Dave Isay

Dave Isay is a story collector. He is a 2015 TED Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow.

TED Speaker Bio
"From the first interview he recorded, 2015 TED Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow Dave Isay knew he’d found his calling: preserving the stories of everyday Americans. Since then, Isay has amassed hundreds of thousands of recordings, most of previously unheard or ignored voices, all speaking in their own words. The archives of StoryCorps -- which Isay founded in 2003 -- are included at the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center, and now constitute the largest single collection of recorded voices in history... StoryCorps invites friends, loved ones and strangers to conduct 40-minute interviews at intimate recording booths in Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco, and (until 2011) New York, as well as in mobile studios nationwide. Offering moving and surprising glimpses into the hearts of often marginalized and forgotten subjects, the interviews are a familiar feature of NPR’s Morning Edition and Storycorps.org... At TED2015, Isay shared an audacious wish for StoryCorps: to open up the format from its signature booths with a StoryCorps app that allows anyone to add to this 'digital archive of the collective wisdom of humanity.' The vision: to take this idea global, and begin collecting stories around the world." – Source: TED

Talks

 * Dave Isay: Everyone around you has a story the world needs to hear (March 2015)

Social Media

 * Twitter

Additional Resources

 * David Isay at Wikipedia
 * StoryCorps at Wikipedia
 * StoryCorps Founder David Isay Wins 2015 TED Prize (November 17, 2014), NPR
 * TED Prize winner to use award to expand oral history project globally by Marsha Lederman (March 17, 2015), The Globe and Mail
 * TED Prize winner wishes for archive of human wisdom by Glenn Chapman (March 18, 2015), Phys.org
 * Ted 2015: Prize winner to create digital voice archive by Jane Wakefield (March 19, 2015), BBC News
 * Dave Isay on StoryCorps' DIY oral history project by Patt Morrison (April 7, 2015), Los Angeles Times
 * Bringing StoryCorps to the World: A Q&A With Founder Dave Isay by Sonia Paul (April 7, 2015), PBS
 * A StoryCorps app lets anyone capture someone's story by Paul VanDeCarr (April 13, 2015), The Christian Science Monitor
 * The Other Side of Storytelling: Listening by Paul VanDeCarr (April 9, 2015), The Chronicle of Philanthropy