How a mobile app turns personal memories into a global archive
In short: History is often defined by monumental events, but the most profound truths often reside in quiet conversations. From the first booth in Grand Central Terminal to a massive digital archive, discover how a simple interviewing technique is preserving the voices of a generation.
New York’s Grand Central Terminal hosted the inaugural StoryCorps booth, founded by Dave Isay in 2003. His original goal was to provide a sanctuary where individuals could honor loved ones by listening to their personal histories. Since that inception, the project has expanded into the largest collection of human voices ever recorded, driven by Isay's vision to grow a digital archive of collective human wisdom. The project's expansion was fueled by Isay's ambition to take this initiative to a global scale.
This mission gained significant momentum through the 2015 TED Prize, which led to the launch of the StoryCorps app. The technology allows users to bridge generational gaps through structured interviewing. For example, 21-year-old Kara Masteller used the app to interview her 86-year-old grandfather, James Kennicott. The app's first interview to air on NPR’s Morning Edition was filmed within an Applebee’s car park in Waterloo, Iowa. The recorded conversation between the pair captured a childhood memory of James falling through river ice in Iowa. This specific interview was later highlighted by NPR on a Friday edition of Morning Edition.
The initiative extends to mass movements like the Great Thanksgiving Listen, an effort designed to encourage up to 250,000 participants to record the experiences of elders. By following prompts and uploading interviews to the Library of Congress, contributors add a first-person dimension to the historical record. The project posits that without such active recording, vital perspectives—much like the diaries of Anne Frank or the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.—might be lost to time. Participants can use the hashtag TheGreatListen when uploading their audio to the Library of Congress. The effort is supported by a TED-Ed animation narrated by David Hyde Pierce.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Let's make history…by recording it - StoryCorps & TED Prize
- Also: Get ready for The Great Thanksgiving Listen | TED Blog
- Also: Dave Isay: Everyone around you has a story the world needs to hear | TED Talk
- Also: ed.ted.com — Let's make history…by recording it - StoryCorps & TED Prize | TED-Ed
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