StoryCorps The Great Thanksgiving Listen Turns 10
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Nov 18, 2025 The podcast celebrates a decade of the Great Thanksgiving Listen, an initiative encouraging youth to record elders' stories. A history teacher shares how her students have captured thousands of conversations, making U.S. history personal. Emotional interviews reveal powerful wartime memories and significant life experiences like immigration and 9/11. The project fosters connections and healing while honoring family legacies. Listeners are invited to participate and contribute their own stories using the app.
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Classroom Project Became A Living Archive
- Stacey Flannery's class used the StoryCorps app every year to record student interviews with elders as a semester assignment.
- Her students have recorded thousands of conversations that she listens to repeatedly during commutes and walks.
A Difficult Vietnam Conversation
- A student convinced her Vietnam veteran uncle to talk and the recording captured his visible distress, like crunching a styrofoam cup.
- The interview offered connection and possible healing between uncle and niece despite the trauma discussed.
Turning Injury Into Motivation
- Leandro interviewed his grandfather who lost an eye as a child and turned that experience into motivation to succeed.
- The grandfather framed hardship as an incentive, inspiring Leandro's perspective on personal challenges.