Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / StoryCorps’ Connect250 - TPR's In Focus - July 2, 2026

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StoryCorps’ Connect250 - TPR's In Focus - July 2, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Janice Hawkins Cultural Arts Park
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  on the main campus of Troy University,
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  featuring the International Arts Center,
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  the Fred Nall Hollis Museum,
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  and the Who About You Gallery.
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  More information at troy.edu slash arts park.
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  ♪♪
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is In Focus,
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  and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson.
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  If you're a fan of StoryCorps,
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  Dave Isay, its founder, visits today with news.
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  His new project, Connect 250,
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  is a nationwide storytelling initiative.
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  It invites listeners to create a living time capsule
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  of who we are as Americans.
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  By the way, we found out that Dave
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  has family living in Alabama.
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  ♪♪
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  Dave, it is a true honor to have you join us
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  here at In Focus on Troy Public Radio.
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  Well, the honor is mine.
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  That's very lovely of you to say.
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  Thank you.
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  Dave, we learned that you have family ties to Alabama.
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  What are they?
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  I do.
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  So, once upon a time, my uncle lived in Montgomery,
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  and he ran the Gafers there, if you remember Gafers.
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  Of course.
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  And then he moved to Opelika.
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  So, I have family in Opelika.
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  Well, this is great because Opelika
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  is one of our strong coverage areas as well.
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  Love Opelika.
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  Love Opelika.
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  Well, Dave, StoryCorps is so popular
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  all over the United States,
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  but you have a brand-new project.
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  What is it?
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  Yes, we do.
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  It's in honor of America's 250th,
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  not in conjunction with any of the political things
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  that are happening, and that's partly
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  why we wanted to do this.
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  This came from being frustrated with some of what was happening
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  in the country, that it was too partisan,
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  and we wanted to do something that was for the people,
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  and created something called Connect 250.
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  It's basically creating a time capsule
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  of American voices for history.
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  All of them go to the Library of Congress,
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  kind of a Hey America, Meet America project.
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  We are building, as I speak, a special platform
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  that makes it possible for strangers across America
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  to have 40-minute StoryCorps conversations with each other.
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  It's very easy.
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  You get walked through it.
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  You get brought into the portal
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  by none other than Steve Inskeep,
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  and you have this meaningful 40-minute conversation
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  with someone who you'd never met before,
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  and that all goes to the Library of Congress,
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  so hopefully someday our great, great, great grandkids
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  on the 350th anniversary can get to know
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  who we really are as Americans on the 250th.
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  So it's really a time capsule, isn't it?
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  Yes, it is.
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  It's a time capsule of wisdom, of stories, of voices,
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  of authentic Americans talking to each other.
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  No politics, just like passing wisdom between each other.
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  So this is also in conjunction with Morning Edition.
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  How does that work?
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  Yes, so we're getting the word out.
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  Our partner is Morning Edition,
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  and we're getting the word out through Morning Edition
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  and through public radio stations
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  like Troy Public Radio across the country,
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  and inviting people to have these conversations.
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  I've been in public radio
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  for longer than you've been alive.
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  I doubt that.
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  And, you know, I care a lot about public radio,
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  and this idea was one of those,
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  StoryCorps has beautiful ideas,
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  and sometimes those beautiful ideas are a little last minute,
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  and we love Morning Edition,
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  so we decided to do this with Morning Edition.
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  I went to NPR, talked to everybody from the president,
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  CEO on down to the executive producer of Morning Edition
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  and other people and Steve Inskeep
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  and all the voices that you know,
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  and everybody was like, yeah, let's go for it.
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  So it's kind of a crazy idea,
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  but it's very American because Americans have crazy ideas,
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  and it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
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  And I know, you know, it may sound
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  a little bit intimidating to sign up,
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  and I should say the sign up is,
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  it's connect250.org, connect the number 250.org.
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  You go there, you sign up,
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  that preregisters you for July 7th.
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  And on July 7th,
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  when we'll have finished building the portal on July 6th,
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  on July 7th, it opens up,
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  and you take about four minutes to register on the portal.
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  You write a little bio about who you are,
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  and then your bio and your first name only
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  and where you live becomes public
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  to the people who are in the portal.
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  You see other people's bios and their first name
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  and where they live,
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  and you pick one or two or three people,
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  and you're connected with them.
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  Then you set a time and you meet
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  on this sort of Zoom-like portal,
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  and you have this conversation
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  with the StoryCorps questions
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  streaming underneath your pictures
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  so you can have a deep and intimate conversation
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  with someone who you've never met before.
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  Get ready to meet America.
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  How do the folks get connected with each other?
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  So once the portal opens up on July 7th,
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  again, you have a bio that you fill out, a little bio.
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  You listen to Americans every day.
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  It's beautiful to read like who we are as Americans.
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  And basically you are given a slate
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  of first names and bios,
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  and you read through the bios and you say,
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  I wanna talk to this person.
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  And you hit their name on your computer,
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  and they get an email saying someone's chosen you,
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  and then you and that other person figure out a time
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  over a chat, a private chat.
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  Everything's private, everything's secure.
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  So you say, hey, can you meet tomorrow night
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  at seven o'clock to do this interview?
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  And the other person says, yeah, sure.
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  And then you're given an email
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  that tells you it's about to come up,
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  and then an email five minutes before it's gonna happen,
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  and you sign on and you see this person
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  and you're off to the races.
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  Your project partner is the American Library Association.
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  And I just wanna briefly go back to 2003,
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  when you started StoryCorps.
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  What did you have in mind when you started at all?
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  Yes, the American Library Association is a partner,
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  and all the interviews go to the Library of Congress,
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  the National Library, and they'll live there forever.
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  You know, I was talking to the person
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  who founded StoryCorps with me 23 years ago,
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  and he reminded me that he had asked me,
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  like, why do you wanna do this?
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  And I used to make radio programs and radio documentaries,
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  and I said to him, I want everybody
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  to have the experience I have
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  of getting to hold up a microphone
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  and talk to a stranger and learn about their lives.
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  And that's what StoryCorps is all about.
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  It's about giving us a chance to connect authentically
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  with another person and be reminded
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  of what it means to be alive.
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  It's about capturing wisdom.
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  It's about passing your story
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  from one generation to the next.
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  It's about focusing on another person in a conversation.
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  The first book that StoryCorps put out
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  was called Listening is an Act of Love.
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  And I think what it really is is about love.
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  In this case, love for our country.
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  In other cases, love for your grandma, your grandpa,
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  whoever it is you're interviewing.
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  But it's really about human connection and listening.
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  The unique thing about StoryCorps
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  and your new project, Connect 250,
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  talking about voices, Dave, think about it.
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  So many people have family pictures.
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  How many people have voices preserved?
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  This is what you're doing.
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  Yeah, I mean, to me,
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  the soul is kind of contained in the voice.
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  You know, the voice is so powerful.
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  It's almost like when you're in your car,
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  as so many people are when they listen to your show,
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  Carolyn, and you have someone talking through the radio,
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  it's almost like they're whispering in your ear.
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  There's something so visceral about the human voice.
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  The soul is contained in the human voice.
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  And when you hear a story authentically told,
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  when you hear someone being real and not talking nonsense,
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  but just being authentic with you,
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  it's like an adrenaline shot right to the heart.
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  It's just thrilling.
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  And that's what we hope to have happen
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  over and over again with connect250.org.
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  Nothing would make me happier than having Montgomery
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  and Troy and Opelika and all the towns in Alabama
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  play a big role in this celebration of American voices.
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  The Library of Congress, the American Folklife Center,
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  is the repository for StoryCorps.
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  Now, how about Connect250?
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  Same thing.
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  Every interview that you participate in
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  goes to the Library of Congress.
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  So even though you're not talking to your mom,
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  you're talking to a stranger,
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  your great, great, great, great, great grandkids
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  will get to know you through your story that you tell
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  when you go onto this platform, Connect250.
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  It all goes to the Library of Congress.
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  But when you do this, I promise you,
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  if you've listened to StoryCorps and you trust StoryCorps,
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  you're gonna have an incredibly meaningful experience
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  when you do this, when you take the time
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  to honor another person by listening to their story,
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  and they honor you by listening to yours.
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  And thankfully, you're giving them the time,
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  40 minutes, to tell the full story.
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  40 minutes has worked for StoryCorps.
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  Like you said, we've had about 750,000 participants.
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  And if we do this Connect250 right,
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  we'll have a lot more than that.
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  So again, I hope people will sign up at connect250.org.
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  I promise, promise, promise you won't regret it.
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  Dave, it has been, again, a true honor
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  to bring you to the Troy Public Radio Airwaves
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  in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.
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  Thank you for taking time to visit with your listeners here.
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  Thank you, Carolyn.
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  Like I said, the pleasure's all mine.
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  I really appreciate you.
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  Felt like coming home.
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  That was Dave Isay, founder of StoryCorps
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  and its new project, Connect250,
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  in honor of America's 250th birthday.
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  If you would like to participate,
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  visit connect250.org to find out
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  how you can be part of this living time capsule.
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  Thanks for joining us for In Focus,
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  which is a podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson,
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  and this is listener-supported Troy Public Radio.