StoryCorps' American Time Capsule

**Brian Lehrer** (0:10)
It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Now we'll get a live and real time example of an exciting new project from StoryCorps and NPR's morning edition. It's called StoryCorps, it's called, I'm sorry, it's called Connect 250, or Connect 250 We'll see how Dave Isay from StoryCorps actually says it. The idea is simple. Take two strangers from different corners of the country, let them talk for 40 minutes, we'll do a shorter sample here, but let them talk for 40 minutes in the full StoryCorps format about who they are, and the America they want to live in, and tuck those conversations away as a time capsule for the people who come after us.
So let's bring on Dave Isay, founder and president of StoryCorps. And then in just a second, we're going to bring on Thomas in Manhattan, who was born and raised in Milwaukee, and Annette in Brooklyn, who was born in Panama and came here as a child. But hi, Dave, always good to talk. Welcome back to WNYC.

**Dave Isay** (1:17)
Brian, it's been a long time. It's great to hear your voice.

**Brian Lehrer** (1:19)
Before we bring on Thomas and Annette, and then I'm going to basically turn over the reins to you. Where did the idea for Connect250 come from?
How do you actually say that number for this project? And what are you doing here?

**Dave Isay** (1:34)
It is Connect250.
Well, I think that this StoryCorps, I like to think, does beautiful things, and sometimes it does beautiful things last minute. And this would be the latter.
Six, seven weeks ago, we were looking at the offerings for America 250, and we're kind of underwhelmed. And I know the headlines coming out of the weekend. I just heard the newscast talking about the fire. One headline was Storm, Sweat and Fire. And the other one was a story describing America 250 So this is a quiet effort. We have been furiously building a platform, as you said, that makes it possible to do a StoryCorps-like interview with a stranger, kind of like a dating app, and create this time capsule of who we are as Americans, something that will last till the 350th. Every interview goes to the Library of Congress. It's kind of a Hey America, Meet America effort. And yeah, we've had about 10,000 people sign up so far, so there'll be plenty of people to talk to. And we're excited about it. I think it shows the best of who we are, which kind of gets lost sometimes in the headlines and the 24-hour news cycles. Most of us are just regular people who love our families and care about our friends, and do good work. And that's what StoryCorps is about, and that's what this effort is about.

**Brian Lehrer** (2:56)
That's why Connect250. It sounds like you hope this is going to be a hedge against polarization.

**Dave Isay** (3:02)
Yes. Yeah, for sure.
I mean, I don't think there's not, there aren't many political questions that people talk about. So it's a hedge against polarization only by creating proximity between people. It's just, I was reading this weekend about the stranger on the train phenomena, which is a social psychology term that refers to the fact that oftentimes, you'll have more intimate visceral conversations with a stranger than you will with someone who you know very well. So I think this is an interesting way for us to get to know each other as people. And we also, you've seen all the studies about neighbors and the fear in the country that we are much less likely to talk to our neighbors than we were 10, 20 years ago. So it's really, it's about helping us to get to know each other as a country.

**Brian Lehrer** (3:52)
All right. Well, as a microcosm of that, let's see how you help Annette in Brooklyn and Thomas in Manhattan get to know each other. Annette, you there? Can you hear me?

**Annette** (4:03)
Yes. Hi. I can hear you. Hi, Brian.

**Brian Lehrer** (4:06)
Thanks so much for doing this with us. And Thomas, how about you? You there?

**Thomas** (4:11)
I am here. Thank you, Brian.

**Brian Lehrer** (4:13)
Dave Isay, take it away.

**Dave Isay** (4:16)
Okay.
Thanks, Brian. Sure. So the way that these interviews start is, and the portal opens up tomorrow. It's connect250.org for people who want to sign up. The way it starts is you give a little bit of information about yourself. You give your bio. And as I said, it's like a dating app. You see other people, just their first name, where they live, and their bio, and you choose who you want to talk to. So why don't we start, Thomas, what we're going to do first is each of you is going to give a bio, and then the other person is going to say the bio back to the person, the other one. So Thomas, you're going to say Annette's bio back to Annette, and Annette, you're going to say Thomas' bio back to Thomas. Okay. Just quick bio. So Thomas, why don't you give us a quick bio?