NEW YORK (AP) – That electoral elephant in the room threatening political tension this Thanksgiving? StoryCorps believes it could be a unifying main course.
The oral history project’s “Great Thanksgiving Listen 2016” is urging Americans, particularly teens, to use the holiday weekend to record a conversation with a grandparent or another elder on their feelings about the election, their hopes and fears for the country and their thoughts on how to bring people together in a time of division.
Dave Isay, StoryCorps’ founder and president, said the project could strengthen ties across the country when the chasm is deep.
“We’re living in a moment where the divide is just so massive,” and the discussions will give people a chance to reflect on what happened in the last two weeks, he said. “I can’t think of anything more important right now than listening to each other and finding a way forward.”
StoryCorps debuted the Thanksgiving project last year, prompting intergenerational conversations just as this time around, though without the election theme. The result was staggering: more than 50,000 recordings, as many as StoryCorps amassed in its first decade of operation combined.