ABSTRACT
Oral history was reenergized in 2003 when public radio producerDave Isay launched his StoryCorps project in New York City’s GrandCentral Station. Partnered with National Public Radio (NPR) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), StoryCorps records and preserves the spoken memories of ordinary people for posterity. To participate in Isay’s brainchild, “narrators,” as they’re called in oral history, show up in pairs at any of StoryCorps’ small permanent or mobile sound studios to interview each other with the help of a StoryCorps facilitator. Grown children interview their parents or grandparents. Brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, partners, or lovers reminisce. The oldest of friends trace their shared histories.
