This Thanksgiving, it’s time to record that long-put-off conversation with grandpa.
StoryCorps, a nonprofit devoted to recording, preserving and sharing stories of all peoples of all backgrounds and beliefs, is inviting people nationwide to use one of the organization’s two recording options to record a conversation with an elder, mentor, friend or someone they admire.
Known as the Great Thanksgiving Listen, the annual event generates more than 13,000 new recordings each year. Since its founding in 2003, StoryCorps has given more than 600,000 people in all 50 states the chance to record interviews about their lives. Individuals can record conversations via the organization’s new mobile app, which enables users to explore StoryCorps’ content, curate personalized interview collections and share their stories on social media. The organization also has a remote recording platform, StoryCorps Connect. Users also now have access to StoryCorps Communities, which enables them to add their interview to a community they’ve joined, as well as see content from other community members.
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This year, teachers nationwide have adopted the program as part of their curriculum and thousands of middle school and older students are prepared to participate over the Thanksgiving weekend. According to the organization, the Great Thanksgiving Listen allows students to engage in intergenerational conversations and ask their elders about who they are, what they’ve learned in life and how they want to be remembered. In addition, a new toolkit created by StoryCorp details what families and students need to know about recording a StoryCorps interview and about archiving it for the Library of Congress.
“The Great Thanksgiving Listen invites people nationwide to honor someone in their lives by recording their story for future generations,” said Dave Isay, founder and president of StoryCorps. “The new app makes the experience more accessible and seamless. We hope the country will join us in recording the wisdom of humanity while reminding those they love and admire how much their lives and stories matter.”
Each interview created with the app or remote recording platform is saved in the publicly accessible StoryCorps Archive as well as in the StoryCorps collection within the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
