About Me: I was born in Saltsjö-Duvnäs, Sweden and moved to suburban New Jersey when I was a kid—which was both exciting and traumatizing, in equal measure. I grew up playing in dumb bands, going into the city for shows whenever I could, getting into computers at a really young age, and diving into early BBS and internet culture. I studied at NYU to be a high school history teacher, but a chance encounter led me to working at an early web start-up in college and I went down that route instead. After years at different digital agencies, working with clients big and small and learning a ton, I’m beyond happy to have landed at StoryCorps.
Outside of work I still play in dumb bands and love figuring out new instruments and things that go beep and blonk. I raise two super awesome young kids in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with my amazing photo editor wife.
What is your role and how long have you been at StoryCorps?
My title is Director of Technical & Digital Innovation and I’ve been at StoryCorps for five years.
What does your job entail?
I lead the team that manages all of StoryCorps’ platforms, from our app to the Online Archive (OA). I get to work with all the other teams to figure out their needs and ideas related to all things digital and make them a reality. Ideally.
What are the rewards of your job?
My job is very rewarding. We often get to be creative and adaptable across a whole bunch of technologies. For instance, during COVID, we developed a way for people to conduct StoryCorps interviews virtually, through the StoryCorps platform, since people couldn’t talk in person. It’s also exciting to have an enormous archive to care for and I love discovering all the hidden gems in the stories of everyday people. It’s fun that we get to build tools designed for the very unique kind of work that StoryCorps does.
What are the challenges of your job?
Our ambitions are big for a nonprofit so it can be challenging to prioritize all of our great ideas. I previously spent fifteen years building apps and products and for example, if there’s an issue in e-commerce, you always offer a refund. But the recordings that StoryCorps captures are ephemeral and represent a single moment in time—nothing is more precious. So no matter what other things we may think about, my priority is to make sure we take good care of the content.
Why should everyone record a conversation with StoryCorps?
Not only will you find out things about the other person you never knew, but having a dedicated space and asking good questions can make someone feel very special and allows both participants to re-evaluate their lives. They each get something out of the experience.
What’s your favorite StoryCorps story?
Hard to pick! Since I spent so much time in the OA, I often look up random stories. Since I’m into music, I’ve often typed in words like “punk” and it pulls up a lot of great stories. One I particularly enjoyed was an interview with John Maurer, the bassist from Social Distortion, and his daughter. They have an interesting conversation about the music industry, touring, and the wisdom he’d like to pass down to his grandchildren and great grandchildren. There are so many gems in there and we’re working hard to help people discover and connect with more of them.