate what most of us have already experienced first-hand: that there is a pervasive culture of contempt that threatens the very foundations of our democracy,” said Dave Isay, StoryCorps Founder and President.
With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and in partnership with local public media stations, StoryCorps is expanding One Small Step to six additional communities in 2021.
The six stations and communities selected are:
- Alaska Public Media, Anchorage, AK
- High Plains Public Radio, Garden City, KS, and Amarillo, TX
- KOSU, Oklahoma City, OK
- KUNR, Reno, NV
- Valley Public Media, Clovis, CA
- Vermont Public Radio, Colchester, VT
We’ll provide training and production assistance to public media stations to facilitate and broadcast conversations with people in America of opposing viewpoints, sitting down to find common ground.
Watch highlights from 2020 and hear voices from across the country in this short video:
According to a CBS News poll released earlier this year, more than half of all Americans say the greatest danger to America’s way of life comes from their fellow citizens. One Small Step aims to remind people of the humanity in all of us and that it’s hard to hate up close. These communities can model this change for the rest of the country.
Two members of each participating station will take part in a training to facilitate and record conversations between community residents of differing political views, and selected interviews will be shared across each station’s media platforms.
Stations will also team up with a variety of community organizations to spread the word and collaborate with the StoryCorps team to match participants and record conversations through the end of the year. The project will include a series of public listening events that will be streamed online in the fall of 2021.
We’re matching strangers from different points of view for conversations about who they are. Anyone, anywhere can sign up for our email list and complete our matching questionnaire to have the opportunity to be paired with a stranger for a One Small Step conversation.
Station participation in the One Small Step Communities project is made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. StoryCorps’ national One Small Step initiative is made possible by the generous support of The Hearthland Foundation, the Fetzer Institute, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Charles Koch Institute.