History of National Day of Listening

This unofficial holiday was started back in 2008 by StoryCorps, a non-profit organization whose mission is to record, preserve, and share the stories of Americans. National Day of Listening is focused on family members, where people are prompted to interview their family members and listen to their stories. Founder Dave Isay, when he was a kid, would love spending time with his great-grandparents.

One day he decided to record them all, and they all loved it, but a few years later they passed away and he lost the tape. Since then, he founded StoryCorps in 2003 to allow people to have the chance to be listened to.

According to him, people love to be listened to because it makes them feel important in their lives. By sharing these stories with others, the aim of this holiday and the organization connected to it is to share the stories of all kinds of people in hopes of connecting people with their humanity.