Modeled after the Works Progress Administration, which collected oral histories from people across America in the 1930s, StoryCorps is a radio project that encourages people to interview people they know. The flagship interview booth was placed in Grand Central Station on October 23, 2003. Now, there are six semi-permanent booths in different cities, and three mobile booths in modified Airsteam trailers, which travel the country and record people telling each other their stories - everything from monumental, life-changing events to funny childhood anecdotes. StoryCorps will be in Louisville from September 27 until November 3, and three of its producers join us this Tuesday on State of Affairs.
We're playing excerpts from StoryCorps interviews on today's show. Click the links below to hear the clips in their entirety - and see pictures of the contributors - on the StoryCorps website.
New Orleans police officer
David DuPlantier was interviewed by his wife, Melissa Eugene, about patrolling the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina.
Gulf coast resident Douglas P. DeSilvey talks about losing his family during the storm.
Rufus Burkhalter and Bobby Brown are pump station workers who were on duty the night Hurricane Katrina hit.
15-year-old Mary Warm, who has Down Syndrome, trades questions with her father, David.
Bobbi Cote-Whitacre and her wife Sandi talk about their long relationship.
Lendall Hill tells his daughters a funny story about his father's artificial leg.
Danny and Annie Perasa recount their first date, more than 25 years ago.
Sisters Yvonne Logan Jones and Ola Mae Logan Allen reminisce about their parents.
100-year-old Arthur Winston is interviewed by his great grand-nephew Eric Givens, about longevity, junk food, and his 72 years working at the same job.
Jerome Smith talks about removing the separation screen from a segregated streetcar when he was ten.
Sweethearts Michael Wolmetz and Debora Brakarz interview each other in StoryCorps' Grand Central Station booth.
Luke Thiboutot talks to his friend and kidney donor, Ryan Connor.
Jo Ann Chew is interviewed by her husband Bob about her recent Alzheimer's diagnosis.
Janice Morris and Caroline Morris Satchel talk about what it's like to be identical twins.
12-year-old Joshua Littman, who has Asperger's Syndrome, interviews his mom, Sarah.
Elderly newlyweds Anne and George Bleckman remember how they met.
Husband and wife Tomas Kubrican and Carol Mittlesteadt remember the language barrier they faced earlier in their relationship.
Anthony D'Andrea tells his daughters about autograph hunting outside Yankee Stadium in the 1940s.
Jim McFarland talks about traveling from integrated New York to the segregated south as a young boy.
Sam Harmon tells his 12-year-old grandson Ezra Awumey about the saddest moment of his life.
Teenager Lekeisha Williams asks her best friend Tia Williams about her absentee father.
Cousins James Ransom and Cherie Johnson tell stores about their Sunday School teacher, Miss Devine.
10-year-old Kaitlyn Sever and her mom, Lynne Lande, interview each other.
Orgeon State Penitentiary inmates Paul Mortimer and Shawn Fox talk about life in prison, and the women they love on the outside.
Recovering alcoholic Edwin Lanier Jr. talks with David Wright, who took him in and gave him food and money when he was homeless.
The music at the end of today's show came from the following StoryCorps sessions:
Michael Bergroth and Kaycee Bauer
Nate and Marc Herschberg
Prianga and Eranga Pieris
Seoud Matta