StoryCorps
I spent five years working with the national oral history project StoryCorps. Here are some selections from the hundreds of interviews I recorded. These were originally aired on NPR’s Morning Edition. I facilitated (recorded and served as interviewer) these pieces and Michael Garofalo produced the final segments for broadcast.
Douglas P. deSilvey
I spent four months traveling with the StoryCorps mobile tour in 2005, recording interviews in our studio built into the back of an Airstream trailer. The final stop I made was in Gulfport, Mississippi, a few months after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast region. Douglas P. deSilvey tells the story of riding out the storm with his family and being the only survivor. He came in alone and I interviewed him. A print version of this story also appeared in the first StoryCorps book Listening is an Act of Love.
Bessie and Taylor Rogers
While in Memphis, Tennessee, I recorded this interview with Bessie and Taylor Rogers. Taylor was a sanitation worker, taking part in the 1968 strike that brought Martin Luther King to Memphis. They tell the story of being present for his final speech, delivered the night before he was assassinated.
Studs Terkel
While in Chicago, we had the honor of bringing the Airstream to Studs Terkel’s house to record an interview with the legendary oral historian. He had recently undergone heart surgery but was full of energy and ready to hold forth on a wide range of topics. Here he tells the story of looking for the human voice in the Atlanta airport’s automated shuttle train system.
