For this episode, we celebrate the 10th year of a StoryCorps tradition: The Great Thanksgiving Listen, where we encourage young people to record an interview with an important elder in their lives using our app. We hear from a history teacher at Glenbrook South High School outside Chicago, whose students have recorded thousands of StoryCorps conversations through a class assignment.
Leave us a voicemail at 702-706-TALK, or email us at [email protected].
Released November 18, 2025.
Max Jungreis: Hey, folks—This is Max Jungreis, from the StoryCorps Podcast.
Just wanna remind you that you can tell us your personal stories by calling our voicemail at 702 – 706 – TALK. This week, is there someone important in your life you wish you could record a conversation with? Leave us a voicemail telling us about them… at 702 – 706 – T-A-L-K.
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Jasmyn Morris (JM): Thanksgiving is almost here… and people across the country are getting ready…. anticipating their favorite dishes and family traditions.
But here at StoryCorps… we have our OWN kind of Thanksgiving tradition.
Seth Davenport: Hello. I am 16 years old, and I’m speaking with my
grandmother.
Eva Papajohn: Okay, so I will be interviewing my dad.
Arianna Shaw: I’m interviewing my tutu, which means grandma in Hawaiian.
JM: It’s called The Great Thanksgiving Listen… where every year… we put out a call for young people to interview an elder in their lives… maybe a grandparent… a parent… or an important mentor or friend.
Sophie Pritikin: I’m interviewing my grandma in Glenville, Illinois.
Ann Soll: Hi, I am Sophie’s grandmother.
Jack Danby: I’m speaking with my grandpa.
Joe Dakis: Good to see you, Jack.
Jack Danby: Good to see you too.
JM: The idea is to give young people a chance to honor someone… to learn from them… and preserve their story for future generations.
Sandra Balan: I’m really glad that you took the time outta your day to gimme all this information, and it has been quite a pleasure interviewing you.
Simona Balan: Thank you so much for allowing me to express myself.
Sandra Balan: Awesome.
JM: This year… we’re celebrating 10 years since we first started The Great Listen… and it all began with the release of an app… that allowed anyone to record with us… using their phone.
William Fontana: Three, two…and there we go. Ok. This is my grandmother.
Say hello.
Nancy Schied: Hello.
JM: And one person who started using that app immediately in her classroom… and every year since…. was a high school history teacher named Stacy Flannery.
Stacy Flannery (SF): The students at Glenbrook South have recorded literally thousands. From my class, I have listened to every single interview from start to finish, and I love listening to these stories.
Sophia Szafranski: Hello Mrs. Flannery. I’m here with my grandma, Mary Jane.
Mary Jane Szafranski: Hello Mrs. Flannery.
William Fontana: Oh wow, this is stressful.
Nancy Scied: (Laughs)
William Fontana: Ok, it’s fine. We’ll be fine. She’s a good teacher. Don’t worry, she’s nice.
Emmy Galante: Okay, we’re recording. Can you state your name, please?
John Galante: John Galante. I am your father.
Emmy Galante: Yeah, Darth Vader. (Laugh).
John Galante: So…
Emmy Galante: Mrs. Flannery, I’m so sorry. I know you are listening to this.
JM: I’m Jasmyn Morris… and it’s the StoryCorps podcast from NPR… where we bring you inside our archive… the largest collection of human voices ever gathered.
And in this episode… we’ll be listening with Mrs. Flannery to stories recorded over the last decade… through the StoryCorps app… from the students at Glenbrook South… outside Chicago.
<MUSIC OUT>
JM: Mrs. Flannery’s annual assignment started with a brainstorm. She and her fellow US history teachers at school… were looking for ways to make the subject matter they were teaching more personal for their students. So they tried something… have their students hear from someone they know who lived through an historical event… by recording an interview with a family member.
SF: It is a semester-long assignment, and I have earphones in my ears for about a month. I’m literally listening to these constantly, on my way to school, on my way home, when I walk my dog, and it never gets boring.
<MUSIC>
Sandra Balan: What made you wanna leave Romania and come to America?
McKenna Kay: How old were you when you enlisted?
Brian Shaoul: I was 20 when I enlisted, and 21 when I went into the Marine Corps.
McKenna Kay: Wow.
Ashleigh Roth: Okay. I just want you to talk about your dad a little bit. What kind of man was he? What do you remember about him from when he was alive?
Leanne Drennan: I remember lots.
Sophia Weiss: You got drafted?
Doug Camarato: I couldn’t hear.
Sophia Weiss: And so they didn’t let you in.
Doug Camarato: So they sent me home.
Sophia Weiss: OMG. This is good.
Doug Camarato: No, it was horrible.
Sophia Weiss: No, this is like so interesting that you lived all this, that you were, like, there. This is good for the interview. But that is horrible.
Jace Blais: I know that you were very young during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Do you have any stories about that?
Tom Venice: On the news, they would draw pictures, rings around the state of Florida and North Carolina and New York City showing how far some of these missiles could reach. It was a scary, scary time. No question about it.
Eva Papajohn: Is there any specific stories your parents told you that were depressing, (Laughs) sad during the Great Depression, that, like, really showed the impact that it had on their family?
<MUSIC OUT>
SF: One recording that stands out is a student who came up to me when I introduced the project, and said that her favorite uncle came back from Vietnam, and told his family, ‘Don’t ever ask me about this experience. I don’t wanna talk about it ever again.’ So I said to her, ‘It’s been a long time, and maybe he would be open to talking to you about it.’
Megan Stettler: Was there a moment when you remember being really scared?
Roy Liebergen: Yeah. We had some fights that scared the living hell outta you. (Sound of crumpling coffee cup)
SF: I could hear in the recording, he had picked up a coffee on the way to the interview. And you can hear him crunching the styrofoam cup as he’s talking, because it is so difficult for him.
Megan Stettler: When you came back, did you feel like people were supportive?
Roy Liebergen: I got rid of all my military stuff and came back in civilian clothes, so, you know, I didn’t have any military stuff whatsoever when I came home.
Megan Stettler: You didn’t wanna keep it?
Roy Liebergen: Nope. That was over. That’s passed. I’m done with that, so just forget about it and let it go.
Megan Stettler: Yeah. How has the war impacted your life since you came back?
Roy Liebergen: Probably appreciate life more, you know?
Megan Stettler: Mm-hmm.
SF: My belief and my hope is that in that interview, there was connection and healing for her uncle. He’s doing it for his niece because he loves her, and she’s listening to him because she loves him. And I know that this student felt very proud and also honored that he did this with her.
Leandro Arredondo: Hello, my name is Leandro Arredondo. I am 16 years old, in the TV room of my grandfather’s house.
Ramiro Prudencio: Good afternoon. My name is Ramiro Prudencio. I’m 86 years old.
SF: I wish everyone could see the smile on my face when I just heard Leandro say his name, and his grandfather say his name, because I know what will follow.
Ramiro Prudencio: My childhood years were very happy, except for an accident. Uh, I lost my right eye, through a window glass that broke and injured me. I remember very vividly that day, and I think it has guided very much of my life.
When I was 10 years old, I came to the United States to receive an artificial eye, but that was not a handicap for me.
Leandro Arredondo: Did you go into medical school with, kind of, a chip on your shoulder, knowing that you were, we could say, disabled?
Ramiro Prudencio: My accident–I want to repeat for emphasis–was never a handicap for me. It was an incentive. I had to be better than the next, better than everybody else.
<MUSIC>
SF: What I love so much about that interview is the way he helped Leandro see that some of the most difficult things could potentially be the best things that ever happen to us. And for a 16-year-old to hear that from their grandfather’s story, that is going to come back to them in a personal moment of challenge.
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SF: Another student’s interview that really stands out is an uncle who was living on a houseboat in New York when 9/11 happened, and talked to his nephew about the story of being in this really defining moment.
Kevin Carrigan: Well I remember that morning vividly because I heard an explosion. You know, I was only a couple blocks away. And I remember looking out the window, and I saw the fireball from the first plane. Then I remember, distinctly, the buildings coming down.
Conor Carrigan: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Carrigan: And then this, this huge cloud of dust, sort of, enveloped the whole area. Next thing I knew, I couldn’t see. It was like you were in a thick fog. I saw lots and lots of people
Conor Carrigan: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Carrigan: Uh, they just, they just looked like ghosts.
Um, then I didn’t know what to do. And at the time, I was living on a boat, and, uh, I had some friends who were also on boats, and we started shuttling people across the river.
SF: He just un-anchored his boat and got to work.
So give me the time period and I will have examples for you of people who have played important roles in just about any moment in 20th and 21st century history.
<MUSIC IN>
SF: When I start this assignment, they’re high school students, so it’s not like they’re jumping up for joy on the first day, but the end is incredible.
And if you could be present when the students are hearing each other’s stories, the curiosity, the interest, the active listening. I don’t have to instruct them.
And there is no other assignment we give that we hear about from students after graduation, this one stands out. And the value and importance for our students is undeniable.
<MUSIC POST>
JM: After a short break… more from Mrs. Flannery and her students… and why for her… this project is much more than just another assignment…
SF: I hope everyone listening records an interview with a loved one, because there is one person I wish I could have interviewed, but he passed away when I was in college unexpectedly, and I never got the opportunity to record any of his stories.
JM: We’ll be right back…
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JM: When Stacy Flannery introduces this assignment to a new group of students each year… she starts by talking about the special elder in her own life…
SF: My grandfather’s name was George Flannery. I have his picture up, and I tell my students about him. He was born and raised on the west side of Chicago.
The story goes that he walked into high school on the first day of freshman year, and walked out the back door and never went back. He started delivering papers for the Chicago Tribune, and then rose up through the ranks of the teamsters in the city of Chicago.
<MUSIC IN>
SF: Whenever we were at family parties, my mom and dad said they always knew where I was, right next to my grandpa hearing his stories, and I would love to hear him, in his own voice, tell those stories again.
<MUSIC POST>
His body matched his personality in that he was a very large man. He often had to sit in two chairs. I’m one of eight, and I have twenty-five cousins, and I think we all felt like we were the center of his world. And I strive to do that in my classroom. I want each of my students to feel like they’re all equally important to me.
So when I’m doing this project I’m honoring my grandfather, and making good on some regret that I never interviewed him, by making sure my students don’t have that same regret.
<MUSIC POST>
Eva Papajohn: Thank you so much, dad, for cooperating with me, and making time out of your schedule to talk to me about this.
George Papajohn: I’m always happy to help you, Eva.
Ashleigh Roth: Thank you.
Leanne Drennan: You’re welcome sweetie.
Ashleigh Roth: I really appreciate it.
Leanne Drennan: It’s my pleasure. I’m glad you…
Ashleigh Roth: And hopefully will give me a good grade. We’ll see.
Leanne Drennan: (Laughs) We will see. And I hope that you know a little bit more about your background, and a wonderful guy you never got to meet.
Kayla Runtz: Thank you for letting me interview you.
Gus Serna: So am I hired?
Kayla Runtz: Yes. (Laughs)
Gus Serna: (Laughs)
SF: What I believe the world needs more than ever is connection, and these interviews, these conversations, are all about connection.
One of the things I’m hearing more and more recently is the interviewee talking about how much they appreciate a conversation. And I cannot tell you how many times someone has said, ‘No one has ever asked me this.’
And my students, they know as much as a 16 or 17-year-old can know that they did something, the meaning of which is only going to increase with time. And that feels good.
<MUSIC>
Seth Davenport: So we only have about one minute left.
Carole Davenport: Okay.
Seth Davenport: Even though I did read a lot about subjects we had touched on, I really appreciate your input, because it’s much more easier to understand when you have someone to talk to.
Carole Davenport: Yeah. Good. I am glad you asked me.
Natalie Wilcox: I hope it all goes well.
Jonathan Koh: Thanks. I do too.
Natalie Wilcox: Okay. I love you.
Jonathan Koh: Bye. Love you.
(Phone Hangs Up)
Brian Shaoul: I’m glad that you came to interview me, McKenna. Thank you.
McKenna Kay: Alright.
Brian Shaoul: That was good. Yeah, alright. (High five)
McKenna Kay: Wow, I feel so alive.
Brian Shaoul: Wasn’t that cool?
McKenna Kay: Thank you so much.
Brian Shaoul: Oh, you’re welcome. You’re welcome.
McKenna Kay: That was awesome. Thank you so much.
<MUSIC POST & OUT>
JM: Thank you to Stacy Flannery and everyone at Glenbrook South High School…. the teachers… the students… and their family members who’ve done interviews over the years. Stacy and her colleagues call their collection… the Living History Project.
<CREDITS MUSIC IN>
JM: That’s all for this episode… and this season…. of the StoryCorps podcast. We’ll be back to our regular biweekly schedule in the new year… and look out for our StoryCorps holiday special coming next month.
In the meantime… you don’t need a high school history assignment to record an interview with us. Be a part of The Great Thanksgiving Listen… and interview someone you love using the StoryCorps app. To learn more… including step by step instructions of how to participate… go to < the great listen DOT ORG >
<MUSIC POST>
This episode was produced by Von Diaz and Jud Esty-Kendall. It was edited by Amy Drozdowska. Special thanks to our intern Jules Yaeger.
The StoryCorps podcast is produced by Max Jungreis. Our Senior Producer is Jud Esty-Kendall. Amy Drozdowska is our Executive Producer. Our Technical Director is Jarrett Floyd. The artwork for our podcast is created by Liz McCarty.
I’m Jasmyn Morris. Thanks for listening… and happy Thanksgiving!
<MUSIC POST & OUT>
Gus Serna: In grammar school, I was in the dancing club.
Kayla Runtz: Did you guys, like, perform and stuff?
Gus Serna: Absolutely.
Kayla Runtz: What kind of dances did you guys do?
Gus Serna: (Sings) Da Da Da Da…
Kayla Runtz: (Laughs)
Gus Serna: I remember that music so well. Yeah.
Kayla Runtz: Oh my gosh.
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