Novelist Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, What Is the What), publisher of McSweeney’s, and founder of 826NYC, a nonprofit organization in Brooklyn that supports students in developing their writing skills, is an oral history buff.

In this interview in Mother Jones magazine, Eggers talks about Studs Terkel and Voice of Witness, a non-profit book series that uses oral histories to bring to light contemporary social injustices such as the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina and the lives of undocumented workers in the US.