The holidays offer us a chance to come together, at a time when community and connection are more important than ever. Watch some of our favorite animations celebrating the special stories that come from connecting with your family and loved ones from a different generation, and learn more about how to record your own #TheGreatListen story.
Labor of Love
An Honest Life
Record a Loved One’s Stories
“We were a nuisance to the other students. But we had a lot of fun.”
This Thanksgiving, take a moment to record cherished memories like these from the people around you for The Great Thanksgiving Listen.
If you are unsure of how to start a good conversation, check out our list of Great Questions. You can ask a loved one any of the questions from the list or create your own, using the StoryCorps App or our new program for long-distance interviews, StoryCorps Connect.
Stories from #TheGreatListen
A Century-Old Family Reunion Interrupted By A Pandemic
For nearly a century, the Quanders has been gathering for a family reunion each year. In the face of COVID-19, they must reconsider how to keep their history alive.
Read the full transcript here.
When You Have Problems, Go To The Clouds
When Wally Funk was twenty, she got the chance to prove that females could be astronauts. While the program got shut down, she didn’t let this stop her. More than half a century later, she joined the crew on the New Shepard rocket, which launched on July 20th, 2021.
Read the full transcript here.
The Little Things
For the past eight years, Herman Travis has pushed a heavy shopping cart full of groceries to bring to elderly neighbors in a low-income housing complex. He was joined at StoryCorps by one the residents he delivers to, Robert Cochran, to talk about the impact of that gesture.
Read the full transcript here.
Double Major
As a student at Bowdoin College, Wil Smith had an unique roommate, his infant daughter Olivia. By graduation, his entire school was cheering them both across the stage.
Read the full transcript here.
Bring StoryCorps to Your Classroom
The Great Thanksgiving Listen is the perfect opportunity for students to practice their listening and storytelling skills by honoring someone in their life with an interview. We invite educators to use our toolkit to bring StoryCorps into the classroom this November.
I Love Leslye
Leslye Huff and her partner, Mary Ostendorf, met in 1983. Mary felt less comfortable with public displays of affection and had not told many people in her life about her sexuality, including her family. They talk about a difficult Thanksgiving, and all the ways that love can heal.
Read the full transcript here.
“I Have These Dreams Where I Go Back”: Dad and Daughter Mourn a Syria They Once Knew
Ten years after the start of the Syrian civil war, father and daughter Walid and Magda Sakaan remember their lives in Syria.
Read the full transcript here.
From Beets to Brilliance: A Grandmother’s Wisdom Lives On
After Chloe Longfellow’s father died, her mother, Dorsey Romano, was forced to take on a variety of jobs, some of which required her to work nights. While her mother was away, Chloe spent time at her grandparents’ home and became close to her grandmother, Doris Louise Rolison.
Read the full transcript here.
The Questions They’ve Always Wanted To Ask
In an interview with their father, Isaiah and Josiah Fredericks ask him about the hardest thing about being a dad, as well as why they can’t have their own rollercoaster.
Read the full transcript here.
In the US 50 Years, a Man Reflects on His Arrival from Honduras
Over 50 years ago, Roy Daley arrived in America, although it wasn’t quite what he was expecting. At StoryCorps he remembers his first Thanksgiving in the United States.
Read the full transcript here.
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Your support makes it possible for StoryCorps, an independently funded nonprofit, to collect, archive, and share the stories of people from all backgrounds because everyone’s stories deserve to be heard.