Jane Marx and Joseph Svehlak (StoryCorps)

StoryCorps (www.storycorps.net) is a revolutionary national initiative to create an oral history of America. Created by Dave Isay, MacArthur "genius fellow" and founder of the award-winning radio documentary house, Sound Portraits Productions, StoryCorps instructs and inspire Americans to record one another’s stories in sound.

WNYC will feature a weekly story recorded at the StoryCorps booth. StoryCorps has already collected more than 1000 interviews since the project launch, ranging from end-of-life reflections to stories of struggling to adjust to a new life in America.

Visitors to the booth record 40-minute oral histories with a loved one with the help of a trained facilitator. A broadcast quality CD of the interview copy goes to the participants and a second copy goes to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress to become part of an oral history of America.

Individuals can reserve an interview session in the booth at www.storycorps.net, an online resource center that includes a reservation and payment system, excerpts from recorded interviews, and a ‘question helper’ utility. Each interview costs $10.

The StoryCorps booth in Grand Central Terminal opened in October 2003 and is the first booth of the organization’s 10-year project. In 2005, StoryCorps will open a booth at the site of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.