A Man Recalls Being Shot by a White Supremacist at Jewish Day Camp
On the morning of August 10, 1999, a white supremacist opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon at a Jewish day camp in Los Angeles. Five were wounded, including six-year-old Josh Stepakoff, who was shot in his leg and hip, and one person was killed.
Now an adult, Josh sat down with his father, Alan, to remember that day.
The shooter is serving two consecutive life sentences plus 110 years for multiple convictions. His actions were ruled a federal hate crime.
This story aired November 2, 2018 on NPR’s Morning Edition. A version also aired November 10, 2017 on the same program.
Bottom image: Josh and his father, Alan, in Washington D.C. for the Million Mom March rally in May 2000, the year after Josh was shot.
The Country’s Oldest Female BMX Bike Racer on Her Thrills and Spills
At nearly 70 years old, Kittie Weston-Knauer is the oldest female BMX racer in the United States.
When she started competing in off-road bicycle races, or BMX, in the late 1980s she was often the only woman on the track. It was her son Max Knauer, a championship BMX rider himself, who introduced her to the sport when he was ten years old.
While Max, now 40, is currently retired from the sport, Kittie has no plans to quit any time soon. She looks forward to the day she can watch her grandchildren hit the track — and hopes Max will start competing again with them, too.
Top photo: Max Knauer and Kittie Weston-Knauer at their StoryCorps interview in Des Moines, Iowa on April 20, 2018.
Bottom photo: Max Knauer assists Kittie Weston-Knauer as she prepares to start her first-ever BMX race on Mother’s Day of 1988. Courtesy of Kittie Weston-Knauer.
Originally aired May 11, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
A Daughter Comes to Terms with Her Father’s Time in Prison
In this conversation recorded in Hartford, Connecticut, Abby Gagliardo sat down with her dad, Ralph, to talk about a confusing time for their family.
Abby knew her dad was sent to prison for larceny when she was a kid. But she didn’t understand why.
When they came to StoryCorps, Ralph had been out of prison for five years, and Abby came to understand more fully what happened.
Photo: Ralph Gagliardo, holding his daughter, Abby, the day after she was born in 2000. Courtesy Ralph Gagliardo.
In 2018, Abby is 17 and Ralph has been sober since 2012. He is also pursuing his bachelor’s degree, with plans to attend law school.
Ralph and Abby’s conversation was recorded through the StoryCorps Justice Project, which preserves and amplifies the stories of people who have been directly impacted by mass incarceration. Original support for the Justice Project was provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Safety and Justice Challenge, #RethinkJails and the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation.
Originally aired April, 20, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Remembering DJ Simmonds, Officer Injured During Capture of Boston Marathon Bombers
On April 15, 2013, two explosives placed near the finish line of the Boston Marathon detonated within seconds of each other, killing three people and injuring over two hundred others.
In the days following the attack, a massive manhunt took place. Four days later, police confronted the bombers on a suburban street in nearby Watertown, Massachusetts.
Boston police officer D.J. Simmonds was one of the officers who arrived on the scene. He was injured by a homemade bomb the Tsarnaev brothers threw at police.
Simmonds’ injuries led to his death almost a year later.
At StoryCorps, his parents, Roxanne and Dennis Simmonds, sat down to remember their son.
Middle photo: D.J. Simmonds. Credit: Boston Police Department, via the Associated Press.
Bottom photo: from left to right, Dennis, Nicole, Roxanne, and D.J. Simmonds. Courtesy of the Simmonds family.
Originally aired April 13, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
A 10-year-old Describes His First School Active Shooter Drill
On February 14, 2018, a gunman shot and killed 17 people and injured 17 more at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, making it one of the deadliest school shootings in United States history. This has heightened the national dialogue around school safety, a conversation that one family decided to bring to StoryCorps in Houston.
There, 10-year-old Dezmond Floyd sat down with his mother, Tanai Benard, after experiencing his first active shooter drill with his fifth grade class.
Originally aired March 23, 2018 on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Top photo: Tanai Benard and her son, Dezmond Floyd, at their StoryCorps interview in Houston, Texas.
Reflections on Growing up the Son of a NYC Taxi Driver
Mohammad Ashraf Faridi immigrated from Pakistan to the United States in the 1980s. He settled in New York City, and his family joined him almost a decade later. By then, Mohammad was earning a living driving a cab.
At StoryCorps, his oldest son, Muhammad, talked about growing up as the son of a taxi driver.
Top photo: Mohammad Ashraf Faridi with his son, Muhammad Faridi, at their StoryCorps interview in New York City.
Bottom photo: A young Muhammad Faridi (right) with his sister and little brother while still in Pakistan. Courtesy of the Faridi family.
Originally aired March 16, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
A Mother on Surviving the Tet Offensive and Escaping from Vietnam
On January 31, 1968, Lan Cao’s family was living just outside of Saigon, getting ready to celebrate the Lunar New Year of Tet. Instead, her father — a military commander — had to rush off to war.
The North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong had launched a surprise attack on her city and over one hundred other South Vietnamese locations. This became known as the Tet Offensive, and was one of the biggest military campaigns of the Vietnam War, which led to a decline in public support in the United States.
Lan was 7 years old. She and her family would eventually resettle in the US. Lan graduated magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke and earned a law degree from Yale. She’s now a professor of international economics law and lives in California.
At StoryCorps, Lan sat down with her teenage daughter, Harlan Van Cao. Harlan was 12 at the time of their interview — just a year shy of the age Lan was when she arrived in the United States. Lan shared what it was like to live under siege before rebuilding her life in America.
Top photo: Harlan Van Cao and her mother Lan Cao at their StoryCorps interview in Westminster, California.
Bottom photo: Lan Cao’s passport from the Republic of Vietnam, also known as South Vietnam. Courtesy of Lan Cao.
This interview came through the First Days Story Project, recorded in partnership with WGBH and PBS American Experience.
Originally aired February 2, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
A Mother on the Challenges of Becoming a Teenage Parent
April Gibson and her teenage son, Gregory Bess, love talking to each other. Gregory says they can talk for hours, and that he feels he learns more from his mom than from school. But there was one subject that they hadn’t really explored.
So when the StoryCorps MobileBooth traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota recently, April invited her son to sit down with her for a recorded conversation.
Gregory asked about his mom’s childhood and their family’s past. He learned that his mom was a quiet kid who liked to write, and that his grandfather was a party DJ before becoming a pastor.
But April knew her 16-year-old had something more he wanted to talk about.
Bottom photo: April Gibson and Gregory Bess in 2001. Courtesy of April Gibson.
Originally aired January 19, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Anna Freeman and Brianna Freeman
Most of the people who step into a StoryCorps booth have never interviewed anyone before. But, as every great interviewer knows, the best moments are often the ones you can’t plan for.
That’s what Anna Freeman discovered when she sat down with her 8-year-old daughter, Brianna, in our Chicago StoryBooth and asked what seemed to her to be a simple question.
Bottom photo: Brianna Freeman poses as her favorite mythical creature, the unicorn. Courtesy of Anna Freeman.
Originally aired December 29, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Thompson Williams and Kiamichi-tet Williams
Thompson Williams and his son Kiamichi-tet came to StoryCorps in 2014 to talk about Thompson’s father — and Kiamichi-tet’s grandfather — Melford Williams, a tribal leader with the Caddo Nation in Oklahoma and a World War II veteran.
During that conversation, they also remembered a family Christmas in 2001.
They were living in Edmond, Oklahoma at the time. Kiamichi-tet was 11 years old and his sister, AuNane, was 14. Thompson was a teacher’s assistant for students with special needs — work he loved but that didn’t pay well. His wife was an artist, selling paintings and handmade Christmas ornaments.
As the holidays approached, Thompson realized they wouldn’t have money for gifts, and he was faced with a difficult decision. But, as he remembers here, it was his children who would help him make the right choice.
Originally aired December 22, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Hear more on episode 514 of the StoryCorps podcast, His First and Greatest Teacher.