Join StoryCorps’ Great Thanksgiving Listen
Join StoryCorps’ Great Thanksgiving Listen
The Great Thanksgiving Listen is a national movement that empowers young people — and people of all ages — to create an oral history of the contemporary United States by recording an interview with an elder using the free StoryCorps App.
Interviews become part of the StoryCorps Archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Now in its third year, The Great Thanksgiving Listen has grown from an experimental challenge issued by our founder, Dave Isay, into a vital intergenerational movement. To date, thousands of high schools from all 50 states have participated and preserved more than 75,000 interviews, providing families with a priceless piece of personal history.
Honor someone important in your life by interviewing them for The Great Listen 2017. Help us create a culture of listening that echoes across the nation.
- Download the free StoryCorps App via the Apple App Store or on Google Play and create a login so you can access your interviews later within the StoryCorps Archive.
- Select your interview partner and prepare a set of great questions within the app or from our Great Questions list.
- Have a conversation. Find a quiet place to sit, follow the prompts in the app to begin recording, and let the conversation flow! Remember to sit close together and make eye contact.
- Share and archive your interview. Create a title and summary, and use descriptive keywords that answer the classic who, what, when, and where questions and this year’s keyword TheGreatListen2017. Share a selfie from your interview, and make sure to tag us with @StoryCorps #TheGreatListen!
Who is this assignment for?
The Great Thanksgiving Listen was developed for high school students to interview an elder and contribute their voices to the Library of Congress, but anyone with a smartphone and an interest in storytelling can participate. We actively encourage people of all ages to download the free StoryCorps App. Use it to create your own unique oral history with an elder or loved one in your life.
Find out more about The Great Thanksgiving Listen on StoryCorps’ website.