Synopsis: A look at StoryCorps, one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, including an interview with Founder David Isay.

Earlier this year, we covered the David Lynch backed 'Interview Project' (read Lynch's 'Interview Project' Feels Like Slice of Life, Carved Straight From the Gut), an online documentary series that journeyed across the United States filming more than one hundred randomly selected real-life Americans telling their unique stories.

And while the scope of that undertaking was impressive, when you sink your teeth into a somewhat parallel project entitled StoryCorps, you gain a new respect for scale.

StoryCorps is an independent, nonprofit project whose mission is to “honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening.” That's the lofty of it—but the boots on the ground translation means that since 2003 they've helped create audio recordings of more than 25,000 people sharing tastes of their life stories, making it one of the largest oral history projects of its kind.

They’ve done it by providing the means and facilities to record high-quality interviews between friends or family, in which one person interviews the other. Each conversation is placed on a free CD to share, and, with full permission from each interviewee, is preserved at the United States Library of Congress. Some are even broadcast on public radio and the web, where millions regularly listen to new StoryCorps contributions.

The first StoryBooth (just as it sounds, a recording booth environment where participants tell their stories), opened on October 23, 2003, in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal. That booth closed in May 2008, with the new flagship in Lower Manhattan’s Foley Square across from the U.S. Courthouse.

StoryCorps also has a San Francisco based booth housed in the Contemporary Jewish Museum, and two MobileBooths that travel cross-country, collecting stories from the interior of the United States. They even provide a Door-to-Door service where trained Facilitators travel with recording equipment to collect stories on-site.

Additionally, they operate several special initiatives, including the Griot Initiative, the Memory Loss Initiative, the September 11th Initiative, and the Alaska Initiative.

If all this sounds expensive, that’s because it is. And all the more so considering that there’s no Heineken or HBO narrative campaign behind this. No revenue streams or merchandising. Just good intentions and big plans.

The suggested 'donation' for an hour-long StoryBooth session is $25 USD, to cover costs of recording, archiving, and preserving each interview. But without high level, big dollar fund-raising, StoryCorps would be a shell of its present state.

The man responsible for finding those dollars is StoryCorps' Founder David Isay, who recently took the time to answer a few of our questions.

Jawbone.tv: What's the value in each person telling his or her own story?

David Isay: The stories of everyday people provide a rare source of authenticity in our celebrity-obsessed culture. They allow us to celebrate individual lives and to examine the day-to-day trials and triumphs that are so often overlooked and underreported. Together, these stories tell our nation’s history as it was really lived.

Good storytelling also requires a good listener. Sitting down with people and asking about their lives reminds them that they matter and will not be forgotten. If we take the time to listen, we will find wisdom and poetry in the stories of people all around us.

Jawbone.tv: What sort of challenges did you face trying to get this kind of initiative started?

David Isay: The biggest challenge we’ve faced all along has been funding—we’re doing something no one else has ever done before. We don’t fit into many foundation guidelines. It’s thanks to the intrepid philanthropist and foundation folks that we exist today. The idea of StoryCorps really resonated with people. More than 50,000 Americans have now participated in StoryCorps, and that number grows by the day.

Jawbone.tv: What's a typical day for you?

David Isay: Almost all my work is dedicated to fundraising, so that we can bring the StoryCorps experience to as many people as possible. Every day, we are working to make the StoryCorps experience more accessible through new services like our Door-to-Door program, which allows us to send StoryCorps recording teams to events and organizations throughout the country. Through our broadcasts, our MobileBooth tours, and our outreach to more than 500 community organizations each year, we hope to cultivate an enduring culture of listening.

Jawbone.tv: Is there a long-term plan to archive these stories to ensure that they can be heard a hundred or more years from now? Is there a way to easily find your way through these stories (now that there are so many archived)?

David Isay: With participant permission, each StoryCorps interview is archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

Currently, people can access StoryCorps interviews at the Folklife Reading Room at the American Folklife Center or by visiting storycorps.org/listen. StoryCorps has the honor of being the first all-digital audio collection at the Library of Congress, which houses other important national artifacts, such as the interviews recorded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Writers’ Project.

We are currently working on a new web-based archive that we expect to be available online in 2012.

Jawbone.tv: What is storytelling and what has this experience taught you about it?

David Isay: Storytelling is how we make sense of our lives. [What it] has taught me, above all else, is that there is far more that unites us than divides us. By sharing stories, we can walk in the shoes of others and understand how they became who they are.

Jawbone.tv: What is the future of storytelling?

David Isay: Storytelling is ingrained in us, and will always be central to who we are as human beings. The trick is to make sure we keep listening.

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For more information, visit StoryCorps.org.