Barbara Esrig

Barbara Esrig remembers the car accident that nearly took her life and broke 164 of her bones, a doctor who provided her comfort, and her recovery.

Originally aired January 9, 2009, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Eric Lamet

Eric Lamet and his mother lived as Jewish refugees in Italy during WWII. When the war ended, an Italian court declared his father legally dead, shortly after they got a postcard from him letting them know that he was alive and in a displaced persons camp in Austria.

Eric remembers the changed man he reunited with.

Originally aired March 14, 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.

Rebecca Katechis and Carolyn Schlam

Sisters Rebecca Katechis (left) and Carolyn Schlam reminisce about growing up in the Bronx surrounded by family. As children they often felt smothered by the crush of relatives, but now they look back on those days with wonder and joy.

Originally aired November 24, 2006, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Walt Shaffner and Mary Fischer

Walt Shaffner and his sister Mary Fischer remember their parents.

Willie Young, Rabbit Hunter

Each winter in Florida’s sugar cane country, farmers set fire to their crops to clear away the dead stalks, and in the town of Pahokee, on the shores of Lake Okechobee, it’s a tradition for young people to hunt the rabbits that are smoked out by the fires. Groups of boys stand by the side of the road, armed with broken sugar cane stalks, waiting for the flame thrower trucks to approach.

Dodging the heavy machinery of the growers, the boys work in teams, cornering the rabbits and striking them with the cane. The boys disembowel the rabbits on the spot, and at the end of the day they bring them home to their families for dinner or sell them to neighbors for two dollars a piece. Thirteen-year-old Willie Young, takes us into the smoking fields.

Recorded in Pahokee, FL. Premiered February 11, 2003, on All Things Considered.

Photos of rabbit hunters by Colby Katz

Florida rabbit hunter.

Wind in the sugar cane field.

Boys running from the smoke, Belle Glade.

Dinodre Thompson, 13, Belle Glade.

This documentary comes from Sound Portraits Productions, a mission-driven independent production company that was created by Dave Isay in 1994. Sound Portraits was the predecessor to StoryCorps and was dedicated to telling stories that brought neglected American voices to a national audience.