The Rotarian Conversation: David Isay

In a world of tweets and celebrity sound bites, the founder of StoryCorps, David Isay, wants people to sit down and listen to each other. In 2003, he raised money to install a soundproof recording booth in New York’s Grand Central Terminal, where anyone could reserve a spot to interview a relative or friend. Since then, his nonprofit venture, StoryCorps, has captured about 55,000 interviews, each of which is archived at the U.S. Library of Congress.

Many were broadcast on NPR and published in Isay’s four books. The storytellers include people like George Hill, who was homeless for 12 years before getting help. “I can’t even begin to tell you the misery of the rain,” he said. “Now when it rains and I have keys in my pocket, I have a joy [for] life that you cannot believe.” Another, Patrick Haggerty, told his daughter Robin about growing up on a dairy farm, and about how his dad surprised him one day with some advice. “Of all the things a father in 1959 could have told his gay son,” he said, “my father tells me to be proud of myself.” StoryCorps also offers training to help businesses and nonprofits tell their stories; clients include Rotary International.

In 2008, StoryCorps inaugurated a National Day of Listening on the day after Thanksgiving, as an alternative to the Black Friday shopping spree. “My dream is that we’ll be the country that listens a little better and becomes stronger, more compassionate, and more accepting,” Isay says. Julie Bain interviewed the radio documentarian, who has won six Peabody Awards, a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and the $1 million 2015 TED Prize, at the StoryCorps headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. Read More ...