Tell me a StoryCorps
March 22nd, 2009 by James BridleWriter Simon Garfield tells the tale of StoryCorps, the project created in the US in 2003 by radio producer David Isay which has seen thousands of ordinary Americans enter Storybooths to record their responses to the simple question, 'Tell me about your life'.
Simon compares StoryCorps with traditional oral history and asks if, that now we all possess the means to record our lives, those recordings are still of value and worth keeping.
Well, yes, they are. Lots of good stuff on popular oral (aural?) history in the UK too. Enjoy.
[MP3]
March 24th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
There’s an interesting comparison made in the programme between the often celebratory aspects of StoryCorps collecting of people’s accounts and the extended interview approach favoured by more ‘traditional’ oral historians. Excellent stuff.
March 25th, 2009 at 3:49 am
Really interesting programme, manages to last an hour without dragging.
May 8th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Are they worth keeping? What a silly question. It reminds me of that radio show about the letters of Groucho Marx where the interviewer actually asked Groucho’s daughter “Why did you keep all these letters from your father?”