Today is the National Day of Listening, declared so by Story Corps. You can celebrate it by interviewing your loved ones, which goes perfectly with today's other holiday! Click the title of the post to hear Sean Lennon interview Yoko Ono.
Story Corps...what is it?? Well, their website says
StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit whose mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives. Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected and archived more than 30,000 interviews from more than 60,000 participants. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to share, and is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, and millions listen to our weekly broadcasts on NPR’s Morning Edition and on our Listen pages.
They are a major inspiration of mine in creating this blog, and I greatly look up to them! You can hear them on NPR, (I think usually on Friday Morning Edition). Their model is loved ones interviewing each other, rather than the first person narratives I've posted here. Their interviews are quite charming and heartwarming, and I'm going to interview my sisters Emily and Erin (Mary, why are you far away??) after Thanksgiving dinner. As much as I love hearing gross and shocking stories about unpleasant facts of life, I really want to start interviewing my relatives, especially my older ones. My dad often tells me stories about his family, the priest who's buried in Zambia, the honkey tonk piano player on trans-Atlantic ocean liners, the brothers competing with each other to start construction businesses, the 12 year old athletic trainer whipping his two fat twin brothers into shape, and I'd love to preserve these talks. (..Imagine if I had recordings of my great great great grand relatives talking about their lives!! How cool would that be?!)
They've a DIY guide on the Story Corps websitew and I urge all of you to participate! They give advice about recording equipment (we have so many gadgets that can record), where to record, and they have a long list of questions divided into categories like work, relationships, parenthood, growing up. Ooh, they also recommend the hosting sites box.net and entertonement.com. Three of my posts haven't quite worked as podcasts, and maybe the problem is with my host, Open Drive. Maybe I'll try those other sites!!
In closing, here's Story Corps "favorite questions" list. Please, go interview someone, even if you just write their answers on pen and paper!
• What are some of the most important lessons you have learned in life?
• What are you most proud of?
• What was the happiest moment of your life? The saddest?
• Who has been the biggest influence on your life? What lessons did they teach you?
• How would you like to be remembered?
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