My name is Andy and I’m a volunteer at the Brooklyn Historical Society.  My day job is with StoryCorps, the national oral history project, which is also located in Brooklyn (Ft. Greene).  You may have heard excerpts from StoryCorps interviews on NPR’s Morning Edition.  The mission of StoryCorps is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening.  This Friday, the day normally associated as the biggest shopping day of the year, we are launching the inaugural “National Day of Listening.”

The founder of StoryCorps, MacArthur Fellow Dave Isay, is spearheading the campaign.  “We want to create a culture of listening in this country.”  We’re asking Americans to set aside time, after turkey day, to do an interview with someone they care about. “Look your loved one in the eye,’ he says. “Just turn off your BlackBerry and maybe don’t shop for an hour.”

If you would like to do some recording, StoryCorps has posted downloadable directions and a question generator to help get your subject started telling their story. Many laptops record without any additional equipment, but computer microphones start at under $20 if you need to pick one up.  A good program to start with is Tapedeck (for Macs only), which is offering a 20% discount for the National Day of Listening.

Click here to visit the National Day of Listening Website

Happy Thanksgiving and happy listening!

Andy Hollenhorst

BHS Volunteer