-
Tonight, I'm going to try to make the case
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that inviting a loved one, a friend,
-
or even a stranger
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to record a meaningful interview with you
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just might turn out be
one of the most important moments
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in that person's life,
-
and in yours.
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When I was 22 years old,
I was lucky enough to find my calling
-
when I fell into making radio stories.
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At almost the exact same time,
-
I found out that my dad,
who I was very, very close to, was gay.
-
I was taken completely by surprise.
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We were a very tight-knit family,
-
and I was crushed.
-
At some point, in one
of our strained conversations,
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my dad mentioned the Stonewall riots.
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He told me that one night in 1969,
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a group of young black
and Latino drag queens
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fought back against the police
at a gay bar in Manhattan
-
called the Stonewall Inn,
-
and how this sparked
the modern gay rights movement.
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It was an amazing story,
-
and it piqued my interest.
-
So I decided to pick up my tape recorder
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and find out more.
-
With the help of a young archivist
named Michael Shirker,
-
we tracked down all
of the people we could find
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who had been at
the Stonewall Inn that night.
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Recording these interviews,
-
I saw how the microphone
gave me the license
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to go places I otherwise
never would have gone
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and talk to people I might not
otherwise ever have spoken to.
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I had the privilege of getting to know
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some of the most amazing,
fierce, and courage human beings
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I had ever met.
-
It was the first time
the story of Stonewall
-
had been told to a national audience.
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I dedicated the program to my dad,
-
it changed my relationship with him,
-
and it changed my life.
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Over the next 15 years,
I made many more radio documentaries,
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working to shine a light on people
who are rarely heard from in the media.
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Over and over again,
-
I'd see how this simple act
of being interviewed
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could mean so much to people,
-
particularly those who had been told
that their stories didn't matter.
-
I could literally see
peoples' back straighten
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as they started to speak
into the microphone.
-
In 1998, I made a documentary
about the last flophouse hotels
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on the Bowery in Manhattan.
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Guys stayed up in these
cheap hotels for decades.
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They lived in cubicles
the size of prison cells
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covered with chicken wire
so you couldn't jump
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from one room into the next.
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Later, I wrote a book on the men
with the photographer Harvey Wang.
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I remember walking into a flophouse
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with an early version of the book
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and showing one of the guys his page.
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He stood there staring at it in silence,
-
then he grabbed the book out of my hand
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and started running down
the long narrow hallway
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holding it over his head
-
shouting, "I exist! I exist."
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(Applause)
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In many ways, "I exist" became
the clarion call for StoryCorps,
-
this crazy idea that I had
a dozen years ago.
-
The thought was to take
documentary work
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and turn it on its head.
-
Traditionally, broadcast documentary
-
has been about recording interviews
to create a work of art or entertainment
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or education that is seen or heard
by a whole lot of people,
-
but I wanted to try something
where the interview itself
-
was the purpose of this work,
-
and see if we could give many,
many, many people the chance
-
to be listened to in this way.
-
So in Grand Central Terminal 11 years ago,
-
we built a booth
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where anyone can come
to honor someone else
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by interviewing them
about their life.
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You come to this booth and you're met
by a facilitator who brings you inside.
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You sit across from, say, your grandfather
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for close to an hour
and you listen and you talk.
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Many people think of it as,
if this was to be our last conversation,
-
what would I want to ask of
and say to this person
-
who means so much to me?
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At the end of the session,
-
you walk away with a copy of the interview
-
and another copy goes
to the American Folklife Center
-
at the Library of Congress
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so that your great-great-great-grandkids
can someday get to know your grandfather
-
through his voice and story.
-
So we open this booth
in one of the busiest places in the world
-
and invite people to have this
incredibly intimate conversation
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with another human being.
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I had no idea if it would work,
but from the very beginning, it did.
-
People treated the experience
with incredible respect,
-
and amazing conversations happened inside.
-
I want to play just one animated excerpt
-
from an interview recorded
at that original Grand Central Booth.
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This is 12-year old Joshua Littman
interviewing his mother, Sarah.
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Josh has Asperger's syndrome.
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As you may know, kids with Asperger's
are incredibly smart
-
but have a tough time socially.
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They usually have obsessions.
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In Josh's case, it's with animals,
-
so this is Josh talking with his mom Sarah
-
at Grand Central nine years ago.
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(Video) Josh Littman: From a scale
of one to 10, do you think your life
-
would be different without animals?
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Sarah Littman: I think it would be
an eight without animals,
-
because they add so much pleasure to life.
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JL: How else do you think your life
would be different without them?
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SL: I could do without things
like cockroaches and snakes.
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JL: Well, I'm okay with snakes
as long as they're not venomous
-
or constrict you or anything.
-
SL: Yeah, I'm not a big snake person, but—
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JL: Cockroaches is just the insect
we love to hate.
-
SL: Yeah, it really is.
-
JL: Have you ever thought
you couldn't cope with having a child?
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SL: I remember when you were a baby,
you had really bad colic,
-
so you would just cry and cry.
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JL: What's colic?
SL: It's when you get this stomachache
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and all you do is scream
for, like, four hours.
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JL: Even louder than Amy does?
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SL: You were pretty loud,
but Amy's was more high-pitched.
-
JL: I think it feels like everyone
seems to like Amy more.
-
Like, she's, like,
the perfect little angel.
-
SL: Well, I can understand
why you think that people like Amy more,
-
and I'm not saying it's because
of your Asperger's syndrome,
-
but being friendly comes easily to Amy,
-
whereas I think for you
it's more difficult,
-
but the people who take the time
to get to know you love you so much.
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JL: Like, Ben or Eric or Carlos?
SL: Yeah—
-
JL: Like I have better quality friends
but less quantity?
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SL: I wouldn't judge
the quality, but I think—
-
JL: I mean, like, first it was, like, Amy
loved Claudia, Then she hated Claudia.
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She loved Claudia, then she hated Claudia.
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SL: Part of that's a girl thing, honey.
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The important thing for you
is that you have a few very good friends,
-
and really that's what you need in life.
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JL: Did I turn out to be the son
you wanted when I was born?
-
Did I meet your expectations?
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SL: You've exceeded
my expectations, sweetie,
-
because sure you have these fantasies
of what your child's going to be like,
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but you have made me grow
so much as a parent, because you think—
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JL: Well, I was the one
who made you a parent.
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SL: You were the one who made me a parent.
That's a good point.
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But also because you think differently
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from what they tell you
in the parenting books,
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I really had to learn to think
outside of the box with you,
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and it's made me much more creative
as a parent and as a person,
-
and I'll always thank you for that.
-
JL: And that helped when Amy was born?
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SL: And that helped when Amy was born,
but you are just so incredibly special to me
-
and I'm so lucky to have you as my son.
-
(Applause)
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David Isay: After this story
ran on public radio,
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Josh received hundreds of letters
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telling him what an amazing kid he was.
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His mom, Sarah, bound them
together in a book,
-
and when Josh got picked on at school,
they would read the letters together.
-
I just want to acknowledge
that two of my heroes
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are here with us tonight.
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Sarah Littman and her son Josh,
who is now an honors student in college.
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(Applause)
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You know, a lot of people talk about
crying when they hear StoryCorps stories,
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and it's not because they're sad.
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Most of them aren't.
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I think it's because you're hearing
something authentic and pure
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at this moment,
when sometimes it's hard to tell
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what's real and what's an advertisement.
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It's kind of the anti-reality TV.
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Nobody comes to StoryCorps to get rich.
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Nobody comes to get famous.
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It's simply an act of generosity and love.
-
So many of these are just everyday people
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talking about lives lived with kindness,
courage, decency, and dignity,
-
and when you hear that kind of story,
-
it can sometimes feel
like you're walking on holy ground.
-
So this experiment in Grand Central worked,
-
and we expanded it across the country.
-
Today, more than 100,000 people
in all 50 states
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in thousands of cities
and towns across America
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have recorded StoryCorps interviews.
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It's now the largest single collection
of human voices ever gathered.
-
(Applause)
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We've hired and trained
hundreds of facilitators
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to help guide people
through the experience.
-
Most serve a year or two with StoryCorps
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traveling the country,
gathering the wisdom of humanity.
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They call it bearing witness,
-
and if you ask them,
-
all of the facilitators will tell you
that the most important thing
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they've learned from being present
during these interviews
-
is that people are basically good.
-
And I think for the first years
of StoryCorps, you could argue
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that there was some kind
of a selection bias happening,
-
but after tens of thousands of interviews
with every kind of person
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in every part of the country
-
-- rich, poor, five years old to 105,
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80 different languages,
across the political spectrum --
-
you have to think that maybe these guys
are actually on to something.
-
I've also learned so much
from these interviews.
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I've learned about the poetry
and the wisdom and the grace
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that can be found in the words
of people all around us
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when we simply take the time to listen,
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like this interview
-
between a betting clerk in Brooklyn
named Danny Perasa
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who brought his wife Annie to StoryCorps
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to talk about his love for her.
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(Audio) Danny Perasa: You see,
the thing of it is,
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I always feel guilty when I say
"I love you" to you.
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And I say it so often.
I say it to remind you
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that don't be as I am,
it's coming from me.
-
It's like hearing a beautiful song
from a busted old radio,
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and it's nice of you to keep
the radio around the house.
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Annie Perasa: If I don't have a note
on the kitchen table,
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I think there's something wrong.
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You write a love letter
to me every morning.
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DP: Well, the only thing
that could possibly be wrong
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is I couldn't find a silly pen.
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AP: To my princess:
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the weather outside today
is extremely rainy.
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I'll call you at 11:20 in the morning.
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DP: It's a romantic weather report.
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AP: And I love you.
I love you. I love you.
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DP: When a guy is happily married,
no matter what happens at work,
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no matter what happens
in the rest of the day,
-
there's a shelter when you get home,
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there's a knowledge knowing
that you can hug somebody
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without them throwing you downstairs
and saying, "Get your hands off me."
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Being married is like having
a color television set.
-
You never want to go back
to black and white.
-
(Laughter)
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DI: Danny was about five feet tall
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with crossed eyes
and one single snaggled tooth,
-
but Danny Perasa had
more romance in his little pinky
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than all of Hollywood's
leading men put together.
-
What else have I learned?
-
I've learned about the almost
unimaginable capacity
-
for the human spirit to forgive.
-
I've learned about resilience
and I've learned about strength.
-
Like an interview with Oshea Israel
and Mary Johnson.
-
When Oshea was a teenager,
he murdered Mary's only son,
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Laramiun Byrd, in a gang fight.
-
A dozen years later, Mary went to prison
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to meet Oshea and find out
who this person was
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who had taken her son's life.
-
Slowly and remarkably,
they became friends,
-
and when he was finally released
from the penitentiary,
-
Oshea actually moved in next door to Mary.
-
This is just a short excerpt
of a conversation they had
-
soon after Oshea was freed.
-
(Video) Mary Johnson: My natural son
is no longer here.
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I didn't see him graduate,
and now you're going to college.
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I'll have an opportunity
to see you graduate.
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I didn't see him get married.
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Hopefully one day, I'll be able
to experience that with you.
-
Oshea Israel: Just to hear you
say those things and to be
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in my life in the manner
in which you are is my motivation.
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It motivates me to make sure
that I stay on the right path.
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You still believe in me,
-
and the fact that you can do it
despite how much pain I caused you,
-
it's amazing.
-
MJ: I know it's not an easy thing
to be able to share our story together,
-
even with us sitting here
looking at each other right now.
-
I know it's not an easy thing,
-
so I admire that you can do this.
-
OI: I love you, lady.
MJ: I love you too, son.
-
(Applause)
-
DI: And I've been reminded countless times
of the courage and goodness of people,
-
and how the arc of history
truly does bend towards justice.
-
Like the story of Alexis Martinez,
who was born Arthur Martinez
-
in the Harold Ickes projects in Chicago.
-
In the interview, she talks
with her daughter Lesley
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about joining a gang as a young man,
-
and later in life transitioning
into the woman she was always meant to be.
-
This is Alexis and her daughter Lesley.
-
(Audio) Alexis Martinez: One of the most
difficult things for me was
-
I was always afraid that
I wouldn't be allowed
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to be in my granddaughter's lives,
-
and you blew that completely
out of the water,
-
you and your husband.
-
One of the fruits of that is
my relationship with my granddaughters.
-
They fight with each other sometimes
over whether I'm he or she.
-
Lesley Martinez: But they're free
to talk about it.
-
AM: They're free to talk about it,
but that, to me, is a miracle.
-
LM: You don't have to apologize.
You don't have to tiptoe.
-
We're not going to cut you off,
and that's something I've always
-
wanted to just know, that you're loved.
-
AM: You know, I live this every day now.
-
I walk down the streets as a woman,
-
and I really am at peace with who I am.
-
I mean, I wish I had a softer voice maybe,
-
but now I walk in love
and I try to live that way every day.
-
DI: Now I walk in love.
-
I'm going to tell you
a secret about StoryCorps.
-
It takes some courage
to have these conversations.
-
StoryCorps speaks to our mortality.
-
Participants know this recording
will be heard long after they're gone.
-
There's a hospice doctor named Ira Byock
-
who has worked closely with us
on recording interviews
-
with people who are dying.
-
He wrote a book called
"The Four Things That Matter Most"
-
about the four things you want to say
to the most important people in your life
-
before they or you die:
-
thank you, I love you,
-
forgive me, I forgive you.
-
They're just about the most powerful words
we can to one another,
-
and often that's what happens
in a StoryCorps booth.
-
It's a chance to have a sense of closure
with someone you care about,
-
no regrets, nothing left unsaid,
-
and it's hard and it takes courage,
-
but that's why we're alive, right?
-
So, the TED Prize.
-
When I first heard from TED
and Chris a few months ago
-
about the possibility of the prize,
-
I was completely floored.
-
They asked me to come up
with a very brief wish for humanity,
-
no more than 50 words.
-
So I thought about it,
I wrote my 50 words,
-
and a few weeks later,
Chris called and said, "Go for it."
-
So here is my wish:
-
that you will help us
-
take everything we've learned
through StoryCorps
-
and bring it to the world
-
so that anyone anywhere
can easily record a meaningful interview
-
with another human being
-
which will then be archived for history.
-
How are we going to do that? With this.
-
We're fast moving into a future
where everyone in the world
-
will have access to one of these,
-
and it has powers I never
could have imagined 11 years ago
-
when I started StoryCorps.
-
It has a microphone,
-
it can tell you how to do things,
-
and I can send audio files.
-
Those are the key ingredients.
-
So the first part of the wish
is already underway.
-
Over the past couple of months,
-
the team at StoryCorps
has been working furiously
-
to create an app that will bring
StoryCorps out of our booths
-
so that it can be experienced
by anyone, anywhere, anytime.
-
Remember, StoryCorps has always
been two people and a facilitator
-
helping them record their conversation,
-
which is preserved forever,
-
but at this very moment,
-
we're releasing a public beta version
of the StoryCorps app.
-
The app is a digital facilitator
that walks you through
-
the StoryCorps interview process,
-
helps you pick questions,
-
and gives you all the tips you need
-
to record a meaningful
StoryCorps interview,
-
and then with one tap
upload it to our archive
-
at the Library of Congress.
-
That's the easy part, the technology.
-
The real challenge is up to you:
-
to take this tool and figure out
how we can use it
-
all across America and around the world,
-
so that instead of recording
thousands of StoryCorps interviews a year,
-
we could potentially record
tens of thousands
-
or hundreds of thousands
-
or maybe even more.
-
Imagine, for example,
a national homework assignment
-
where every high school student
studying U.S. history across the country
-
records an interview
with an elder over Thanksgiving,
-
so that in one single weekend
-
an entire generation of American lives
and experiences are captured.
-
(Applause)
-
Or imagine mothers on opposite
sides of conflict somewhere in the world
-
sitting down not to talk
about that conflict
-
but to find out who they are as people,
-
and in doing so,
begin to build bonds of trust;
-
or that someday it becomes
a tradition all over the world
-
that people are honored
with a StoryCorps interview
-
on their 75th birthday;
-
or that people in your community
-
go into retirement homes or hospitals
or homeless shelters or even prisons
-
armed with this app to honor the people
least heard in our society
-
and ask them who they are,
what they've learned in life,
-
and how they want to be remembered.
-
(Applause)
-
Ten years ago, I recorded
a StoryCorps interview with my dad
-
who was a psychiatrist,
then became a well known gay activist.
-
This is the picture
of us at that interview.
-
I never thought about that recording
until a couple of years ago,
-
when my dad, who seemed
to be in perfect health
-
and was still seeing patients
40 hours a week,
-
was diagnosed with cancer.
-
He passed away very suddenly
a few days later.
-
It was June 28, 2012,
-
the anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
-
I listened to that interview
for the first time at three in the morning
-
on the day that he died.
-
I have a couple of young kids at home,
-
and I knew that they only way
they were going to get to know this person
-
who was such a towering figure in my life
-
would be through that session.
-
I thought I couldn't believe in StoryCorps
any more deeply than I did,
-
but it was at that moment
-
that I fully and viscerally grasped
the importance of making these recordings.
-
Every day, people come up to me
and say, "I wish I had interviewed
-
my father or my grandmother or my brother,
-
but I waited too long.
-
Now, no one has to wait anymore.
-
At this moment,
-
when so much of how we communicate
is fleeting and inconsequential,
-
join us in creating this digital archive
of conversations that are enduring
-
and important.
-
Help us create this gift to our children,
-
this testament to who
we are as human beings.
-
I hope you'll help us make
this wish come true.
-
Interview a family member, a friend,
-
or even a stranger.
-
Together, we can create an archive
of the wisdom of humanity,
-
and maybe in doing so,
-
we'll learn to listen a little more
and shout a little less.
-
Maybe these conversations will remind us
what's really important.
-
And maybe, just maybe,
-
it will help us recognize
that simple truth
-
that every life, every single life,
-
matters equally and infinitely.
-
Thank you very much.
-
(Applause)
-
Thank you. Thank you.
-
(Applause)
-
Thank you.
-
(Applause)